After 4 out of the 11 perished, the remaining Laddersnake eggs finally started to see some movement after 57 days (6th September 2008) incubated at a temperature of 27C /- 1C.
Daylight
Flash
The first egg to pip and hatch was strangely Number 1 egg. This baby measured 29cm and weighed in at a hefty 36g, compared to a laid egg weight of 28g. I’m going to get some new batteries as I have had spurious weights recorded when they are running low. I’ll post corrections if this proves to be the case.
Next it was a race between eggs No. 6, 8 & 10 to hatch. Number 6 seemed to be the keenest.
Well number 8 won the race, weighing in at 41g and measuring at an even 30cm.
3, 5 & 9 are still waiting in the wings, while 10 and 6 are almost there.
Sleep got the better of me, so I can’t honestly say which finally got out the egg first, for the purposes of this post let’s introduce Schrödinger's Laddersnake neonate principle:-
So we have two neonate snakes that both hatched first and second on the 58th day, in their little race to be the first to escape their egg home, although unobserved, I can estimate which baby came from which egg due to the size of the hatchling and the weight of the egg/neonate. Perhaps if I had of observed this the result would be different? No matter (just theory :tunga
, there’s a joke (such as it is) there for those so inclined.
From egg number 6 (I presume).
Egg number 6, measured 5cm x 3cm and weighed 29g when laid, the baby that surely came from it weighed 36g, measured28cm and was born on 7th September 2008. Egg number 10 measured 5.5cm x 3cm and weighed 31g, the presumed resultant neonate weighed39g and measured a comparatively lengthy 30cm, with seemingly quite a bit more girth to it too.
Next up in the race, was numbers 3 & 5. 5 started pipping before 3 but 3 was the first to emerge.
Number 5 still thinking about making a break for it...
Number 3 seems not to be sure of this big wide world, so is taking things very slowly and had even retreated back into the safety of its leathery sanctity.
Number 5 looks to have a deformed snout, from these few shots; it will be interesting to see if there are any other deformities. Very disappointing when this happens but it does happen, so warts and all, it gets reported here. I kept on hoping that it was somehow its jaw distorted from pushing against the egg, rather than a defect.
From the next few shots, it looks like my hopes are answered; the first shot shows its ‘face’ being pulled backwards.
The next two hopefully show a normal baby, although I couldn’t tell until Elvis left the building.
Close up view of egg number 3, hatchling number 5.
Now egg number 5, hatchling number 6.
It became apparent that my gut instinct was right, there wasn’t something right with this little one, it appears to have a kinked back and is having real trouble exiting the egg on its own. I’ve elected for now (8th September 2008, day 59) not to intervene.
Still eggs 3 & 9 aren’t giving up their little hissy shoelaces, I hope they are alright. I have a theory that my incubator must be very comfortable for them, as the trinkets took their sweet time in hatching too!
Finally, two healthy babies emerge on 8th September 2008, so the tally is; 6 healthy young, one deformed (yet to exit the egg).
First egg to hatch was egg no. 1, hatchling weighs 38g and measures 29cm.
Second to hatch was egg no. 8, hatchling weighs 41g and measures 30cm.
Third to hatch was egg no. 10, hatchling weighs 39g and measures 30cm.
Fourth to hatch was egg no. 6, hatchling weighs 36g and measures 28cm.
Fifth to hatch was egg no. 3, hatchling weighs 39g and measures 29cm.
Sixth to hatch was egg no. 5, hatchling weighs 41g and measures 32cm.
Seventh yet to exit, if it makes it, I do have my doubts. I won’t intervene for the next day or two. Depending on how badly deformed it is, I will likely have to euthanize the unlucky snake.
It was feeding time, so I thought I’d attempt to feed Momma scally, then I discovered this!
...to my knowledge it’s the first time a double clutch has been noted in scalaris? In fact other than some of the Asiatic snakes, I haven’t heard of a double clutch from any of the Old World ratsnakes, has anyone else? She must have laid them late last night or today, I had thought she looked a little large and it did cross my mind but I thought it unlikely that she’d be with eggs again. In the 16yrs I've known this snake, she has never done this before. It will be very interesting to see how many of these make it through the incubation process.
Ten eggs, none weighed, I can tell you that they are all smaller than the last clutch though. I probably won’t be attempting to weigh them either as there are over half stuck together.
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Devboy.
