Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I posted another thread a few days ago and we've been trying to wait patiently but I'm starting to get a bit concerned. Today is day 64 and none of the babies have come out of their eggs yet. We cut them on day 60 with no problems, they have been incubating at 89 degrees since the day they were laid and they are still moving inside the eggs. Does anyone know what could cause them to take this long to hatch? Should I be worried or does this just happen sometimes? I'm not super worried because I know they are all still alive but I've been searching all around and I can't seem to find any cases where good eggs have taken this long to hatch. Has anyone here had a clutch go this long and still come out healthy? Sorry, I don't mean to annoy any of you guys, this is just our first clutch so I have nothing to base this on except what I hear from more experienced breeders.

They should be fine. If you can still see veins and yolk, they're still absorbing their yolks. If the veins are all gone, they may just be stubborn babies.

Have they at least stuck their heads out of the eggs and started to breath yet?
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Robins Nest Reptiles

The eggs are cut so we can see the babies and see them moving. Can see veins in there still. We saw the ones head for the first time last night but none of them have come out of the eggs at all, we could just see his head from inside the egg.

Something seems wrong with your numbers. I would double check your temps and her lay date. For your animals to not even have broke the embryonic sac by day 64 at temps of 89 something has got to be wrong on your side of things. Not putting you down but I've done it myself and counted wrong out of the excitement of eggs. But at 89 degrees your babies should be out by day 64. Mine are normally out by day 52 at 89 degrees.

Scott Austin

>>Something seems wrong with your numbers. I would double check your temps and her lay date. For your animals to not even have broke the embryonic sac by day 64 at temps of 89 something has got to be wrong on your side of things. Not putting you down but I've done it myself and counted wrong out of the excitement of eggs. But at 89 degrees your babies should be out by day 64. Mine are normally out by day 52 at 89 degrees.
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>>Scott Austin

Something is wrong. Either the lay date isn't accurate or the temperature is wrong. Have you double checked the temperatures with a temp gun or other reliable temperature measuring device?
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Best regards,
AlanColesReptiles

No offense taken, I'm very tedious about record keeping, I wrote it down in two places the day she laid them, took pictures and video while she was laying that have time stamps and I posted them to facebook the day she laid them and all dates say it was april 2nd. I have a mercury thermometer on top of the egg box in the incubator and another dial therm inside the box with the eggs. Both read 89 degrees. Its now 2:30am on day 65 and they are still moving but still in the eggs. They do seem to be getting closer and closer to the top though. Hopefully today will be the day. I'm not used to waiting like this, my birds always hatch within one day of their expected hatchdate. These pythons are stressing me out! Lol

6:30am on day 65 and the first one has poked his head out and it's a little normal baby.

>>6:30am on day 65 and the first one has poked his head out and it's a little normal baby.
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Congrats! I do highly recommend that you invest in a infrared type temp gun. I think your thermometers are off by about five degrees. Take care.
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Best regards,
AlanColesReptiles

The first baby that is coming out got about three quarters of the way out and we realized his umbilical cord was tangled around his body. We figured out how it was tangled and had to get him to back up into the egg to slip the cord back over his head. He isn't tangled anymore but it seems like he may have been like this for some time because he is quite skinny and most of his yolk sac is still intact. Should we try to let him stay in the egg a few more days to absorb that yolk or will he come out and need to be fed before his first shed. The other babies aren't even out yet and we can already see he is only about half as big around as them.

Here are some pictures of the baby with the cord wrapped around him, we got him untangled and he is now back in his egg, hopefully absorbing the rest of that yolk sac. You can see how big the yolk sac still is and how skinny he is in the last two pics.

If needed you can tie off the umbilicus with a piece of dental floss or fishing line close to it's body. Then, cut the umbilicus on the yolk side. This is needed when you cannot un-tangled the neonates.

If it doesn't need to be cut and doesn't absorb the yolk I would offer it a fuzzy mouse. If it doesn't eat I would force feed it a pinky mouse or 2 prior to its first shed. It looks like it will need it. If it's big enough force feeding a pinky rat is also an option.

As of now, I would wait and see if it absorbs the yolk.

Best of luck!
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Best regards,
AlanColesReptiles