Catchy subject line, isn't it? Today is day 53 for my first ball clutch ever. I was expecting them to hatch in the next few days. But then I called a guy tonight that I was talking to about buying some adult females from. He told me that he often cuts his eggs open as early as 47 days with no ill effects. After some instruction, that was all the incentive I needed. I had put the clutch in the incubator as I had found it back on March 25th and left it that way, which I think contributed to one dying because it was sideways. Started out with 7, now down to 6 eggs.



The 3 on the top of the clutch were sunken and obviously close to hatching. They also pulled apart fairly easily. I didn't think to separate them until after I had already started cutting so I spilled a mentionable amount of fluid from 2 of the eggs when moving them. But I checked on them thoroughly before putting them back in the incubator and they seem fine. I only cut 3 of the 6 because the ones on the bottom are still puffy and full and don't seem ready yet and I don't want to take any totally unnecessary chances. Does anyone know why that might be that the ones on the bottom are in that condition?



The 3 I cut open are all normals. I bred a male 100% het albino to a female that was sold to me as a het but I'm really not counting on it. Anyway, sorry if this is kind of rambling, just trying to record my thoughts. This is my first clutch and I'm trying to learn as much as I can the first time around so as to avoid as many mistakes in the future as possible and I have big plans for next year, of course. So far, I had one die and dissescted it. Now I just cut half the clutch open on my own a few days early, only to have to worry my ass of for the next few days that they don't drown in the fluid. Never ends does it? But I have learned alot and I'm sure it will continue until this is done and it's so much fun, really can't complain too much. I just hope I don't screw any up by doing that. Anyone have any opinions or experiences relating to cutting eggs open early? Anyway, here are a couple pics.



The order the clutch was in for 53 days:

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