Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Okay I'm looking for some insight from more knowledgeable folks. I'm a bit stumped I've got a clutch of corn snake eggs incubating on a peralite vermiculite mix this is day 68 @ 82 F. The first hatchling piped it head out this morning now dead half out of the egg. I've now removed the dead snake from the incubation chamber and looked at the egg. The underside of the snake is completely concaved emaciated looking, no birth defects. The egg has a lot of yolk still and the umbilical cord of snake is tightly wrapped around lower portion of snake. Of course when I say tightly wrapped this is just perspective. This seems so odd to me. All the other eggs are completly intact, no other hatchlings.

So... any one have an idea as to why this happened. This is outside of my previous experience. Thanks Steph

That sucks. There are many many things that could have caused it, many of which can occur no matter how perfect your process of incubating and everything before that point have been. Sometimes it just happens. I always just try to go through the process as well as I know how and take the good with the bad after that. If you figure there is something OBVIOUS you could you can improve on, do it but I think sometimes over guessing can cause one (I've done it plenty of times over the years)to change things unnecessarily and it ends up causing more problems than doing good.
If you want you can always post more specific things that you wonder if you should change in the incubating process and get feedback. Good luck with the rest of the clutch.

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Randy Whittington

Hey Randy!, Killer okie!!! Jeff

Thanks Jeff.
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Randy Whittington

Never been so frustrated with a clutch before, two more hatchlings piped out today neither one fully absorbed it yolk sac these are just tiny 4g hatchlings.

So I start looking more closely to the eggs left to hatch two looked green. Cut them open no surprises, as I thought dead snakes. Although I will note the two dead in egg had absorbed the yolk sac completely and were triple the size of the ones that have escaped the egg.

Can I blame the mom, I've hatched two separate clutches out of this same set up this year no problems. I don't think I want to bread this mother again.

Still 10 eggs left......

when the babies pip... it doesnt mean they have their yolk absorbed. actually a majority of the snakes who pip stay in the egg for a few hours to a few days with just the nose sticking out while they absorb the rest of the yolk.

~kin
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~Sober Serpents~
www.freewebs.com/soberserpents
Corns, Creamsicles, A Black Rat, A pair of Leucistic Black Rat X Leucistic Texas Rat Intergrades, Thayeri, Cal Kings, A Jungle Corn, Ball Pythons, A reverse Trio of Candoia, Leopard Geckos, Green Anoles, a Snapping Turtle, a White Cheeked Mud Turtle, an Adult Rescue Iguana, and A Baby Iguana

Thank you I should have specified that these babies are not surviving. They are coming out like rockets (compared to the usual time frame) until they get hung up on the yolk sac/umbilical cord which continues to hold them into the egg they die 8-12 of emerging. After they died I removed them from the egg. The unused yolk was a substantial amount, about the size....between the size of nickel and quarter. I regard this as more than the usual drip left in the egg after a successful hatching.

I agree with Randy on that,........it doesn't sound to me like you did anything to cause this. Other than proper moisture/humidity, and optimum temps,......everything else is beyond our control, and some fatalities, and/or deformities can and do happen to the best of us from time to time....no matter what.

I'm betting you will have better luck with the rest of the clutch!

best regards, ~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

I've had that happen. I agree with the others who've posted, it's probably nothing that you did to cause this. Corn snakes lay pretty big clutches compared to most other snakes and I don't think every baby is "meant" to survive. If you had several babies out of a single clutch hatch and die, then you might have a incubation or genetic problem on your hands. I think this was just a random misfortune.

Godd luck with the rest of your eggs!

Tim