Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi I was hoping some of you experienced breeders could give me some info on slitting eggs. I have read it is safe to go ahead and slit them at day 55, but what is the best way to go. I know I don't have to slit at all and some say wait until the first baby has slit, but I really want to see whats in these eggs! It's just such a long wait. Thanks for any or all opinions.
Jason

Hi Jason –

If the only reason you want to open them in advance is that you just “really want to see what’s in these eggs”, then I would counsel patience. Unless you are expecting albinos, you won’t be able to see THAT much from slitting the eggs. For instance, you might have an animal with a major deformity, but because the little snakes are coiled so tightly in their containers, you may not be able to see that anyway.

I think the only good reason for intervening in the normal course of gestation is if you expect a bad outcome if you do not. If things have progressed normally to this point and one’s past experience with the eggs of a particular female and/or male is good, then I wouldn’t attempt to fix what ain’t broke. I haven’t kept records on everything, but my gut feeling is that the majority of the times that I have opened eggs that moldered after the rest of the clutch hatched, I found animals either with grave deformities or animals that for some reason appeared to have stopped developing very early in the process. For that matter, even with normal appearing full term snakes weird things can happen – the rare animal that pips into an adjoining egg and drowns (if you keep the clutch together in one mass); or a mad slasher that rips numerous openings in the egg but stays behind and dies for no reason you can determine.

I respect that some experienced breeders feel differently on this topic, but the leave-‘em-alone approach has always worked for me.

-Joan

>>Hi I was hoping some of you experienced breeders could give me some info on slitting eggs. I have read it is safe to go ahead and slit them at day 55, but what is the best way to go. I know I don't have to slit at all and some say wait until the first baby has slit, but I really want to see whats in these eggs! It's just such a long wait. Thanks for any or all opinions.
>>Jason

What temperature are you incubating at? The hotter the temp (within the fairly small acceptable range) the quicker they hatch. With colubrids, which can stand a wider incubation temperature, the variation in incubation time can be considerable.

At any rate, if you are on the high end (89 - 90 deg F) your eggs should be slitting on their own any day. If you are on the extreme cool end (86 - 87 deg F) you may still be a week or more off.

If your eggs have dehydrated a bit (some breeders prefer this to plump full term eggs for reasons of egg safety) you may be able to pinch up part of the shell at the top. I've read that you can work the pinched up piece so that the membrane containing blood vessels is squeezed back down and then cut through just the shell.

I would also recommend patience but apparently many breeders do cut the eggs at this point or earlier without much problem.

Thanks to all who replied as the opinions stated were all helpful. Today is just day 51 so I was asking a little in advance. Also I incubated at about 89.5 so I was thinking them might start slitting on their owe by day 56 or 57 anyway. At this point I am thinking of not slitting any eggs until the first baby has started to hatch. Thanks for the help, Jason

and what if they weren't going to hatch until day 65?

or fruit flies lay eggs in them after you slit them? and the maggots eat away at the liquid and all...and it spoils and dies?

or it dries out for some reason due to being cut?

I know....every one says"""I cut I cut I cut and they never hurt anything"""

.....mine cut their own...

you can wait 5 more days....

JYReptiles

...All good comments. I wait until the first egg is slit on its own. In the vast majority of cases the rest of the eggs will slit on their own within the next 48 hours or so. Once an egg has slit I enlarge the slit and make a V-shaped cut, using a suture scissors (available thru med supply stores). Cutting a few of the blood vessels has never been a problem.
Also once the first egg has slit I lower the temp to 86-87F to decrease oxygen demand on the babies.
If an egg hasn't slit on its own by about 60 hours after the first egg has slit, THEN I will make a SMALL hole (with the suture scissor) and press out a little of the egg fluid. It should be CLEAR AMBER colored. If it is even a little cloudy it usually means the embryo has died. If clear, I wait a few hours to see what happens, if nothing I press out a bit more fluid. After a few more hours then I slit the egg enough to nudge the embryo and see if it moves. It will if it is alive. If so I leave it alone to do the rest! Scott J. Michaels DVM