Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My husband and I are hatching our first corn snakes right now. Everything went fine with the egg laying and incubation (all 18 eggs survived to maturity). However, the pipping began and the problems arrived. First of all, there was one who pipped and seemed fine. It retreated back into the shell as they tend to do and never came back out. I scooped him out about 24 hours later, it was clearly dead (drowned?). Then there was a baby who was acting very strange, it'd pop it's head out, lolling it around here and there, flopping backwards and sideways...we thought - there is definately something wrong with this one! We pulled him out a little ways, and his body was tied in a KNOT! The poor thing. We managed to untie him, but his abdomen is all swollen and has some indents as well. I think he was that way in his shell for a long time. It's too bad as this one has the coolest pattern thus far, and I don't think he'll probably make it. Though it does seem to feel better. It isn't moving around, I hope it's recouping and absorbing the yolk sak (it's half in and half out of the shell). Lastly, we thought our male was a ghost blood, and we bred him to our pewter female...so we should've gotten 100% bloodreds, right? Instead, we got 100% pewter babies. My husband says our male must be a hypo phantom (?). Does this sound right to you pros out there??? Both adult snakes are carry the diffused gene for sure.

Oh, how sad, I hope the 'knotty' one can recover. Also hope all the rest will hatch out healthy for you. Do you have pictures you can post of the parents?
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Have you been hugged by your snake today?

Ball Pythons
1.1 het Caramel Albino (Edward & Bella)
0.1 poss het Caramel Albino (Rosalie)
0.1 Caramel Albino (Bellatrix)
0.1 Pastel Orange Ghost (Nagini)
1.0 Butterscotch Ghost (Nick)
0.1 Spider poss het Butterscotch Ghost(Nymphadora)
1.1 Mojave (Lucius & Renesme)
0.1 Pastel Lesser (Narcissa)
0.1 Pinstripe (no name yet)
1.0 Pewter (Salazar)
0.1 Bumble Bee (Alice)
0.1 Lemonblast (Luna)
0.1 Blond Pastel (no name yet)
1.0 Bell Pastel (Jasper)
0.1 African Dinker (Esme)

Corns
1.1 het Amel, Anery, Charcoal, Bloodred (Romeo & Juliet)
1.0 Blizzard het Bloodred poss het Anery Lav (Tumnus)
0.1 Granite (Ravenclaw)
0.1 Fire het Anery (Ginny)
0.1 Anery Lav (Lucy)
0.1 Plasma (Victoria)
0.1 Opal (no name yet)

Hogs
1.0 Albino Western (Hogwarts)
0.1 het Albino Western (Hufflepuff)
0.1 Tri Color

Yes, I just need to flashdrive them from my PC (which has my Kodak Easyshare software on it) to my laptop (which is the only computer I can go online with right now!) Will try to post some pics of parents and babies tomorrow. All but 3 of our 18 hatched now. So that's fifteen (including the one that was knotted, who seems to be less swollen and moving a little bit today FYI, but I'm not sure that it's going to have normal snake mobility - if it survives). The last two did not hatch successfully. They seem to have drowned, or failed to hatch somehow - I don't know. Unlike the first death we had, these two never stuck their heads out of the shell. The first one that died was pipping and acting normal, until he went in and never came back out! Oh well, I'm disappointed but we have to move on to the next trial...will they eat? I know that we have a little time yet before they will try.

>> " we thought our male was a ghost blood, and we bred him to our pewter female...so we should've gotten 100% bloodreds, right? Instead, we got 100% pewter babies. My husband says our male must be a hypo phantom (?). Does this sound right to you pros out there??? Both adult snakes are carry the diffused gene for sure."

Well,...I'm not real sure what hidden genotype your breaders might possess, but a "phantom" IS a combination of hypo x charcoal(anery B), and a "pewter is a combination of diffused x charcoal(anery B), so you can figure it out from there, so your alleged phantom would also be homo for diffused(blood?) if all the offspring are exhibiting the diffused trait. If the babies seem to lack more yellow than usual as they mature later on, then the "ghost" is probably a definite phantom.

Sort of complicated, but I "think" I have this right..LOL!

That's too bad about the twisted up offspring and the "bobble-headed" one, if they don't seem to get better REAL soon, I would put them in the freezer to put them out of their misery. This will just slowly put them to sleep, and is very painless, even though it might "sound" in-humane. It is much more compassionate than the other alternative they have if you seriously think about it.

good luck with them!

~Doug

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

Thanks Doug. Well, as for the genetics, my husband has plans to pick up a hypo and a lavender to breed to our male this next year...will that narrow things down? Our male and current female both carry the diffused gene, and apparently the charcoal gene, and the male we believe is hypo as well. But I suggested that maybe he's got something lavender going on? My husband planned to breed lavenders next year anyway, so he's going to investigate this possibility.

And as for the bobble headed one and the one that was in a knot, that was the same snake. He actually seems a little better today. He even moved on his own today, not quite a slither, more of a scoot. He doesn't seem to be suffering for now, but it's too soon to tell if he'll be able to eat, digest food, etc.

Also, I should have said "blood phantom", not "hypo phantom"...I think.

A phantom would have belly checkers as it is hypo charcoal. There is every possibility that your Pewter is also homozygous for anery. It happens fairly often. Best way to test that is to get a plain ol' anery to breed the pewter to.

Well, he's definately got the diffused gene...no belly pattern on mom, dad, or ANY of the babies. In fact they (the babies that is) all look pretty much exactly alike. I'm a little jealous of the clutches I've seen pictures of with the variety of morphs! But the male and female do not look very much alike...I'll suggest the anery thing to my hubby tomorrow. He's already plotting what females to pick up to figure this thing out. Lots of babies to come next year!

How do I load pictures?

>>How do I load pictures?

You can choose to use our photo galleries, which works great with a drop down menu. If you host elsewhere, you will need the photos link address. Then you can use this text (replacing our photo link with your link and removing spaces).

[img ] http://forums.kingsnake.com/images/new.gif [/ img]

It will result like this when you do it.

I personally prefer the ease of the drop down, but when doing a pic heavy post the link works better.
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Cindy Steinle
PHFaust
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