Help! Mystery eggs ID and general advice?

[marigoldmenagerie]

Hello.

In August we bought an 5 year old genetic stripe (what we thought was a) male. He was very lethargic when we got him and refused every meal. He was ridiculously passive and never seemed to move, as well as being obese. Our concern got to the point that we considered taking him to the vet...

About a month after we purchased "him", in early/mid sept SHE laid a clutch of six eggs. We were SO surprised. I phoned the person I bought the snake from and they just belittled me and told me that they must be infertile because it's a boy and if it was a girl, it can't have bred within the last year since that's when he obtained it. He was also quite sexist to me and laughed at me so I just hung up.

We (me and my partner) candled the eggs to find five beautiful fertile eggs with one slug. The five fertile eggs were placed in the incubator as soon as we could get it, 4 days after lay.

Flash forward to now, we are at day 55 and decided to cut the eggs. As first time breeders we were very worried that these eggs would need extra help because we didn't know their mom was pregnant so we even handled her at the extreme late stages of ovulation up to 3 days before lay. We feel TERRIBLE about this, but we were novices. This snake was our 2nd ever snake.

So today, we set up a little station, disinfected everything and cut each egg. We are extremely worried because they seem so small. Also, unexpectedly, all of them appear to be a variety of spider; which variety we are not certain. Attached are some pictures of the cut eggs. All of which responded except the fetus pictured in the last egg photo; this one had cloudy fluid and didn't seem to respond.

We have put them back in the incubator now but we are SO worried. They seem so small for 55 days but we were so concerned by the fact we had handled mom so late term and that we didn't get them in the incubator until day 4 after laying, and this is why we felt pressured to cut. Right now, we feel horrible.

I know these pictures are terrible and the situation is also terrible but we would appreciate some insight on the morphs of these babies. Also some advice on spider care from experience as we are quite concerned about the effect of spider 'wobble' on their wellbeing. Also pictured is their mom, Hendrix, who is (as far as we know) just a G Stripe. Also a pic with her and her eggs.

Also; are our babies just too small? Did we cut too early? How can we make sure they're healthy?

We love them so much. When we asked on reddit we were told to put them in the freezer. Please help us. Thank you in advance.

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[Snow Balls]

Until they actually come out of the egg and shed it’ll be hard to ID them. Based on the pics it looks like most have absorbed their yolk. They don’t seem to small to me but through pictures it’s hard to gauge. Cutting them at day 55 after being with mom for a few days shouldn’t be an issue. I’d give them a few more days and they should crawl out of the eggs, I wouldn’t be to concerned about the last one not being responsive. I had a few this year that I also thought died in the egg but crawled out a few days later. You should be seeing their little heads pop out in a day or 2 just give them some time


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[Snow Balls]

And adding to what I just posted, don’t be concerned about their spider wobble. Most spiders will live happy healthy lives, with proper care and minimal stress some of their wobbles are hardly noticeable. Spiders get a bad rep in this industry and don’t need any specific care compared to any other ball pythons. What temp did you incubate at?


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[marigoldmenagerie]

Until they actually come out of the egg and shed it’ll be hard to ID them. Based on the pics it looks like most have absorbed their yolk. They don’t seem to small to me but through pictures it’s hard to gauge. Cutting them at day 55 after being with mom for a few days shouldn’t be an issue. I’d give them a few more days and they should crawl out of the eggs, I wouldn’t be to concerned about the last one not being responsive. I had a few this year that I also thought died in the egg but crawled out a few days later. You should be seeing their little heads pop out in a day or 2 just give them some time


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THANK YOU! This has calmed us so much. We will definitely update this thread upon hatch.

While you say it's hard to ID in the egg, do you think they resemble a spider morph? We are just concerned about the 'wobble'.

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[marigoldmenagerie]

And adding to what I just posted, don’t be concerned about their spider wobble. Most spiders will live happy healthy lives, with proper care and minimal stress some of their wobbles are hardly noticeable. Spiders get a bad rep in this industry and don’t need any specific care compared to any other ball pythons. What temp did you incubate at?


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SORRY replied before saw this. Incubated at 86-87, turned up to 88-89 in the last two weeks.

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[Snow Balls]

THANK YOU! This has calmed us so much. We will definitely update this thread upon hatch.

While you say it's hard to ID in the egg, do you think they resemble a spider morph? We are just concerned about the 'wobble'.

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Some look spider to me but like I said it’s hard to ID when they’re still in the egg


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[Snow Balls]

SORRY replied before saw this. Incubated at 86-87, turned up to 88-89 in the last two weeks.

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You should be seeing their heads popping out about day 58-60. Like I said just leave them be, just check on them about once per day (I know it’s very exciting) just give them their alone time and they should be fine


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[marigoldmenagerie]

You should be seeing their heads popping out about day 58-60. Like I said just leave them be, just check on them about once per day (I know it’s very exciting) just give them their alone time and they should be fine


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Thank you so much. You have no idea how grateful we are. We posted on reddit but immediately deleted because we thought we would be told that the babies would be sick and ill since they're spiders. We were so worried.

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[marigoldmenagerie]

Until they actually come out of the egg and shed it’ll be hard to ID them. Based on the pics it looks like most have absorbed their yolk. They don’t seem to small to me but through pictures it’s hard to gauge. Cutting them at day 55 after being with mom for a few days shouldn’t be an issue. I’d give them a few more days and they should crawl out of the eggs, I wouldn’t be to concerned about the last one not being responsive. I had a few this year that I also thought died in the egg but crawled out a few days later. You should be seeing their little heads pop out in a day or 2 just give them some time


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Also how can you tell most have absorbed their yolk?

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[Snow Balls]

Also how can you tell most have absorbed their yolk?

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If you look at pics 2 and 4 you can see that faint yellow sack that’s connected to them. That’s their yolk sack, you can also see it just barely in pic 1. Once they’re done absorbing them they will come out of their eggs


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