Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was wondering how many days you usually wait until people normaly wait to cut the eggs? I think I'll wait until they pip, but I'm just curious.
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Justyn Miller
Intense Herpetoculture
www.IntenseHerp.com (Proudly hosted by Fauna Net)

Dont Cut " Dont get greedy like most of the people on this forum that cut there eggs .. They like to count there money right away so 50 days roll around and there hanging over there eggs with there tongues out and a surgical sizzor or razor .. My advice to you is just let it happen naturally , they will start to hatch on there own and you should only be concerned about cutting eggs that go a few days longer then the ones that hatch on there own .. If you dont know what you are doing there is a great chance you can kill the animals .. Good Luck !

I doubt I'll cut with a pip, never have in the many herps I've bred. I'm just curious what some of the ball breeders here do.

>>Dont Cut " Dont get greedy like most of the people on this forum that cut there eggs .. They like to count there money right away so 50 days roll around and there hanging over there eggs with there tongues out and a surgical sizzor or razor .. My advice to you is just let it happen naturally , they will start to hatch on there own and you should only be concerned about cutting eggs that go a few days longer then the ones that hatch on there own .. If you dont know what you are doing there is a great chance you can kill the animals .. Good Luck !
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Justyn Miller
Intense Herpetoculture
www.IntenseHerp.com (Proudly hosted by Fauna Net)

I think the best thing to do is be really patient and just let it happen naturally , its much more rewarding that way .. Besides GOD" forbid you did cut an egg and it died and it happened to be something you really worked hard for ..

Why cut at all?
The little snakes are perfectly capable of making it out on their own.

There isn't a big guy with a razor cutting wild snakes out of their eggs.

If it's the curiousity of what you have waiting for you, be patient.
To me it seems more fun that way.

All I am asking is how many days do people usually wait. I'm not about to but a knife to my eggs to find out, I'll wait. This question has just been bugging me lately. If I remember correctly people usually wait 55 days.

>>Why cut at all?
>>The little snakes are perfectly capable of making it out on their own.
>>
>>There isn't a big guy with a razor cutting wild snakes out of their eggs.
>>
>>If it's the curiousity of what you have waiting for you, be patient.
>>To me it seems more fun that way.
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Justyn Miller
Intense Herpetoculture
www.IntenseHerp.com (Proudly hosted by Fauna Net)

Justyn;

I'd like to ask you this:

Why is it that you want to cut the eggs? Is it because you think everybody else does it or do you have a good reason for doing that?
Just curious to find out what all the egg cutting is about with Ball Pyhton breeding, because I have never seen it like this with any other reptile breeding.

Rob Reiding.

Ok, let's backtrack. I am not interested in cutting my eggs at this time, but I will cut the eggs after one or two pip. Why? At that time I would like to see what's in the other eggs. Will it harm them? Unlikely. What I was curious about was people who cut the eggs prior to pipping. It's just been a question I've been trying to answer in my head for a month or two, I've always thought it was 55 days. Well, I found out I was right. The question was realy bugging me lately, so now I know.

>>Justyn;
>>
>>I'd like to ask you this:
>>
>>Why is it that you want to cut the eggs? Is it because you think everybody else does it or do you have a good reason for doing that?
>>Just curious to find out what all the egg cutting is about with Ball Pyhton breeding, because I have never seen it like this with any other reptile breeding.
>>
>>Rob Reiding.
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Justyn Miller
Intense Herpetoculture
www.IntenseHerp.com (Proudly hosted by Fauna Net)

Hello,

Over the years we have lost many Colubrids by waiting for the baby to pip on its own. After a few frustrating seasons we followed someone's good advice to cut them all after 1 or 2 pipped on their own. This has worked out much better. There have still been times where the babies was too weak or have developmental problems such as kinking or having been two-headed, etc.

A few years back when we began working with Ball Pythons I was so nervous about the babies being able to cut out on their own and dying in the egg that I called on a friend that had much experience with BP eggs. He advised me to cut the eggs at about 53-56 days. I did so and didn't lose any babies. I was SOOO nervous because we had spent SO much money on BP morphs that I didn't want bunches of Het. Albinos, Hypos etc. to have problems getting out of the egg.

After several seasons and several hundred eggs... I can honestly say that I have ALWAYS CUT EVERY EGG! I cut some on day 55 to have them emerge around day 57-58. I have also cut some as early as day 49 to have them emerge around day 57-58.

If you look at a Ball Python egg inside, you will notice that the egg has a thin skin-like membrane around the inside hugging close to the shell. The baby is then inside of another skin-like sack (similar to baby Boas) that encompasses the yolk and baby. When we cut eggs we only penetrate that outer sack and the baby tears through the second sack when it is ready to come out. We also have no ventilation in our egg boxes (they are Styrofoam with glass lids) so there is little chance of the eggs actually drying out.

Can Ball Pythons hatch on their own without "Edward Scissorhand" interference? I have no doubt that most all can. Since I can't recall a bad experience cutting a Ball Python egg of my own and I have had no problems with hatching viable, heathy and robust babies from manually pipped eggs, I will continue to do it this way until a reason to stop presents itself.

This is a lot like the maternal incubation discussions. Everyone may be right, it is just an issue of methodology. I'm sure that there are many breeders who can give you a horror story about cutting eggs but I can't so there is my opinion based on my methods which have been successful for me.

Every Ball Python that we have produced since 2001 has been manually pipped the earliest being 49 days and the latest, 53. No negative stories from me but that doesn't mean that problems can't exist.

I hope this sheds some light on it for you Justyn!

Good luck!
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Sean Bradley
Owner : EbN
www.ExoticsByNature.com
www.BallPythonMorphs.com
www.BoaConstrictorMorphs.com
www.CornSnakeMorphs.com

That is a very good explaniation Sean and the first one I have heard so far with real and valid reasons for cutting Ball Python eggs eggs. Just another thing though; has anyone considered that a weak animal that normally would not be strong enough to hatch now is able to grow up and reproduce with the chance of breeding offspring that is even weaker?

Rob Reiding.

I don't know about corns, but I don't think there's enough data out there that supports increased fatalities in non manually pipped eggs. I really don't pip mine if I don't have to. This past week, I had a clutch hatch. The first to pip was Tuesday, the last to pip was Friday. All hatched fat, dumb and happy. Now, I WILL manually pip at 60 days. Of course much of this is prefaced with the temps they have been incubated at. For example, if my temps repeatedly dropped to 85 degrees, I would expect the development of the eggs to be later than a clutch consistent at 90 degrees.
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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles