Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Can someone please help with info, an explanation, idea, something?
This was my first attempt at breeding my corn snakes (which actually
seemed easy). I incubated them at ~80 degrees using a homemade incubator
set-up provided to me by someone with lots of experience. The eggs have
started to hatch after 8 weeks. The problem is that many of the hatchlings
appear to have "lumps on their backs" or "bends in their spines". The
local pet shop snake expert told me that it would be best to destroy them.
He said they would likely have eating problems and would die if they had
been born this way in the wild. I want to be humane and don't want them to
suffer, but this has been devastating to me. Was it just nature or did I do
something? I take very good care of my adult snakes and they are very healthy.
Before my husband has me committed, can someone offer me some advice?
Thanks so much.

I had the same thing happen to me last year. Out of four eggs, one was normal, 2 were kinked, one never hatched. If you do a search of both the new and old forums you should find quite a few threads related to kinks in the spine.

The most common theory expressed is that the kinks are related to incubation temperatures. I've seen other threads attribute kinks to some type of bacterial infection occuring during incubation,even breeding readiness of the mother, I don't think anyone knows absolutely for sure. Putting them down now may be the kindest thing you can do. While I tried my best, both of the kinked babies I had eventually died in the first year.

Bob

Thanks for the info. I have 15 eggs, and of the 6 that have
completely emerged, only 2 appear to be fine. I had my
husband destroy the other 4 for me last night, but wanted
to find out as much as I could before I went home from work
today. I'll do a search and see what I find. Thanks again.

I'm not sure why they would have had kinks if you incubated them at 80 degrees. Are you sure that really was the temp, or could the thermometer not have been placed in the right spot and you actually incubated them at a higher temp? Considering you said they hatched after 8 weeks (56 days) leads me to believe they may have been incubated at too high a temp. I think that if you did incubate them at 80, it would have taken about 65-70 days instead of 56 days to pip. It could also be genetic.

If I were you, I would try to feed them and if they keep the food down then you can keep them as pets, but definitely don't ever try to breed them. I wouldn't destroy them yet. But that's just me. If you did want to get rid of them, I would try to find a person who has a snake that needs to eat other snakes so at least they don't totally go to waste.
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alstiver@hotmail.com

1.0 '01 Hypo snow cornsnake (Tesla)
0.1 '02 Ghost (pastel) cornsnake (Banshee)
1.1 '02 Bloodred cornsnakes (Desi and Luci Too)
0.0.18 '03 American toads
0.0.3 Goldfish (Kabuki, Isamu, and Yuki)
1.0 American Eskimo mutt (Rusty)

They actually started hatching on day 58. But I'm certain
that the incubator was a consistent 80 degrees, and I'm so
"anal retentive" about my snakes that I had 3 thermometers
in the incubator. Since the kinks seemed pretty bad and were
located about an inch behind the head (one even had 2 kinks),
I went ahead and asked my husband to destroy them last night.
But since I still have 9 more eggs to hatch/emerge, I'll
keep your suggestions in mind. Thanks for the reply.

Hard luck! Destroying the kinked babies is probably the best thing to do. But it's not easy. 8-(

I'm sceptical of the theory that high temperature causes the kinks because I've incubated corn eggs on a day/night cycle -- 90 F day and mid 70's F night. No kinks and up to 100% hatches.

My own theory is that nutrition is the key. Here are some things that are known:

1) Breeder female vertebrates (from humans to trout) have greater nutritional needs than nonbreeding females.

2) A common result of nutritional deficiency is an increase in birth defects and infertility.

3) Wild rat snakes are eager to take eggs and baby birds.

Do the wild rat snakes get something from eggs and baby birds that is not as available from rodents? Would an occasional newly hatched chick help to provide those nutrients? I don't know the answers to these questions. Maybe someday I can run a test, but that won't be soon.

Paul Hollander

Thanks for your input. Since I didn't really feel that 80 degrees
was too warm, your nutritional theory might be right on. I'll
try to do some research and find out what I can do for my female
so this doesn't happen again. By the way-she laid 10 more eggs
Saturday morning. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for better
luck this time. Like you said, destroying them is just too
hard!!!