First off I know these are blood pythons but just a little info on why cutting eggs might not be all that bad. First off I don't cut until the first one pips!

This is my first clutch of blood eggs ever so when a little head was poking out on Sunday I was really excited. Cut them all to see what I had and was stoked that I had 3 albinos and one het. So last night when I was checking on them I noticed that one of the babies was REALLY dehydrated and it's egg was nearly dry. In the process of picking the egg up to take a better look, a clump of vermiculite was stuck to the bottom of the egg. Turns out the little fella had cut the bottom of the egg on its own and it's egg fluid had drained out the bottom. So I put some water in the egg a few times to try and help the baby out, it even drank some from an area near its head where it pooled up for a few seconds. That was last night.

This morning I checked on it first thing and it had its whole body out of the egg except for it's head and part of it's neck. It was no longer attached to it's umbilical so I cut the egg more to discover what was going on. The reason it was stuck was because it's egg fluid had dried up around the snake and was beginning to harden, therefore it couldn't get it's head out all the way. With some scissors I was able to free him and he is out and ok. Even took a pic of a sibling just to show how tiny this guy is.

I'll never know for sure but if I had waited until it came out on it's own it might not have ever made it, since I wouldn't have been able to see what was going on inside the egg. So maybe egg cutting isn't the worst thing in the world!!!

Scott Austin
ScottAustinReptiles.com

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