so turns out my thermometer in my incubator was off... by like 10 degrees!

ok i turned the temp back to where it was. hopefully he doesn't read this forum and chew me out again. I am assuming he didn't know i will reread my original message to him. i think he was mostly mad i cut the egg in the first place, it didn't seem like they were developing right for the amount of time they were in there so i cut to check. i see now that i should have just let them be.

how big of a cut to that egg?

it started small- but i only saw the white (the snake is really hidden) so i assumed it was a bad egg and opened it more to see when it stopped developing like an autopsy -( i always do that with any chickens that don't hatch to see what went wrong so i can do research and try to fix it for next time.) but once i opened it more i realized the baby was still alive so i put the egg back and closed the flap as best as I could but I think it is opened to much-
i wasn't careful when I opened it more -I thought it was a dud egg. I am still crying since I know I pretty much killed it.

You can get pure saline solution and wash the cut egg out by spraying a little in each day. Won't hurt anything at all.

well don't give up on it. if you can close the flap and put a "little" liquid bandaid on it without getting it in the egg or all over the egg might help. if not get some distilled water and place it inside you incubator to have the same temp as your egg. don't let the egg dry out and keep it clean with q tips being very careful. if left open will usually grow funky color stuff inside the egg.

You didn't necessarily kill the baby. It sounds like you turned the temps back down so keep them there and as long as the baby is still able to be submerged in the egg it should be fine. Keep the egg tub closed up and leave them alone to develop. The only issue you may have now is if the egg that was cut looses all its "juice" or gets nasty. All you can do now is wait and see.

Sorry to hear it, I know it doesn't make you feel much better but you're not the first person who's ever had an incubator malfunction and you won't be the last either...be glad it was running cool and they can still hatch, just on a longer time period, if it'd been running hot they would have cooked litterally.

Temp guns are handy for scanning and checking to see if things look close everywhere, checking for hot spots, but they are not accurate. The tolerance on them at incubation temps is +/-2 degrees F...do you have any friends close who have a thermometer that they know is calibrated? That you could borrow? If not, I would try to find one of the mercury or alcohol filled glass tube type thermometers, one of the hospital grade types or possibly like the rectal ones some vets may still have around. I have one of those as a safety check sitting in a glass of water on one of the shelves in my incubator.

I hope all the babies turn out ok. Don't beat yourself up about it. It won't help anything and will only make you feel worse. We all make mistakes and there are plenty of breeders who have had temp problems. You're not the first and you won't be the last. I think that breeder was much too harsh. It's apparent you care about your snakes.

Like I said to keep it clean, flush the opening with saline solution, and wipe any mold off with a qtip

i dont have anything here- believe me my house looks like it was just robbed I ripped every drawer and cabinet apart looking for other thermometers and all I have is a meat thermometer and a baby thermometer. (i crushed my good one moving racks around) and the closest person I know of that breeds snakes and would have thermometer to borrow is N.E.R.D about 2 hours away haha so I am going to just go buy some new ones tomorrow morning. I have the one from my chicken incubator in it now- its no fine piece of equipment, but my chicks were hatching fine so it has to be pretty close.
thanks for all the advice- I was ready to sell all my snakes and never breed again once I got chewed out by the other person, so kind advice really helped, I am still teary and feel sick so - lesson learned. and next time I try breeding I am making sure EVERYTHING is working EXACTLY as it needs to be before I even pair any snakes.