My husband and I are hatching our first corn snakes right now. Everything went fine with the egg laying and incubation (all 18 eggs survived to maturity). However, the pipping began and the problems arrived. First of all, there was one who pipped and seemed fine. It retreated back into the shell as they tend to do and never came back out. I scooped him out about 24 hours later, it was clearly dead (drowned?). Then there was a baby who was acting very strange, it'd pop it's head out, lolling it around here and there, flopping backwards and sideways...we thought - there is definately something wrong with this one! We pulled him out a little ways, and his body was tied in a KNOT! The poor thing. We managed to untie him, but his abdomen is all swollen and has some indents as well. I think he was that way in his shell for a long time. It's too bad as this one has the coolest pattern thus far, and I don't think he'll probably make it. Though it does seem to feel better. It isn't moving around, I hope it's recouping and absorbing the yolk sak (it's half in and half out of the shell). Lastly, we thought our male was a ghost blood, and we bred him to our pewter female...so we should've gotten 100% bloodreds, right? Instead, we got 100% pewter babies. My husband says our male must be a hypo phantom (?). Does this sound right to you pros out there??? Both adult snakes are carry the diffused gene for sure.

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