Thanks all...

And for Jo.

Yeah... *sigh*... I know. But you know me. I need to trace all the steps and see where I may have screwed up with her, but fortuneately along with that I like to find out the odds of what chances her situation would have afforded her.

Have talked to a few people that have been very generous with their feedback and experience (one of the many reasons I love snake people).

Keep in mind these are all *maybes*

Chances are if had not cut the egg, she would not have exited. She may have simply expired in the egg.

With her cord wrapped the way it was she was not absorbing her yolk, so leaving it would have resulted in her possibly starving to death.

So as I understand it... her yolk would not have disengaged from the sides of the egg (it was still attached when I popped her out) which is what resulted in the hard belly.

As far as removing the hard yolk from her abdomen. This probably did kill her. Too much stress for a young babe. But only a few with hard belly make it.

And honestly, from looking at her, I can say that I did not feel she was going to make it... and the amount of hard yolk in her belly was huge.

My best chances would have been to tie off the umbilicus while she was still in the egg and hope for the best.

Many do try and untangle gently while they are in the egg. The way she was sitting in the egg, I can say that I would not have been able to untangle or see the knot as it was tangled beneath her... so either way it was not good.

It wasn't until I popped her out that I could really see how bad it was... and again, that was my bad as I did think she was ready to come out. Definitely a mistake I will never make again.

If this happens again I will be far more equipped, and ultimately I hope the documenting of this proves of some use to others. I think we often hear of snakes not making it, but we do not hear the "whys"... I like hearing why.

BUT that all being said... I have some amazing baby snakes to tend to and enjoy. So far all of them are looking amazing... one of the girls jabbed at me last night.

And I wanted to take a sec and thank Corey, Kara, Deb, Marc, and Jo for the time spent chatting, emailing, etc. I really appreciate it.

Bruce