Reptile & Amphibian Forums

One of my eastern eggs slit a couple days ago but I don't see a kingsnake emerging. Experts like Bob Applegate say you should never force a hatchling out of the egg, let it take it's time. I'm worried about this one though.

It was one of 2 eggs that had been deflating a bit, so I put it in it's own little tupperware. The tupperware didn't have a hole cut in the lid. A hatchling wouldn't suffocate in 12-24 hours would it? If it's still in the egg? Drown? I'm tempted to check this egg for signs of life. Or should I give it another day? I don't smell a dead snake. Not sure what to do.

The other 5 out of 6 eggs have produced beautiful eastern kings. I really hope this one made it. If it slit the egg then died I'll be really bummed. Here's a link to my photo(s) of the first hatchling to emerge. Thanks for any advice.
Eastern King Photo(s) on Picli

Sorry I can't offer any useful advice, but if it's any consolation, I know EXACTLY how you're feeling right now- I was a NERVOUS WRECK a couple weeks ago!

In the end, I didn't do anything, and my southern pines eventually made it out on their own.

One piece of advice that a buddy who knows a LOT more than I about this stuff gave me was that if you mess with the egg, and it's not ready to come out, you may startle the snake into leaving the egg prematurely with lots of egg yolk left to be had- not a good thing.

If you're worried about oxygen, take the lid off a couple times a day and give it a little fanning, and put a couple 1/8" holes in 2 sides of the container.

//Todd

Thanks so much Todd. Yeah as soon as I realized that egg had slit I did put a hole in the top of the tupperware. I had just opened the container 12-24 hours before that, so it shouldn't have suffocated. I had to move the egg just now to get another hatchling out of the tub. A bit of fluid came out the top. I"m more worried about drowning now.

I was gonna try opening the slit a tiny bit more w/ a razor blade, but when I saw fluid come out the top of the egg I decided not to do that.

Maybe I'll try looking at it w/ a flashlight, without handling it any more of course. It would probably be wise to leave it alone for another day or two huh? Sure doesn't seem like it's gonna be startled into leaving the egg early though. Fingers crossed. I'll keep y'all posted.

I've had snakes slit the egg, poke their heads out and then go back in and drown.

I've has them make a small slit, barely get their head out and then get stuck...heads swollen. This year I cut three snakes out of their eggs because they were stuck in the small slit, all three made it out once I released their stuck heads.

I used to never slit eggs, but now after this year I will be cutting the remaining eggs.

Kerby...

I used to never slit eggs, but now after this year I will be cutting the remaining eggs.

I have been cutting for years. Whenever i lay off the cutting I lose snakes.

Cutting is Good! Heck i even tear them open with my fingers.
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www.Bluerosy.com

Rainer,
Where the &^$@ were you 2 weeks ago?!?

I was BOMBARDING Tom with text messages, driving him nuts!

//Todd

Usually i poke at them through the slit with a sharp object. If they move I know they are okay.

If you pull a baby out of the egg it will probably die.
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www.Bluerosy.com

........"Usually i poke at them through the slit with a sharp object. If they move I know they are okay.

If you pull a baby out of the egg it will probably die."

Yep,....I've done the same thing many times, I cut them with small mustache scissors and gave the neonate a little poke with the tip of the scissors to see if it moves. Just last night I did this with a not so good looking lumped and molded egg, and could see the heart beat in the yolk reflection as well. The snake emerged on it's own the next day, and was fine.

~Doug

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

I'm pretty sure it wasn't my fault though. The poor baby has a pinched area a little above the vent where it looks like the belly has been sown. I can't upload pics right now cause my camera batteries died after I managed to snap a few.

The sire & dam are 3 year old first time breeders. She layed 7 eggs and one of them was bad right away. Of the other 6, two of them kept deflating, so I had to keep putting moist paper towels over them and misting the perlite a bit more every few days.

Actually the egg that was having worse deflation problems than this one hatched perfectly. It started to smell a bit mildewy a few weeks ago too. I moved both of those eggs to separate containers and re-incubated all the eggs on sphagnum moss, not too wet. I was afraid that the whole batch would go bad if I left them in that container with mildew and too much humidity.

So perhaps too much humidity caused this. But since the other 5 were fine, it may have just been nature. I've had gecko eggs swell and die from too much humidity. This snake was alive until after it slit the egg and there was no swelling. The funny thing is, for some reason, I consciously thought that I'd only get 5 of these. Maybe it was because a couple eggs were deflating, but I just had a feeling. Weird.

Thanks again for the advice everyone. I plan to breed a greater number of snakes next year and your knowledge has been noted. So that's pretty cool that Picli has my photo in the Showcase. Over 700 views.

Yeah,...it can happen from a zillion reasons, but many times things just go wrong in the developmental stages of the embryo at any given time. This is one other reason snake's have so many eggs....."stuff" happens. This type of thing has happened to EVERYBODY that has hatched eggs over a long period of time, for one reason or another,...or even combinations of reasons.

Also, there are "lethal" genes that can occur in conjunction with all the desirable traits we see too. Many things we humans will just never completely understand.

good luck with the ones that did come out fine!

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

Cool Doug. Thanks for the kind words. I can't recall if the parents are brother & sister. I think they're from different clutches but one or both parents may be the same. So yeah, considering that they're probably siblings & line bred (S. GA), that's not bad odds. I'll post more pics tomorrow. I put a link to some pics in my first post for anyone who didn't see.

Jason Dunn

n/p
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Bummer- sorry to hear...

//Todd

Usually i poke at them through the slit with a sharp object. If they move I know they are okay.

If you pull a baby out of the egg it will probably die.
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www.Bluerosy.com

I'll give it a poke w/ a toothpick. I fear it drowned. I'll post back in a few minutes to let you know.

It sounds like your new at this, so maybe I can help. First, reptile husbandry is not cut and dry, you cannot set up your animals like on some caresheet and expect it to go perfectly(all snakes grow well, breed, all eggs hatch, etc) Caresheets are too get the ball rolling so you the individual can actually start to learn about the animals.

In this case, that egg is telling you something, even if its some tiny little thing that is off. So messing with it is and changing the conditions is covering up valuable information you can use to improve your husbandry in the future.

Usually if a neonate does not emerge or slit the egg, there is very good reason for that. Your task is to learn what is causing that.

One egg is nothing I would worry about, if you do your work, you will receive lots of eggs from even this one pair. But if you see a trend of lots of eggs not hatching, then you need to attend to that and learn what you are doing wrong.

I have hatched snake eggs for over forty years and after thousands, I am not sure mucking with them has saved even one individual. U see, they could have made it own their own, if I did not interfere. I won't know if I interfere. They could also die on their own, or I could have killed them by mucking with them. After years of not mucking with them, I have seen eggs hatch that I thought would not hatch and ones that looked perfect, die. They are a bit complicated and conditions can effect all parts of their bodies.

You messing with a soon to hatch egg is never a good thing. It normally does no good and only can cause harm. Remember, most did well in the conditions they were in. Again, one egg, might have had a problem, count yourself lucky. If that egg hatches on its own later, you will have worried for nothing.

Also, give up the worrying, if your going to worry over one egg, your life keeping and breeding snakes will be heck and of constant worry and grief. Take joy in the individuals that did hatch out healthy. Then learn from the ones that don't make it. Then help others learn from your experiences.

No I am not a fan of messing with eggs by slitting or poking. But I do understand why WE do that. We are just curious meddling creatures, who have to hedge our bets. Cheers

for the kind post. Yeah that snake had a deformity. It slit the egg but didn't make it out. The first one to emerge looks to have a little bit of a kinky tail, but is perfectly fine. I'll definitely use it as a learning experience to build on for next year. Cheers!