Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We were given a female okeetee on mothers day. 5 days later the laid eggs we weren't prepared so we put them in a plastic shoe box and have been keeping moist paper towels over them ever since. Late Thursday night when we went in there and checked on them and the towel there weren't any hatching. Friday afternoon my husaband was feeding the others and noticed there was a snake in with the eggs. It was completely out of the egg with the cord and stuff still attached to it, dead. Is it something we did and is there anyting we can do to fix this before any of the others hatch? Thanks

Did you use an incubator? If not you should have because you need to have the eggs at a certain temperature. Between 86-88 degrees.

That temperature recommendation is way too high and you do NOT need to use an incubator. I'm hatched hundreds of snake eggs by keeping them at Summer room temperatures in an un-air conditioned house. If you do use an incubator, the temperature should be set to the low 80s. Temperatures in the upper 80s or higher can result in deformed babies.

As far as the hatchling, the "umbilical cord" will dry up and fall off. Snakes can sometimes take several days to hatch. I've had some clutches take as long as a week from the time the first baby hatched to when the last one did. I'd just keep an eye on the eggs for more hatchlings.

Tim

Third Eye

I think Joblack said that the first hatchling was dead.
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Kent

No incubator, we have a closet with a couple of themometers and a space heater. We keep it at about 80-85. We have a digital one in with the eggs and it usually reads about 83-84.

Another egg hatched today. It's moving around and has all the cord off and everything. It's backside looks as if it's having a little trouble controling it's lower muscles but besides that one head, two eyes, tongue, and one tail. So all is good. I just checked on the eggs also. There is discoloration on two of the eggs. It's like a blackish color. It's not growing on the eggs instead it looks like it's showing from inside the eggs.

These are pictures of the snake and eggs. Hopefully this gives a better view of what I've been trying to explain about the eggs. Thanks