Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well finally, last night my corn eggs started to pip. Yesterday afternoon I noticed one egg sweating and it had turned quite dark... then in the evening while I was examining it out of another egg pops a nice amel head. (didn't know the two parent snakes were het for amel!)

Opened up the little dark sweaty egg this morning and the one next to it (had slit the night before, but baby never came out, seemed dead)... and sure enough both were dead. The little dark sweaty egg was a very large baby snake, with perhaps one kink (couldn't tell really)... the other one that had slit but never come out, had his little tongue hanging out one side of his mouth and had two or three obvious kinks. Since those two eggs were attached to the two most questionable (shrunken for two weeks, top halves covered in thick mold) I went ahead and opened those up to.... When the little snakes inside moved, I placed the eggs back in the egg box... let nature take it from there. Well one of those babies immediately crawled out of the egg.... poor thing.... massively kinked. The other hasn't poked his head out, but he's in the "worst" egg of all. Not sure if this whole clump was affected by the mold, or if the whole clutch is going to be kinked due to the higher temperatures at teh beginning of their incubation. (AC Failure). So far two of the remaining six eggs are pipped with their occupants looking out at the world. The little amel seems to be fine... its head anyway, and the other seems a little "weird" --lolling half out of the egg, leaning on the side of its head--so I am preparing myself for the worst...a whole clutch gone bad.

Anyway, nice to know the parent snakes are het for amel.
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~Sasheena

My, oh my, that's disappointing for sure. I am such a novice at breeding having only one clutch to my credit. But just following your posts I know that past success is not always a predictor of future clutches. I hope the entire clutch isn't going to be a disaster for you. Let us know about the little surprise amels and how they look.

Well at this point in time I have 5 possible successes out of a clutch of 10. One seemed to be hatching fine, then keeled over... seemingly dead... so I pulled it fully out of the shell, saw that the little umbilical thingie was wrapped around it's body at the same spot where it is connected. I snipped the yolk off, and pulled the yolk away, and was shocked when the little baby started to revive! Alas, it wasn't enough, and after several "revivals" it finally stopped moving.

So far this is my results:

1 normal dead in sweaty egg. A few small kinks.
1 normal slit the shell and then died. umbilicus wrapped around middle. A few almost indiscernible kinks.
1 normal slit and half exited, before dying, umbilicus wrapped around middle, a few almost indiscernible kinks.
1 normal... opened up the moldy blackened egg.... severely kinked, euthanized.
1 normal.... opened up the moldy blackened egg..... noticed some severe kinks also on this one, so pulled it from the shell... it was half the size of the others, and was missing a lower jaw. it was euthanized also.
1 amel... first to pip... still sitting in the egg, no signs of distress.... BRIGHT pink tongue! *fingers crossed*
1 normal ... just pipped.... still sitting in the egg.

I manually pipped the rest, but haven't "investigated" what is inside. Interesting to me that the five that have come out of the egg are all normals. Statistically, I should have had 50% striped/motleys from this clutch. Of course 50% are still in the egg. (Papa is stripe het amel, momma was sold to me as normal het motley and surprised me as het amel.)

Hopefully tonight the rest of them will stick their heads out of the eggs.

My thought on this sad and disastrous clutch is that it is due to the heat spike they were faced with early in incubation. That is a lot more palatable an explanation than that I received two corns that were unrelated and they were compatibly "het for kink".

*sigh*

I can only hope the other two clutches (who also experienced the same heat spike, one at 2 days younger than the hatching clutch, and one at 4 days younger than the hatching clutch) won't be similarly effected. I have another clutch of kings currently hatching. 1 so far is dead in the egg (sweating and darkening and died at the same time as the first in the corn clutch), three seem fine with strong pip marks, and I'll just have to wait and see what I see.
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~Sasheena

Sasheena,
My thoughts are with you on this day--please keep the forum updated.
regards,
althea

I'm so sorry to hear of your trouble Sasheena. I know what a bummer it is. Just so you know~ you don't have to have TWO snakes het for kinks~ it could just be one.

This year I had three females throw from the same male. One of those females threw 22 beautiful eggs last year and hatched 19 beautiful babies from a different male. This year the three females bred to the one male (Amel named "Mr. Cleo" threw a total of 77 eggs. Only about 50 of those looked good when they were laid. Slowly over the next two months all the rest of those eggs molded and died. Only 4 (From 2 different females~ one was from the proven female from last year) made it full term but never hatched~ when I opened those 4 eggs they all contained kinked/deformed/partially formed babies.

I'm still looking forward to second clutches from these females with another male. I'm thinking of yanking a knot in that "Mr. Cleo! No~ I won't~ but he won't be breeding again!
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Cheryl Marchek
AKA JM
Check out my website at:
The Red Dragons Den

Well it wouldn't be conclusive, even if ALL the babies in the first three clutches end up deformed, to say that it is the male's fault. With a heat spike in early gestation, it would be impossible to know if that is the cause. I already lost one whole clutch to that, and have at least one baby dead in the egg from a kngsnake clutch that started hatching at the same time and had the same exposure to the heat spike. I have a second clutch from the parents of this "bad" clutch, and will probably have at least one if not two other clutches from other snakes who are double clutching, so that will be one way to learn if it is caused by the heat, or what? But in truth, too many variables to be certain that it is caused by genetics.

So far, the two sitting in the eggs like normal hatchlings seem fine (one has a domed skull, one is fine) and the other three are waiting to demonstrate their state of well being.

It's been heart breaking, but ah well, this is what happens. So far I have Pinky (the amel) and Funky (the dome headed one) and in my kingsnake clutch, one egg was mostly collapsed during the entire incubation, so I slit it and saw only yolk type stuff and thought for sure it was a dead end egg... then it stuck it's tiny head out the opening, and so that one is named "Puny" if it lives. (me and the kids always name all the hatchlings)

Anyway...as one person put it...there's always next year!
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~Sasheena

Sorry to hear that. I didn't want to post it earlier, but usually when an egg starts to sweat, it is a bad thing. It usually indicates the snake inside is dead or dying. In any case, there wasn't anything you could have done once they began to sweat. That just happens sometimes. I lost a gorgoeus hatchling as well last night, you never get used to it.

Well, I woke up this morning to find the little amel had left her egg. My goodness I felt like crying when I saw how perfect she was! No kinks, bulges, or other defects. She's a little perfect gem! Later on, after she's shed, I'll pop her to make sure she's a female, but she also has a very cute short tail... so I think she is a female. Perhaps it's odd to "jump for joy" when only one of a clutch of 10 eggs shows herself to be in perfect running condition.... but it's nice to not have the entire clutch be deformed.

Another of my corn clutches, my smallest clutch, is pipping, which is also exciting.

A thought I just had about the "bad clutch".... this is the clutch that got waterlogged by a too-damp substrate. Perhaps this is also a factor in the little babies not making it and/or coming out defective.
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~Sasheena