We have 3 unrelated Piebalds, 2 females and 1 male. Each female has bred for us before, both in 2010 and one this season. Out of 8 eggs in 2010 only 3 of them made it, so when we got 6 good eggs this year we were really excited. We let them pip on their own and they started coming out today. So far we have 1 perfect high white piebald out of the egg, and three with their heads out. Two of those snakes only have one eye, and one of them doesn't have any eyes. We believe that one of the others that is still in the egg is also missing at least one eye, though we can't know for sure until he's out of the egg. We are impatiently waiting for the other two to come out so we can see what's going on.
This is strange for us. We haven't heard a lot about snakes hatching without eyes, though not a lot of people like to discuss the problems they've had with their own clutches. Does anyone know what might cause snakes to be born without eyes? Especially more than one in a clutch? We're looking at the majority of this clutch being hatched with the same abnormality. The parents are unrelated, and incubator temperatures were perfect (or so we believe), so we can't think of any red-flag problem that has gone on to cause this. Does anyone else have any thoughts? We'd love to hear from you. We have only been breeding snakes for the past 3 seasons, so we certainly have a lot to learn.
We will post full pictures of these guys once they're all out. Right now these are the best pictures we have.
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