In my opinion, this should ONLY be done with EXTREMELY delicate hands, and patience!

I recently had a clutch of eggs and two of the babies did not make it because they couldn't get though the eggs and drown in the yolk.

This is my experience with "my situation:" I patiently watched the eggs hatch and noticed a couple eggs that had the snakes moving inside. They both were pushing their heads against the wall of the eggs, and wasn't able to come through. Unfortunately, I waited too long to cut a hole, and they were dead by the time I was able to help them.

So I guess I would say that if you see a baby snake STRUGGLING (several times) to push through the egg, and it's unsuccessful, it may be OK to intervene and cut a hole in the egg (probably where it's pushing it's head at). To make sure you are safe, you can try grabbing a little "piece" (or flap) between a pair of tweezers (or sterile needle nose pliers), and cut along the tweezers/pliers. Another good thing to try is using a razor and running the blade from the egg, and up (away from the egg). That way you will "hopefully" keep the sharp edge of the blade away from the baby snake, and pinching the egg will also keep the blade away from the snake.

I hope this helps, but PLEASE do not use this method unless you think it is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY!

Jeff

[ Hide Replies ]

• Slitting the Egg? - H_nasicus, Mon Jul 23 20:58:14 2012
• RE: Slitting the Egg? - markg, Tue Jul 24 13:29:17 2012
• RE: Slitting the Egg? - H_nasicus, Tue Jul 24 18:17:45 2012
• RE: Slitting the Egg? - RG, Tue Jul 24 15:44:19 2012
• RE: Slitting the Egg? - jrleonard72, Wed Jul 25 19:55:46 2012