Are you a cutter?

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Originally Posted by BHReptiles

However, if there's an egg that's not pipping on it's own after it's siblings are already out of the egg or I feel like there may be some other kind of problem, I will probably cut.

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x2

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MrLang

Only being here 2 years I can tell you definitively that percentage needs to lose 6 or 7 or even 8 orders of magnitude. There is risk involved more so than letting the eggs pip on their own. You'll note a strong correlation between people who have been in the hobby a long time and hatched the most clutches and the tendency to not cut or cut after the first pip. Of course there are veterans who got lucky, just don't care, or aren't analyzing the process enough to figure out whether or not it's 'worth it'.

For people who do cut early - since there isn't a definitive statistic on it I think they're just willing to take the risk because there are a lot of other people saying 'go for it, it's fine'. Peer pressure is a dangerous thing, especially peer pressure that plays off our natural impatience and desire for instant gratification.

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There's more to it than just cutting, imo. How early the eggs are cut and how often the babies are poked, prodded and harrassed would have more to do with bad things happening, imo. There are vids on youtube of people cutting eggs, and proceeding to dig around in the egg, and basically pulling the babies out.

If you cut at day 56 or when the first one pips, I don't see how cutting a little flap in an egg and peeking inside could harm it. Now if you give it a sunroof at day 45 and pull it out of the egg to show your youtube audience how awesome you are, then yeah...probably not good.

If your clutch hits day 56 and the babies start nosing up to slice at the egg, what difference does it make if he slices it open, or the keeper?

Just my opinion...I'm too much of a newb to be sure of any of this.

I'm not anti-cutting, but I like seeing those little faces pop out of the egg!

Patience is key... ;)

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.n...76422799_o.jpg

Its gonna kill me but this is my first year breeding and I have two clutches cooking and one clutch that was due today, and unless I think something is wrong at day 56 or so I'm just gonna let them pip on their own.

1.1 pastels, 1.0 lesser, 0.1 spider, 1.3 norm. 1.0 fire 0.1 RTB 0.0 sav. Mon.

I don't cut anymore. Cutting kills... I let them all pip naturally now and it is much more satisfying and much less stressful on both me and the hatchlings.

I got the chance to finally vote on this thread. I ended up not cutting at all on my first clutch and I'm really glad I didn't. As my second clutch approaches, I will definitely be trusting nature again unless something specific indicates a problem. After observing the whole process I see these potential issues:

-The snakes are still skittish when they're in the egg. The more visibility they have the more likely they are to try to squirm around in the egg and tangle their cord or get disoriented or flipped and drown.

-The moisture in the egg is important. Many of the babies start out with one small hole (holding in moisture) and pip 3 or 4 more cuts to open the top of the shell before actually climbing out. Cutting eggs will change the composition of the liquid in the egg by starting the evaporation early.

-Not all babies are ready at the same time. I had one pip 3 days after the first one and didn't come out of the egg until 3 days after the rest. I doubt it's a coincidence that every one of the babies that came out had their bellies already closed up and healthy with no umbilicus or yolk. The eggs were all totally empty by the time the babies exited.

-I think having the egg open is a trigger to the baby to climb out. You don't want them climbing out earlier than their development dictates.


I think waiting long enough and cutting small enough is probably a very low risk practice but not one I plan to partake in moving forward.

I do not cut anymore. Won't cut ever again. Not worth it. Much better letting them do their thing. :)

Sent from my GT-S5830D using Tapatalk 2

Thanks again for everyone's input.

MrLang your observations (IMO) are bang on, and exactly why I will not cut, either.

And just for the sake of the future of this thread, as of July 31th, 2013 the votes are as follows:

Do you cut your ball python eggs?

Yes - I cut before any have pipped themselves - 14 votes = 18.92% of voters

Yes - But only after one has already pipped by using it's egg tooth - 35 votes = 47.30% of voters

No - I never cut eggs - 25 = 33.78% of voters

It will be interested to look back on this thread in a few years and see weather the gap has been bridged between cutters and non-cutters, as I have seen a lot of people this season saying they plan on not cutting ever again.

Bumping this up, the 2014 season is upon us!