Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey; my first clutch is at day 54 now and I am debating on slitting. Your thoughts? I can candle them and see the little boogers moving around inside, and can make out their patterns.
-----
Ball pythons: 1.4 normals.. 1.0 Spider. 1.0 Graz pastel. 1.0 100% het or. ghost. Also 1.0 BCI boa. 0.2 horses (paint mares) 1.0 black cat, 1.0 fiancee, 2.3 clawed frogs. And a ton of freshwater fish and breeder rats.

I have never had one pip on there own.. Dont like the thoughts of drowning LOL!
-----
http://www.jasballpythons.com./

Only time I slit is after day 60 if others have already hatched...and only had to do that once for a small, tough egg with a small baby inside, they have been doing it on their own for a long time.....have some paitance, they know when to come out. I do, however, make the slits a little bigger once they do pip but that is just so I can get a better look and by that time, they are usually out within a day or two.

Day 54 is too early, in my opinion, to slit them. I wait until day 60, or if one pips a day or so early, I may slit the rest.

Like the other guy said, I got this picture in my head that they cant get out and drown?? But like the other gentleman said they have been getting out of their eggs on their own for a long time. However they do die in the egg in the wild sometimes..

I always wait until the first egg pips before I slit the rest of the eggs.

Brian

-----
Brian Gundy

www.for-goodness-snakes.com

Personally, I can't understand why so many ball python breeders slit their eggs. I don't think any other snake species breeders slit eggs before they hatch naturally, at least not in the other snake related forums I visit. (and I admit, it is really only one other forum.. well, two but one of them is for rainbow boas and well, they don't lay eggs. So it may happen more often with other pythons and colurbrids than I realize).

Only reasons I can think of to slit eggs before the baby does, is impatience, worry they will die in the shell (ie baby ball too weak to do it themselves, egg too touch etc.) or worry they will have a pretty morph die in the shell and thus, can't profit from it.

But it makes me wonder, how many hatchling ball pythons will fail to come out of egg alone, if all breeders let them hatch naturally? Also, by letting the weaker babies come out of the egg due to slitting it from them..how many of those babies end up problem eaters or failing to thrive? Or just pass on this inability to slit the egg themselves, to other generations? (this last point I kind of doubt will be an issue, I can't see not being able to slit the egg as genetic...unless its a genetic defect that prevents the egg tooth from developing properly)
-----
PHLdyPayne

I slit the eggs open around day 52-53 if Im excited about a clutch to see if something new or if het to homo etc. But if its just homo to normal I let them hatch on their own. Even with sliting the eggs to take a peek the babies still make their own cuts in the egg almost always in my experience, which hasnt been that many seasons. As long as your careful I dont see the harm to each their own.
-----
Damian Macioce
www.strongholdreptiles.com

Hi, Jen!

I had originally decided that I wouldn't do it. But...I had a clutch of 16 spotted python eggs. Only 11 made it out of the egg. 5 died trying. It was at that point that I decided from now on, I'm cutting after the first pip.

Steve