Last clutch hatching

[R&DP]

Would he be able to eat at all? I've never seen that type of deformity. Is it just the lip? Part of the jaw as well? Can you post a pic? Personally I'm in favor of keeping babies with issues/ deformities as long as they can eat, poop, shed and live a healthy life.


Check out what's new on my website... www.Homegrownscales.com

Sorry for the bad pic, but here ya go.
It's the upper jaw, I don't know if it could eat on it's own. It seems crule any way you look at it.

[Homegrownscales]

Well my preference would be to try. Are there any heat pits at all? It looks like his jaw is intact, and If he has teeth it looks like he could eat fine. Id be interested in knowing if he can catch the prey. But it doesn't sound like it's a totally hopeless gotta cull case. If he can eat fine even if it's FT id make him a lifer in my collection. Mother nature can be cruel. But these babies have the luxury of being born in captivity. I'm a sucker for babies, I wouldn't be able to cull unless it was a totally hopeless case and I tried. It makes for a hard decision for you though.


Check out what's new on my website... www.Homegrownscales.com

[jsmorphs2]

Congrats on the healthy little ones and I'm sorry to hear about the deformity. It's hard to tell from that picture but it seems like it's eyes are sunken in and hazy and it's skull is completely deformed not just the top lip. Sometimes they will do well with minor deformities as pets but, like I found out, there may also be underlying issues and force feeding and trying to keep a hatchling alive is just delaying the inevitable. Maybe try to get a better picture of it. Hopefully it's superficial and the little one will have a chance to be a neat pet.

[Redneck_Crow]

I'd offer him food with the rest of the hatchlings before I made a decision on his future. If he can and will eat, I wouldn't put him down. He might make someone a nice pet snake.

I can understand how you feel. I ended up with 3 cleft palate pups in a litter of show dogs once. One of them was able to be repaired because it wasn't very bad and even though he had showdog conformation I had him neutered and his mouth fixed and he became an old guy's pet and lived a long and contented life. 2 pups had defects that were so bad that the vet said they probably couldn't be repaired and I had them put down at 2 days old. I never bred their mother again, either. In dogs cleft palate is definitely heritable. Her former owner had a litter from her with the same problem.

I don't think that facial deformities are the same for snakes. I think they tend to be incubation problems, but I really don't know.

[modean02]

Hows the lesser looking?

[R&DP]

Hows the lesser looking?

Sorry to say, it didn't make it. I guess it had some other health issues, but it fought like hell.
It was hard to watch, but I was willing to give it a chance.

[llovelace]

I'm sorry

[R&DP]

I'd offer him food with the rest of the hatchlings before I made a decision on his future. If he can and will eat, I wouldn't put him down. He might make someone a nice pet snake.

I can understand how you feel. I ended up with 3 cleft palate pups in a litter of show dogs once. One of them was able to be repaired because it wasn't very bad and even though he had showdog conformation I had him neutered and his mouth fixed and he became an old guy's pet and lived a long and contented life. 2 pups had defects that were so bad that the vet said they probably couldn't be repaired and I had them put down at 2 days old. I never bred their mother again, either. In dogs cleft palate is definitely heritable. Her former owner had a litter from her with the same problem.

I don't think that facial deformities are the same for snakes. I think they tend to be incubation problems, but I really don't know.

I don't know, incubator ran at 88/89 degrees. I used Hatch Rite. The only thing is I used three males in the breeding, I don't think I will do that again.

[Redneck_Crow]

I'm sorry that the little guy didn't make it.

Sometimes these things are just freaks of nature and never repeat themselves. Nothing with DNA has perfect DNA replication, in any given human there are several DNA "mistakes," some harmless, some troublesome, and some devastating.

I don't think that multilple sired clutches are more prone to defects--if it is people aren't talking about it much. I've had multiple sired clutches before on snakes and other than scratching my head and trying to figure out "who is your daddy?" in a few instances, I've seen no ill effects.

I'm very happy that you gave the guy a chance. I hate when people waste them like so much garbage without giving them a shot at life. Even when an animal isn't totally perfect it can make somebody very happy as a non-breeder pet. I'm convinced that as long as they can function without pain animals don't share the common human perception that some of them aren't good enough to be worthy of life. The life they have is all that they have and they value it and will fight to survive if they have the strength to struggle.

[R&DP]

I'm sorry that the little guy didn't make it.

Sometimes these things are just freaks of nature and never repeat themselves. Nothing with DNA has perfect DNA replication, in any given human there are several DNA "mistakes," some harmless, some troublesome, and some devastating.

I don't think that multilple sired clutches are more prone to defects--if it is people aren't talking about it much. I've had multiple sired clutches before on snakes and other than scratching my head and trying to figure out "who is your daddy?" in a few instances, I've seen no ill effects.

I'm very happy that you gave the guy a chance. I hate when people waste them like so much garbage without giving them a shot at life. Even when an animal isn't totally perfect it can make somebody very happy as a non-breeder pet. I'm convinced that as long as they can function without pain animals don't share the common human perception that some of them aren't good enough to be worthy of life. The life they have is all that they have and they value it and will fight to survive if they have the strength to struggle.

Thank you. I'm going to keep two of the three, the OG is a female and the Pastel is a male. Love the color on the Pastel, and the OG isn't bad either.