Day 56

Ok, so now it is day 56! No signs of either baby wanting to come out. One egg is so dented I can't see the baby inside. (too many shadows) But the veins look good still. The other baby is taking up a lot of space and is moving around a lot.

I'm still worried about these two. And I really have the urge to cut. I don't really have a reason for cutting but I just want to see them and know they are ok, especially the one in the really dented egg. Day 60 is Thursday.

what is the temp in the incubator?

Depending on what the incubating temp was, If it was me I would cut. If you aren't experienced with it or have any concerns about whether you can do it correctly without harming the baby then you need to just wait it out.

You should be able to cut the egg, depending on your temps. There should be a few videos on Youtube that you can watch to feel comfortable doing this.

They have been incubating at around 88-89. The thermometer died two days ago and I haven't had a chance to replace it. The temperature hasn't gone any lower or higher during the past 2 months, so I'm pretty sure they are at the same temp.

OMG! I should have just left them alone! I went upstairs to check on the babies and I started to candle them just to make sure the babies were moving around. All of the sudden one of my ferrets made a loud noise that made me jump and my arm bumped the egg box. The egg box turned over and spilled 1/2 the vermiculite and both eggs onto the floor. The drop was about 1.5 feet. I immediatly got the eggs upright and back into the egg box and I shut the incubator.

Now I'm really worried. God! Why couldn't I just have left them alone! Will any harm come to the babies from the fall?:please::please::please::please:

Derek (Dr. Del) dropped one of his eggs last year and it hatched just fine, you should be alright. :gj:

we have never dropped an egg but we did drop a hatchling from about 3 feet and he seems fine today.

I cut the eggs. I sterilized a set of small scissors and cut small openings in the eggs. The babies are looking good. I can't wait for them to hatch! I'm about to start pulling my hair out waiting for these two!

Hi,

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Turbo Serpent

Derek (Dr. Del) dropped one of his eggs last year and it hatched just fine, you should be alright. :gj:

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I did yes. :oops:

Not only dropped, but dropped from a height of about three feet then kicked under the table with my big daft feet. :tears:

Thankfully he was ok and aside from a few dirty looks didn't seem to bear a grudge.


dr del

Well I'm checking on them about 2 times a day. Once in the morning and once in the evening. No babies deciding to come out just yet. They are squirming around in the eggs. :) Today is day 58. Should they be coming out by day 60?

I demand pics!! :taz:

Yes, where are the pics? They will not leave the eggs until you post pics lol

I'll try and get some pics this morning before I leave for work. I went in to check in on them. A gnat found its way into the egg box again and there was a maggot or two inside the egg. I picked them out and checked the baby. The baby was moving around. I checked the second baby and saw the head!

These gnats are a problem. They keep finding their way into the incubator which I don't know how they are doing it. :( We had a gnat problem because the ferrets hid some raw meat in their cage but we got rid of that and cleaned it up so the gnats should be going away. :(

Checked them again. :D They are looking great! When I was checking them, both moved around. I checked the second egg and earlier today, the baby's head had been the the left side of the egg, resting on the side of its body. Now the head is resting on top of the body, only centimeters from the slit I cut in the shell!

:banana::banana::banana:

PICS?!?!
lol and congratz

I did get pics. I checked on them again and one baby had his/her tail sticking up a bit and I thought "Haha, butt first!"

I could only get good pics of one since the slit in the egg is big enough to see the baby. The other egg had a lot of veins on top so cutting a slit in the egg was difficult.

Egg #1
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...Snake/egg2.jpg
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...Snake/egg1.jpg
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...Snake/egg3.jpg
Egg #2
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...Snake/egg4.jpg

Looking good.

What was the pairing and what can you tell so far?

I bred a 100% het pied male normal to a normal female. The babies will be normal but will have a 50% chance of carrying the pied gene. I'm hoping for females but even if both are males, I'll still be happy as long as they are healthy. :D

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.