Ball python not emerging and on day 68 of incubation??

[Ball Clan]

I cut the eggs at day 61 after the first one breached/pipped on its own. Two of the eggs failed, but the last one still contains a live baby, which still appears to be in the amniotic fluid, and has been ever since I could see inside the egg. This is day 68 of incubation (October 5) .The other hatchling is out and doing well, but what of this one that remains in the amniotic sac? It's clearly alive, as it moves when I nudge the egg, but should I be worried about it?

Someone help......

[Annarose15]

Pictures? What temperature did you incubate at? Can you see any sign of a tangled umbilicus?

[Ball Clan]

No I can't see the umbilical cord at all. I tried to maintain the temperature around 90 but truth be told it probably ran cool throughout the incubation. I was not prepared for eggs and had to do the best I could with what I had. Should the snake at least be trying to raise its head out of the fluid by now? It's clearly alive.

I have pictures but I don't have them hosted anywhere yet. I can tell you though that the hatchling has been cycling between being belly-up and topside-up about every 8 hours for the past 3 days. Is that unusual? Is there anything I can or should do without harming the baby?

[mainbutter]

easy hosting at imageshack.us

I don't have any suggestions, but I will say that my crested geckos experience drastic shifts in incubation times depending on temperature. Pythons seem to do well with specific temperatures and no fluctuations, which makes sense since they are incubated by their mothers in the wild, but running a little cooler could very well result in a longer hatch time and potentially a healthy baby.

I have no real suggestions at the moment, best course of action if I were to judge would be to wait and see what happens. if it's healthy, there's nothing you need to do. If it's not, there isn't likely anything you CAN do.

[Ball Clan]

Thanks. Yeah that's kind of how I feel about it, but the anxiety is getting to me. I'm assuming that if he's OK, then he will know to raise his head out of that fluid when the time comes.

That said, if anyone has experienced anything like this before, please let me know.

Thanks.

[Ball Clan]

OK here are pics, if they help. You'll see the cycling between upside down and right side up.

Today, 3:40 pm




Last night, around 8 pm



Wednesday morning


Hope this helps.

Thanks