Day 56

Today is day 61. The gnats are no longer an issue but the eggs continue to develop maggots. Is it possible to take the babies out of the eggs or should we just leave them be?

I think one of the babies has a head deformity. When I checked on them tonight, one baby had his/her head closer to the opening in the egg and one side of his head looked odd. He sucked his head back in before I could get a closer look.

Hi.

The maggots will keep coming till all the eggs the gnats layed have hatched I suspect.

I can't think of anything that would kill maggots or eggs that would be even remotely safe applied inside a BP egg.

But I also think removing the snakes from the eggs has a great deal of risk.

Rabernet made a post recently that mentioned moving snakes from eggs into bowls but also stressed the risk and, since you cannot be sure where the eggs were layed by the gnats, it might not help anyway. :(

If you ruptured a major blood vessel or twisted the umbilicus while moving them I think that would almost certainly kill them right then and there even if nothing else went wrong.

There is also the possibility the maggots would simply be transfered with them.

But I am just guessing and trying to look for possible problems.

If it were me I would just keep picking out every maggot I see multiple times a day and hope like heck the babies are close to coming out on their own. :please:

I would have a hard look at the incubator design though and see if it can be made more intruder proof for the future.

Sorry I can't be any help - perhaps you could email some of the really big breeders to see if they have heard of anything or can suggest anything?


dr del

I checked the babies and I have confirmed the deformity on one of the babies. He is missing an eye. I'm not sure if he has any jaw deformity but I'll be taking pictures as soon as they hatch.