What temperature are you incubating at? The hotter the temp (within the fairly small acceptable range) the quicker they hatch. With colubrids, which can stand a wider incubation temperature, the variation in incubation time can be considerable.



At any rate, if you are on the high end (89 - 90 deg F) your eggs should be slitting on their own any day. If you are on the extreme cool end (86 - 87 deg F) you may still be a week or more off.



If your eggs have dehydrated a bit (some breeders prefer this to plump full term eggs for reasons of egg safety) you may be able to pinch up part of the shell at the top. I've read that you can work the pinched up piece so that the membrane containing blood vessels is squeezed back down and then cut through just the shell.



I would also recommend patience but apparently many breeders do cut the eggs at this point or earlier without much problem.

[ Hide Replies ]

• Slitting Eggs - chondro788, Tue May 20 11:10:02 2003
• RE: Slitting Eggs - jfmoore, Tue May 20 13:14:04 2003
• RE: Slitting Eggs - RandyRemington, Tue May 20 14:07:58 2003
• Thanks - chondro788, Wed May 21 08:18:17 2003
• RE: Slitting Eggs - jyohe, Tue May 20 15:07:11 2003
• RE: Slitting Eggs - serpentcity, Wed May 21 00:16:33 2003