Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I wait 24 hours after the first baby pips or comes out to slit the egg.

Ever since I started to cut a slit into the eggs after pipping. . Ever since I started doing this my hatch ratio went way up. I use a small delicate scissors to cut a slit. I try to avoid any blood vessels by cutting the top of the eggs where they lay. SOme of the egss that are attached to 2-3 other eggs I feel really need to be seperated after the pips . It usually requires tearing away the eggs from one another. It does not seem to damage the neonates this late in development.

Rainer, i have not been doing this as long as you but I open them as well. I use a sharp pair of cuticle scissors and "pinch" the very top of the egg just enough so that I can slip one blade in. Then I slice the egg open.

I talked with Ron Sims about this and he told me what he does - which is to cut an X into the top of the egg. I used to cut out a window but now i just make an X, as Ron suggested. It makes more sense to do that - you really want the snake to be able to hide in the egg and stay in there as long as it wants, absorbing the rest of the yolk I think.

Also, I usually wait until the evening after the first one pips and then I do pip the rest of the eggs - sounds like you do that as well.
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Peter Jolles
East Coast Colubrids
www.eastcoastcolubrids.com

Would you happen to have any pictures of how you do it?
When I bred kingsnakes as a teen, my hatch ratio was always low. I don't have the records anymore, but I think it was 50/50.

I'm guessing part of it was improper procedure (I used a light bulb for heat, worked with lizards - but I wonder if it got the snake eggs too warm, with them having more surface area in the light) but I wonder if some of them died just because they couldn't pip.

Sometimes we opened them after the fact to find fully developed snakes dead inside, sometimes we found them but with almost no color, sometimes they obviously died before hatching time.
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3.0 WC; 0.1 CB L. getula californiae
0.1 CB L. pyromelana pyromelana
0.1 WC; 10 eggs (7/11) Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata

I will try to get some pics the next time I do this.

Hey Peter,

I usually don't cut an X in the egg. I cut just one slit because I don't like taking the chance of cutting blood vessles. I try to keep the insides of the egg from spilling out so that possible underdeveloped or immmature snakes can survive and live off the egg.

Thanks and keep up the good work!

i don't cut often but when i do, i candle then pinch and cut an "x" with a sharp cuticle scissor. i candle to see if there are any blood vessels along the top. if there is a big one or a lot of vessels on top i move the cut site or don't cut. if they are still in the egg, they are still using the vessel!
i haven't kept track if cutting has improved my hatch ratio. i would say that if i had to cut open eggs frequently to assist hatchlings there would have to be something wrong with the way i was incubating eggs, since they should not need my help.
daveb

well one thing i noticed this year with my corns is that the eggs on top of the clutch and centered in the clutch hatched first and then the eggs that were lower and to the outside hatched last. i did however slit 2 of my eggs because they were 2 days behind the first. when i cut the first egg their was just clear fluid and the snake did not even stick his head out until about 12 hours later. the second egg when i slit it i got fluid and blood and i could clearly see it had a yolk sac still but it hatched out just fine after about 2 days after seeing blood in the second egg i decided not to cut a third egg do to it having blood vessels after candling which i did not do to the first eggs
adam
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hybrid breeders association
0.1. normal corn het hypo,anery
1.0. snow corn het hypo,anery,amel
1.0. amel corn unknown hets(4ft 8inch long)
1.0 sinacorn
1.1 kenyan sand boas
0.1 mbk
0.1 albino nelsons
0.2 normal leo geckos
1.0 blizzard leo gecko
0.0.1 snapping turtles
0.0.1 3 lined mud turtle

I just cut one this morning after the others came out yesterday. I poked at him just a little while ago and no movement. It was dead in the egg. Perfect development and no umbilical cord attached which means he was ready to emerge. . I guess he just drowned in the egg. This is why I can't say enough about cutting early, rather than later.