Down side to breeding,

[Tempestas]

i know the feeling this has been my first year breeding and have not had the best run of luck - 2 babies dead in eggs, 3 dead after emerging from eggs and 10 eggs bad in incubator i have had the same thoughts about not breeding as i didnt know how many more little bodies i could deal with it really is heartbreaking to lose them.

as you said sometimes you need to do something to help them, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt but at least you know you gave the wee ones the best chance at life. i hope your luck changes soon, mine has recently and it totally makes up for all the crappy stuff to have little babies doing well, but the thought of that doesnt make any difference when you are faced with another little baby that didnt make it. keep your chin up and keep trying, you will get there eventually and it is worth all the heartache when things turn out right xx

Thanks, These things happen unfortunately I guess its meant to be.

Sorry for the bad luck, but don't give up.

Thanks.

Sorry to hear that, breeding definitely has its ups and downs.

How did they get slit underneath? Sorry maybe you said, but I'm confused.

I am still trying to figure that one out myself to be honest, Every single egg was slit under neath at least an inch and it was literally like having a cracked chicken egg in your hand. The clutch was all bunched together too so made things very very hard to try and even think about repairing them I did move during incubation but I'm still not sure what would of caused them to split to that degree. The only thing i can think is that they tried hatching upside down but I've never heard of that before.

How deflated were they that made you cut them so early?
Maybe you did more harm than good cutting them open, deflating is a normal part of the process.
My last clutch started deflating at day 43-44 and were very deflated when they pipped on their own at day 54.

Sorry for your loss, it comes with the territory unfortunately

They weren't deflating as if they were about to hatch they were deflating due to the sheer amount of white lost through the slits and would of gone dry and caused them to suffocate inside. I have bred other reptiles before so understand about them deflating etc before hatching and the thinning of the shells. One that I cut open didn't contain any fluid at all and the snake was drying out inside already.

I'm so sorry this happened.
Better luck next time.

You can patch up the slits with super glue and a small piece of saran wrap if it happens again. And top the egg off with saline or distilled water if there is fluid loss.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

Hmm I didn't think I could use super glue with snake eggs I used to use it for cuts on myself if they were deep but was told by the wife never to do it again
If I could of topped them up I would of but the slits were at the bottom which made it so hard to even consider repairing them.

Sorry for your loss. Keeping a few old egg shells around can help in these situations. Sometimes eggs will swell to the point of splitting and leaking egg fluid. Old eggs can be cut into patches and placed on the split. All you need is a little water to moisten the patch and it will stick on its own.

I think cutting and pulling the hatchlings at such an early stage is what did them in. If left in the eggs, they probably would have been just fine. Nature has a way of fixing things we wouldn't expect. Good luck with the future breedings.

I wish I knew this trick before chucking the eggs I will keep them for sure when I get anymore. I would of prefered to leave them but it was a case of take them out or leave them to die and dry out I didn't know how bad they were inside until after cutting It wasn't like I cut them and dragged them out I did small cuts first and assessed the problem then decided to pull to give them the best possible chance the bottoms of the eggs where past the point of being repaired. Thanks for the best wishes though

You definitely should not have removed them from the eggs!

Over the years I have had quite a few eggs leak...Patched them up and they were fine...One egg I just packed a bunch of Vermiculite around the slit and it hatched fine!

I remember ripping two eggs pulling them apart after they were laid...I put masking tape over each hole and they hatched fine...The masking tape did mold up a little by the time they hatched.

Thanks for that, Like I have stated above it was a case of do it or let them die and I wasn't going to leave it to chance when I knew I could try something. I knew it was a 50/50 chance and I was willing to take it because I didn't want to be sitting there thinking what if. These eggs weren't just leaking they were pouring out literally like someone had cracked an egg open and the yolk and white just slid straight out. I assessed it and if I could of repaired them I would of, BUT with the sheer amount of moisture and fluid coming out nothing would stick to them I would of had to turned the eggs upside down to stop them leaking the entire clutch which in turn would of caused them to drown anyway with the fluid that was left.

My main concern was if I left them bacteria would set in and kill them off and they would of just dried out without being able to top them up would of been mission impossible. Although I would be interested to know what causes these slits they aren't tiny they were literally an inch or so long like someone had a stanley knife blade to them.

I have another three eggs in the incubator from a different clutch which have tiny V shaped slits on them which are due on the 22nd I have managed to stop the oozing on them and IF I could of done the same with the others then I would have.

I haven't shared my experience to be flamed or to be told you shouldn't of done this you shouldn't of done that because IF People were in the position I was facing I would hope they would do everything they could to save them even if it means pulling them. These things happen in life and yes its a learning curve would I do anything differently I don't know but what I do know is it happened and its been a rough weekend but I do know that I hope to never have to face this sort of choice again. I will put up photos in a moment on a seperate thread so that people can see the hatchlings they weren't deformed or uncoloured if anything they looked perfect.