Should I cut them now?

[Lolo76]

So it's finally day 55 for my clutch from hell (see thread: http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...d-about-others), and at least a few have made it! Looks like I've got 4 good eggs, 1 iffy, and 3 that went bad... not exactly what I was hoping for, but better than losing the whole clutch.

Anyway, now that it's the end of the line, I'm wondering if I should go ahead and cut them. I normally wait for the first one to pip, but I'm worried about a couple of things - mostly the moldy eggs stuck to 3 of the good eggs, and the fact that a couple of them are burying the good eggs. Is there any reason to worry they'll be affected by the mold, once they start to pip, and/or might they have trouble getting out? I was thinking about cutting the bad ones off, then slitting the good ones to give them a head-start. Is that a good idea, or should I just let nature take its course?

[melly911]

cut them, if you wanted to let nature take its course you would let the mom incubate them

[Lolo76]

cut them, if you wanted to let nature take its course you would let the mom incubate them

Haha... touche.

Guess I'm just nervous, since those bad eggs are really stuck on there - plus I'm afraid to see what's inside of them!

[melly911]

go ahead and cut em... and keep us updated. ive only had one clutch so far and i was to excited not to cut!

[Wicked Constrictors]

Can you take a photo of the eggs so we can see how bad they are? I just had my clutch hatch and i waited to i saw one pip on day 57 and i cut the others. Good luck.

[rafacacho]

Take the bad eggs off, just cut them and leave the part attached to the good ones, so you dont make a hole on the side of the good ones. And yes...cut the good ones, we want to see babies!!

[Lolo76]

So I tried to cut the bad ones, but they're really tough - so I gave up after a minute, and decided to try again later. I did cut the one separate egg, and it's a little spider! Hardly any goo left either, so I imagine he/she was about ready to pip anyway. Have to get some sleep now, and will post more later.

Here's the clutch - bad three on top, other five are still looking good (even the part-moldy ones are showing veins).


And here's my spider!


Does anyone know what that white line is - just next to the fat vein?


- - - Updated - - -

P.S. When I cut into one of the bad eggs, this puff of moldy dust came out - and I could immediately feel my asthma kick in, since I'm allergic to mold. That's the other reason I've been afraid to cut through those.

[Foschi Exotic Serpents]

Next time you have a clutch, separate the eggs. Most will come apart easily if done right after laying.

I recommend you use the substrate less method using vinyl cross stitch mesh and light diffuser grate. 100% humidity, no wet eggs, and look how plump my eggs always are right up until they pip! (I never cut until I see a pipper)
You wouldn't lose any.

[irishanaconda]

I would agree with the above poster, looks like they went bad cause of low humidity IMO

[Lolo76]

Yes, that is what happened... you can read the full story in that link (in my first post), but basically I tried going substrate-less and didn't realize my Acu-Rite was incorrectly measuring it at 99%. By the time I realized that was inaccurate, they had already collapsed! I then switched to using the substrate, at the suggestion of a few people here, and that just turned my collapsed eggs into moldy eggs. It was an all-around bad clutch, but you live and learn - right? At least I've got some good ones left, and I'm anxious to see that pretty little spider out of his egg.

- - - Updated - - -

P.S. Next year I'm either going to spring for a GOOD incubator, or having them incubated at the vivarium (if it's only 1-2 clutches)... the Little Giant worked fine with my smaller clutch last year, but just didn't work for this larger clutch. Now I don't trust it!