Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My female laid 4 bad eggs this summer, after i went to study in spain and a friend is baby sitting some of my snakes, including oxy. As consequece of the first breeding laid other 4 eggs: 2 fertiles.
At about 100 days i adviced him to cut the eggs to help the hatclings: the first to go out of the eggs went back and drowned, my friend fearing the same fate for the second helped him to go out, but after 2 days died.
I don't think is good take out the hatchlings, but think that on some snakes is helpful open big "windows" on the eggs to avoid that hatchlings drowns in the eggs. For example last year i had many hatchlings heterodon drowning on the first deposition: all was perfectly formed but had the heads on the bottom of the eggs, i think that they simply could not find the way to go out, although many of them in a first moment had the heads out. On the second deposition to avoid this after they cut the eggs i did "windows" and i not lost nobody, and none of them had problems. What do you think about a little help to hatchlings?
regards
nazzza
mom and hatcling

Hi Nazza,

Sorry to hear you've had bad luck with eggs of this species. I've also had my failures with eggs from G. oxycephala and can relate.

I have a few papers on this species and a common point is that the eggs should be cut once the first hatclings start to slit their eggs. However, this can often take a lot longer then 100 days, so perhaps yours were cut too early? I recently heard of some Gonyosoma (Elaphe) janseni eggs that took 130 days to hatch. This species is also known to demonstrate similar incubation problems in captivity.

However, some breeders have mentioned that the only instances where they've had hatchlings thrive is when they hatched entirely on their own.

So I think the "windows" are a good idea if I understand what you mean. But I also think we need to continue experimenting with different egg incubation protocols until we figure out under what conditions Gonyosoma hatchlings can hatch on their own.
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My female laid 4 bad eggs this summer, after i went to study in spain and a friend is baby sitting some of my snakes, including oxy. As consequece of the first breeding laid other 4 eggs: 2 fertiles.
At about 100 days i adviced him to cut the eggs to help the hatclings: the first to go out of the eggs went back and drowned, my friend fearing the same fate for the second helped him to go out, but after 2 days died.
I don't think is good take out the hatchlings, but think that on some snakes is helpful open big "windows" on the eggs to avoid that hatchlings drowns in the eggs. For example last year i had many hatchlings heterodon drowning on the first deposition: all was perfectly formed but had the heads on the bottom of the eggs, i think that they simply could not find the way to go out, although many of them in a first moment had the heads out. On the second deposition to avoid this after they cut the eggs i did "windows" and i not lost nobody, and none of them had problems. What do you think about a little help to hatchlings?
regards
nazzza