Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I had a relatively late season and currently have my third clutch of the year hatching out. This is my third clutch with a good portion of the babies having some very small kinks or bumps at the end of their tails. So far they all seem to be below the cloaca and none seem to have any other deformities. The first clutch has shed, eaten twice and all appear to be behaving normally.

First clutch was from a normal female bred by multiple males and contained Fires and Lessers and normals. 4 of 7 had kinks. She produced 8 eggs last year and all babies were flawless from the same Fire sire.

Second clutch was a virgin normal female to Enchi and Lesser males. Wound up with Enchis and Lessers and normals with 3 of 5 having kinks.

My third clutch is currently hatching, a Bumblebee to Pastel breeding. It looks like one Killerbee, two Super Pastels a Pastel and a normal. So far only the Pastel and a Super have come out but both have kinks. If I had any hair I'd be pulling it out.

I'm completely stumped as to what is going on. My Helix thermostat is set to 89 degrees, an additional thermometer sits on the incubator shelves to verify temps and I even put a third thermometer in with one of the egg boxes to triple check. All temps appear to be good. I'm really doing nothing differently then I've done in previous years. Same incubator and a lot of the same snakes last year produced flawless babies all year (with one exception). Eggs are on straight vermiculite and I open boxes to air eggs out about once a week. I air out eggs daily in the week leading up to hatch time.

Any help would be great as my season is falling apart with each emerging kinked baby.
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www.dbherp.com

What water are you using to mix your vermiculite? Maybe something in the water? I always use distilled just to be safe but I've seen somebody use tap water as well. I just know that if I won't drink it, I'm sure not going to use it for anything else. Good luck.

I have an RO system installed at my house and use that water but that's a good guess. I have a couple clutches incubating on "no substrate" perilite setups and I'm curious to see if they differ any.
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www.dbherp.com

My only guess is that your eggs are getting too wet.

I once hatched a few kinked honduran milks and my mistake was having them too wet.... I kept them drier on my next clutch and all were perfect

I use no substrate incubation for ball eggs and have never had a kinker... I bet your no substrate clutches have no kinkers!
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globalreptiles.ca

I am thinking moisture as well. I use substrateless. So far this season --230 eggs hatched -- 3 kinkers from 3 different clutches. The three were SEVERE, leading me to believe it to be an EGG thing. Good luck and let us know how it goes.
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Bill Buchman

Thanks for the responses everyone. I don't believe it's a moisture thing as I've had egg boxes get too wet in the past and typically the eggs start to sweat. If I don't catch them in time I usually lose the egg. I can post pictures but these eggs all look really good. Nothing out of the ordinary is happening that would lead me to suspect any one culprit. I think that's what is so troubling is everything seems to be identical to last season and I'm still getting these kinked babies. I'll be sure to post once the 'no substrate' eggs hatch out.
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www.dbherp.com

too high incubation temperature I guess
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www.qualitysnakes.it

If I had to guess, I would guess too high of a temp. That being said, I had my first clutch of the year get up to 93 degrees, and no issues with the hatchlings...but, do you have a min max thermometer? The other thing I thought about is air quality, and quantity. I open my egg boxes and get fresh air in daily...throughout the entire incubation period.

Dave

There are probably multiple causes of kinking. Here's another one to add to your list.

Congenital skeletal deformities can show up when breeder females are slightly vitamin deficient. That has been documented in a variety of animals, from trout to humans.

A supplement may be helpful in the future but won't help the eggs you have.

Paul Hollander