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I have heard often "Do not rotate the eggs", but is there any published information on this? I have successfully rotated eggs up to 1 day after laying. In one case, I had an egg that was rotated 2 days after laying. Mom decided she did not want it in her coils. Has anyone lost an egg that they know was because they rotated it?

Basically, I'm asking if there is any information other than theory.

Could this be why the eggs stick together? Nature's way of keeping them in a set position?
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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

Hello,
Snake eggs do not have free floating embryos. A snake embryo attatches itself to the side of the egg, unlike a chicken embryo which is free floating. So sometimes when snake eggs are rotated the embryo will drown. Hope this helps.

Nick

My theory is that you can safely rotate an egg up to a certain point. How long, I have no idea.
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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

I would think up to a day or so before the embryo really settles. I would be worried if and egg was rotated after 3 days.

in the so called "Blue Book" of python and boa husbandry. The actual name of the book is "The Reproductive Husbandry of Pythons and Boas" by Richard A. Ross, M.D., M.P.H. and Gerald Marzec. I bought this book years ago from Al Zulich at Harford Reptile Breeding Center. I don't know if the book is still for sale but there maybe some still laying around somewhere

There is a section in the book that discusses the rotating of eggs and as of the writing in that book, no studies had been done on what rotation did to python eggs. It did mention a study done on the rotation of loggerhead sea turtle eggs which found the death rate varied with the stage of incubation.

And in alligator snapping turtles, early turning of the eggs resulted in significant mortatlity. According to the book, the death is thought to be caused by the yolk coming to rest on the developing embryo.

According to the authors of the book, they believe that sometime after 24 hours of the eggs being laid, they become fixed in a polar position and that it isn't wise to move the eggs too much after 24 hours.

I hope this helps.
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gail

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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

I had a box of eggs fall off the shelf in the incubator, all the eggs rolled around. I think I put some back the way they were but others I wasn't sure about, all hatched.

So much for them being so darn fragile!

LOL - sorry your post made me chuckle - I was just imagining all these ball python eggs rolling around the room - and then having to pick them up and trying to figure which end was "up" before placing them back in their cushy little incubating box.
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Tosha

"Nihil facimus sed id bene facimus"

6.34.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
1.0.0 Angolan Python (Anakin Skywalker)
0.0.1 Green Tree Python (Verdi)
0.1.0 Bredls Python (Smurfette)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Desert Tortoise (Pope John Paul aka JP )
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.4 frogs rescued from pool skimmer
0.0.0 Lizards of unknown origin

It wasn't very funny at the time. I stacked a box on another box on the top shelf, when I was squatting I could see them both, later I was standing up and couldn't see the top box and pulled the bottom one off the shelf, eight eggs fell three feet. I could see the vermiculite stains on some, but not all. Maybe I got them all back right side up or maybe it doesn't matter. I'll be more careful.

I received a clutch of black rat snake eggs in late June of last year. Maintenance crew was using a front end loader to pick up a load of mulch from the big pile and eggs came tumbling down everywhere. They scooped up the eggs and stuck them in a bucket with some mulch and brought them to me. The eggs had tumbled hard enough to split the outer shells. The inner membranes appeared to hold firm - only 1 of the 10 eggs was leaking fluid.

I had no way of knowing which end was up or how long ago the eggs had been laid. I just took a chance and left them as they were in the bucket. I stuck the bucket in the green house and didn't bother setting up the incubator. Considering how badly tumbled they'd been, I figured the yolks were probably scrambled and the eggs would go bad soon enough. I did cover the upper portion of the eggs with some vermiculite leaving just the very tops uncovered for easy view.

I actually forgot about the bucket and the eggs and 3 weeks later remembered to check on them. To my surprise they were still going strong - even the one that was leaking fluid (the vermiculite I tucked around the eggs seemed to help plug the leak a bit). Seeing that the eggs had a chance now, I replaced all of the mulch with vermiculite and then continued a course of semi-ignoring them for the duration of the summer other than to occasionally re-wet the substrate down periodically. I also put a screen top on the bucket to keep out any mice and other pests.

Hatching began 9-1-05. Over a 4 day period, all 10 eggs sucessfully hatched. I wasn't keeping track of which snake hatched from which eggs, but out of the 10 there was one noticeably runty individual compared to the others. I think it's fair to say that was the one that probably came from the egg that leaked fluid. All of the hatchlings are doing quite well and eating like pigs though even after eating all winter long the runty one isn't gaining any noticable growth compared to the others. Their attitudes are very much more in line with corn snakes than black rat snakes (dunno if it's just the general attitude of their particular blood line/parents or because they'd been addled in the egg lol) --- no tail rattling, hissing, striking, snapping or displays one normally sees with wild baby black rats. Just a puppy dog like look to their faces as they peek out of the cage to watch what is going on around them....probably hoping for another meal.

This is a photo of one of the eggs when it started hatching. you can see the split in the egg shell (just to the right from center) from when they got tumbled.

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PHWyvern

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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles