Reptile & Amphibian Forums

can be good.

This is my first lesson to never mess with eggs until they show obvious signs that they are truly bad!

I think most of you can guess which eggs are obvious slugs (the 3 that form a U shape), but focus on the last three eggs that have some potential but look very unusual.

Quiz time...which egg is fertile...any guess?

Please identify your choice by:

top : the top egg in the picture
mid : the middle egg in the picture
low : the lower egg in the picture

Two of the potential but very unusual eggs were indeed bad. The first one went bad in about 4 weeks. The second went bad about 5 weeks. The last egg I decided to flush, because it too appeared to be turning bad, but I decided to open the egg just to make sure, which I typically do...and there was a fully formed neonate, completely clear and was obviously developing fine.

This is the first time this has happened to me in over 13 years of breeding snakes.

Just wanted to share my mistake, in the hopes that someone else will not make the same mistake I did.

-RG

This egg looked pretty rotten but low and behold a perfect baby emerged.

Tom Stevens
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TomsSnakes.com

Now thats one ugly egg Tom! and, on the flip side i have had very nice looking, perfectly white Alterna eggs go 55 days and be filled with nothing but goo..

It's even worse to cut open eggs and find this!

I saw some of that this year too....... Though it is discouraging and even heart breaking it is something of a wake up call too. I have become very hesitant to post pics of gravid females or eggs these days. I always wait for the babies to hatch. Many of us have a tendency to look at gravid snakes or a clutch of eggs as snakes.....they're really not until they hatch. I had a freind who'd put on estimated dollar amount on his clutches and already start counting the money before he had any snakes, needless to say he was very let down. When things like that happen it really makes you appreciate the healthy babies that hatch. Any which way I keep almost all my eggs no matter how ugly they get Tom Stevens
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TomsSnakes.com

hatch!

I agree Tom.

Thanks,
RG

Yea, I 100% know not to count hatchlings before they actually hatch.. And, with alterna somtimes i even wait till they eat before i count them.. But, in my opinion you just can't beat alterna for variability and calm temperment!

~ Mike

Here are 3 of my favotite Alterna..

Top Pic: Black Gap (M)
Mid Pic: Red Bluff (F)
bottom Pic: W.Langtry (F)

Hey Russ.. hope all is well!

I would have kept the same three you did, but i would not have been to excited about any of them...

If i had to guess which one of the three may have been good i would choose the somewhat smaller one at the bottom or the photo..

Hope to talk to you soon!

~ Mike Russo

Yep...you are correct.

The one at the bottom...the round, ping pong looking one was the fertile one. If you would have asked me the same question that egg would have been my last choice to end up fertile because of the different shape, since they all had very different surface textures and colors than normal eggs.

Oh well, I won't make the same mistake twice.

It's weird, last year I had different bad luck...I too had 2 out of three eggs that resulted in deformed neonates (pic shown below). I still have no idea what happened...it makes me sick (just like those graybands you posted).

I'm hoping for a second clutch from my female Anery, so I can hopefully prove out the Male Hypo Poss Het Anery.

Only time will tell.

-RG

What happened to the egg you slit open?

I did the same thing early on. A friend told me to use regular transparent tape to seal the slit. I did, and the baby snake survived just fine. I was so glad for that tape advice.
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Mark

I really didn't slit the egg carefully, because I was sure at the time that the egg was bad.

Had I had any inclination that the egg might be good, I would have slit it open carefully, actually I would have just left it alone. I have heard of the tape technique, but hopefully I will never have to use it after this mistake.

After seeing that egg that Mike R. posted...that should convince everyone to leave eggs alone!

-RG