This has been a sore subject for some time. I have never had a ball python drown in the egg, but I usually cut most of them. I have hatched only 300 ball pythons. I have hatched almost 10,000 Burmese. Burmese WILL drown in the egg. I have had MANY burmese drown in the past until I started cutting eggs. I have also had them drown aftrer cutting the egg if you don't remove some excess fluid.

At the Florida Herp Conference about 10-12 years ago they had an egg incubation seminar, many of the big names were there, I think almost everyone cut their eggs.

If you wait until 54 -55 days there shouldn't be a problem. The only problem I can think of was voiced by Ralph at the ball python seminar in Daytona, he said a baby with a lot of yolk might try to crawl away from the egg and yolk while still attached. His solution was to place the baby in a small cup so It couldn't crawl away.

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