First Baby Died

[Orlandoflor]

Well on day 49 I cut my clutch and out of 5 eggs I got 4 pastels and 1 normal. I made small cuts. Then yesterday mourning now day 56 I looked on my incubator I have glass door and saw the normal poking his head out. The normal was the one I made the smallest slit. Well I left to work and at 10 pm when I got home I checked on them and the normal was 80% out of egg and not moving. I checked it and was really weak. Then 2 hours later he died. I checked him and all of its yolk has been absorbed so I have no clue what happened. The others are still in egg with a lot of yolk still left. So it's weird. The normal looked the biggest of them all on what I can tell. I don't bothered them since I cut. I just think he was just one that did not develop properly and just did not make it. My Bator stayed 88 constantly. So I'm just waiting for others to come out.

[Capray]

Sorry to hear. Hope the rest of the clutch do good!

[heathers*bps]

My guess would be at 88 degrees and cutting them at day 49 was too early. But I might be the only one to think that , but I honestly wouldn't have cut that soon.

[Orlandoflor]

My guess would be at 88 degrees and cutting them at day 49 was too early. But I might be the only one to think that , but I honestly wouldn't have cut that soon.

That's what I would have thought Too if he died still in egg and with yolk still there. But he was done absorbing all of it. Plus it should not matter what day you cut if your care full.

[loonunit]

It doesn't matter when we cut eggs? So it's okay to cut on day 40? 30? 10? If we're careful?

Look, I don't blame the breeder here. Somebody put this grand idea in his head. Day 49? Is that seriously when we're saying it's okay to cut eggs? No, let me guess: we're saying even earlier than that.

Can I just ask how many posts we've seen this year with people cutting a week or more early, being "careful", and then losing babies anyway?

Can we please stop saying it's okay to cut whenever? We're breeding these little animals that may or may not be worth a lot of money, and we're desperately impatient to see what nifty things we've made. And then somebody says it's okay to cut on day 58, on day 56, on day 52, on day 45. And then... we have no clue what happened?

C'mon, people. We know what happened. Eggs don't hatch until the baby is fully formed for a reason. What happened is: we got impatient, we listened to the advice we wanted to hear, we cut weeks early, we gashed giant holes in the blood supply of the egg, and a bacteria got in there and had a party. What happened is, we're killing our own animals.

Please, can we just tell people to wait? Waiting won't kill us.

[TessadasExotics]

It doesn't matter when you cut eggs. It's up to the breeder. I have seen people cut at day 30 with no ill affect. We let a clutch pip on its own this season and one of them drowned after it had piped. So regardless on whether or not you cut or let nature take her course things still can and do go wrong.

[TessadasExotics]

Not to mention that the usual 90 deg temps are hotter than what the eggs would normally incubate at I am sure. We "breeders"(people in general) as a whole tend to try to speed everything up. We keep temps high, we feed way too much, we breed way too soon, we cut early and so on. Ball Pythons live under ground in cool humid caves. I highly doubt that there holes ever get close to hitting 85-90 deg. They probably stay closer to mid 70's-80 deg. They probably only eat once every few weeks and take years to ever even get close to 2-3k grams.
It's all a big race for many breeders. Who can get that first new combo, who can make the most babies, in the end who can make the most profit. Not everyone is this way, but most are.
We have changed our whole process. We went from belly heat to ambient heat. Went from incubator to maternal. We now only use our bator for backup if a mother kicks out an egg or doesn't sit on the clutch (fist time layers). We do however feed weekly, or whenever one appears to want to eat. After all, we all want great big ball pythons right? Isn't bigger better?

[Don]

Cutting at day 49 is early for an inexperienced breeder, especially at lower incubation temperatures. When you cut, you open the inside of the egg to a warm moist environment that's perfect for bacteria growth.

I'm sorry you lost the baby. Breeding ball pythons requires a lot of patience. I know I'd love to see what is in the eggs way sooner than I do, but that isn't in the best interest of the babies. And, me knowing what is in the eggs early doesn't change a thing. They are what they are, no matter when I cut.

[cinnamonpython]

I agree the big breeders barely take care of their snakes . they don't even give them hide boxes

[moonlightgdess]

Why do people cut eggs anyway?