Reptile & Amphibian Forums

All 10 of these alterna eggs went to term and the first one popped yesterday afternoon. I cut 5 of them and left the other five to cut there way out themselves..

This morning none of the other five eggs had popped so i cut them and found them all fully formed but dead in the egg..

So unfortunatly i have learned this lesson the hard way... But you can be sure that from now on i will cut all of my eggs as soon as the first one pops..

~ Mike Russo

Those look to have slightly deformed heads. Im guessing they died from congenital problems rather than being trapped in the egg. Who knows but I myslef do cut open any eggs that havent pipped 2 days after the 1st has.

Keith
-----

Hi Keith,

I noticed the slight bump on two of their heads & I would like to think that your right about that.. but to tell you the truth I think it would just be an unbelievably crazy coincidence that the one that piped and the four I cut are the ones that were not effected...

Also, last year I cut all the eggs from this female and they all made it out fine.. I just figured I would leave five and let them cut thier way out themselves.

I truly believe that human error (my error) is responsible for these hatchlings not making it out of the egg....

~ Mike

I'm curious, if it was your your error, what could you have done about the deformed heads? Those snakes were obviously undeveloped so had you cut them open earlier, what would you have done with undeveloped snakes? IMO there's nothing you could have done. I'm not the only one giving you this opinion here.

Are you saying only one pipped by itself, and you cut the others except for the five?
-----
3.0 WC; 0.2 CB L. getula californiae
0.1 WC; 10 eggs (7/11) Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata

one pipped.. i then cut four more.. and left 5 to pip themselves...

~ Mike

those snakes while fully formed have the dreaded undeveloped head syndrome and wouldn't have made it if you had of slit the eggs or not. It's a genetic thing.
Nice looking alterna though..good luck.
Russ

I agree. It's best not to cut. Those that are meant to make it will, and those that aren't meant to make it won't. Cutting wouldn't have helped, those snakes would have been DIE whether you cut now or a week ago.

I am with Keith on this. They look like bad babies. I had 13 dead in egg hypo everglades this year that where all fully formed. I think I had a problem with the eggs getting to hot. It just happens and it sucks. What is worse is all of the babies I had hatch out from that clutch except one was male,... and the one female was kinked. Arahhhh.

Later Jason

I don't think that those babies died because they were trapped in the egg either. They dont look so great. I think that it may be a crazy coincidence. I am curious... did you cut open the top five eggs? or the eggs closest to the heat source? I'm just trying to figure if there is a reason for such a strange coincidence.

I don't usually cut open eggs and I have never had a hatchling die from being trapped. (although I have had a few that looked like yours that died when nearly fully formed)