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Well I am happy to announce that all 6 of the 100% HET albinos hatched out fine.

Sure it would have been nice to get atleast 1 albino, but that is behind me now, and I am over it. It only makes me want to work even harder now!

I did not feel this way at first, I know I should have been just happy that they all hatched, but been there done that with my first clutch of 6. I thought for sure on the 2nd clutch I was going to get an albino.

I had so many NICE replies from everone, even some private emails. I read everthing I thank you for your moral support it really was MUCH needed in the last few days.

Man I felt shot down but after reading all the other stories from people I did not feel so sad. Infact I am going to work even harder now with my snakes.

Thank you again for all your moral support.

Back to the snakes! Of course since there were no albinos I wanted a lot of females from this clutch of 100% HET albinos.

I set my mind on 3, if I could get 3 females from 6 babies I would be very happy, anything more and I would be thrilled.

The first baby who pipped itself was a female.

The 2nd baby a male, hmm I was like OK no biggie. The 3rd out of the egg was around 3AM in the morning.

I was half asleep, but I kept checking the eggs every 1 1/2 hours by setting my alarm clock. I only do this because on my first clutch I found one of the babies wrapped around the heating coil in the hovabator.

No damage was ever done to the baby, but I was not going to let it happen with these 100% HETS.

So I begin to sex the 3rd snake and I am like half asleep. MALE! Damn I wrinkle my nose a little, I sex it one last time, but there is no mistaking its a male for sure.

Back to bed thinking about the 3 snakes, saying well I have 2 males and 1 female. Man I hope the next one is a female.

4:30AM the alarm goes off, another baby is out crusing, I begin to think should I sex it before I even wash off all the vermiculate? But I decide no, I'm paranoid that vermiculate could get into the vent or something, plus I am still half a sleep.

BINGO! its a FEMALE! Back to bed, feeling better, the score is even 2 females, 2 males.

6:00AM, another baby is out, feeling even more anxious now, wondering what the tie breaker is going to be. The thought of popping the snake again enters my mind even before washing the hatchling but I don't do it.

Well I go to pop the snake and for the first time I get shot in the face with urine, almost went in my eye! I am so tired I just wipe my face with my shirt, YES its a female, I pop 2 more times because I really wanna makesure the 5th tie-breaker baby is a female and it is.

Only one egg left, the biggest egg of all, the egg that was in the center clutch. BTW all the babies weighed 70 grams, much bigger then my first clutch. The nicest thing was that all the babies were uniform in size. There were no smaller or medium then larger ones like there was in my first clutch.

I decide to shut the alarm clock off and get some sleep. I cannot get up again for the last egg, even though its the BIGGEST egg.

I am happy to go to sleep with a smile because I have 3 FEMALES, and thats what I wanted. If the last baby is a female that is fantastic, but if not ohh well I was not going to sweat it.

Well I was glad I did shut the alarm clock off. The last baby did leave the egg until around 5:00PM.

This clutch was weird. First baby pips at day # 50 into incubation, leaves the egg on day # 51.

The remaining eggs were cut, the last 4 babies left the eggs aprox 2 hours apart, starting late in the afternoon on day # 53.

The last biggest baby took the longest, almost a full 2-days before leaving the egg near the end of day # 54.

Happy to report the last baby, also the biggest at 75 grams, is a female. The rest of the babies were 70 grams.

Here is a quick photo of the 4 females all 100% HET albino.

Here is a quick photo of the 2 males both 100% HET albino.

No news on the Pastel x Normal Clutch. The 4 eggs are really dented, I did cut the eggs a few days ago, there was no blood, but they looked under-developed. Turns out this incubator is running a little cooler, more around 88.7, were this last clutch was 89.4.

I think there alive, but I cannot tell, nor can I tell if there are any pastels. I think for sure the biggest egg (the one I poked around in the most) looks like a normal.

Will keep you updated. Thanks for reading this WHOLE post.

I know I have not responded to any of your posts although I have been following the threads. I am very happy that you have nice healthy babies. Hopefully they will prove out what you have been breeding for. They are very beautiful no matter what they are.

krawls

I too use hovabators....I too use 2 inches of vemiculite in the whole bottom and just put clutches in there without individual plastic boxes........I too keep them at about 89---90.....more or less...........and I too would have the babies crawl into the coils and die.....soooooo.....

when they start to pip....I take them out of the incubater and put them into a showbox on the shelf and let them hatch up there.....without heating element........maybe 3 pip from 6...I cut other 3..and put all eggs into a box.....or I put each one into their own box as they pip..........

.......temps don't have to be that exact.......

and they can be taken from incubator last day...mine are at 85 to 87 degrees..........

have fun....good luck.....keep all the 100% real hets you made yourself....you know what you got with them......

........good luck next year...keep us posted.......

Jeffrey Yohe..............
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.....wow....you people....really.....you are exactly like I thought.........

............right?

......................................................

Every breeder I know takes the eggs out of the incubator when they pip/hatch. For sure.

I take mine out when the first one pips, put them in a Rubbermaid with paper towel on the bottom and stick them on top of a rack in the adult snake room (90F). This prevents any crazy incubator incidents.

wouldn't it be better just to start the eggs in a container then into the hovabator? I can't be here to watch them all the time as I work 2 jobs so this is the only option to be safe I saw. Also I heard the hovabator alone dosen't hold humidity well so by putting them inside a container it should be easier to control that.

But I know within 3 days of when thye will hatch and after they pip they take 36-72 hours before they even THINK about leaving the eggs. If I can't check up on the eggs every 2 days, I don't think I should be breeding snakes.

.....hold too much moisture....make eggs too wet....if they drip onto eggs....eggs die......could make eggs too full ,,too much pressure....I am working with keeping eggs dryer so that baby balls eat better....yes..I think.*(as do others) that dryer eggs make better babies that eat and start better......worked for me for the first 4 clutches........last few didn't eat as well...and eggs were really sunk in and even dryer than the first 4............we'll see...more years of experiments.......

........the boxes take up too much room for me........I can squeeze in 4 or 5 clutches of ball eggs ,,depending on number and the way the female piles them up......
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.....wow....you people....really.....you are exactly like I thought.........

............right?

......................................................

2.4 is killer !

I hope you get odds like that with the pastels .
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2.0 50% het Caramel Ball pythons
1.0 Very dark Ball python
0.9 Ball Pythons
1.1 Thayeri Kings
0.0.1 Viper Boa
1.1 Axanthic looking felines...

Damon,

You have some really great looking Hets there and you should be very proud. It's such a great feeling to produce nice healthy animals, and everytime we see them Hets or visible Morphs we always get great big smiles! Good luck with your next clutch.

Debra and Diana
Camlon Reptiles