Arpolis
Corn Snake Breeder
Sorry if this story is sad but I believe recording all experiences for the sake of knowledge. I had a clutch of eggs by a virgin female and experienced male late last year. 6 of the good eggs all hatched around the 90 day mark and all looked great. There were two eggs left in the incubator with one shrinking and turning more and more yellow. I eventually cut that one to see it had nothing in it so just a slug that I never separated since it was in the middle of the stuck together clutch. There was one egg left and it was the biggest and best looking egg there. So I left her be thinking her to be a late bloomer.
Today I attempted to candle her because we are going over 100 days now incubating. The egg itself looked super good and plump with at the top of the egg what looked like where the internal air bubble is that the snake should pip through. When candled I could not see a thing. No light was shining through the egg and I could make out no veins where I could before. I decided to slit the egg open.
I slit right at the spot where the snake should have piped and easily found the thin membrane that is punctured by the snakes "egg tooth/scale". However I could not see the snakes head at all. She looked upside down and started to squirm. I quickly repositioned the sack so the snake was upright and made a small incision to break the sack.
This is where I notice major problems. In my hand the snake poked out what would have been a head and took her first breaths of air. But stretching the neck out into the air is all this poor thing could do. First there are no eyes or nose at all. There is what looks like a lower jaw that moved with breathing. Down the spine she was horribly kinked the entire length of her body. She lived in my hand for countless moments as I studied her for signs of a continuing life but each moment seemed a struggle for her to move and breath. (This was a very hard moment for me)
She was euthanized earlier with a CO2 chamber and now rests peacefully under ground to hopefully become one with nature and be a benefit to mother earth.
I was surprised the whole clutch went as long as it did to see pippies. I used the same methods for incubating with the same male and different female before and had relatively quick hatching times with really great success rates and never kinked babies. There was one day when I came home from work that I noticed that the temp in the incubator spiked up to 89*F and the rheostat gauge had been moved up. So the eggs where like that for many hours. That is the only oddity to the incubation period I had recorded.
Good news is I have 4 healthy males and 2 healthy females from this clutch. And man they are big compared to prior baby corns I have hatched. So I have high hopes for all of them and I am sure they are all going to be happy healthy snakes life long.
If anyone else has theories as to how the above may have happened or if this could have been prevented by some precautionary step then I am happy to discuss.
Today I attempted to candle her because we are going over 100 days now incubating. The egg itself looked super good and plump with at the top of the egg what looked like where the internal air bubble is that the snake should pip through. When candled I could not see a thing. No light was shining through the egg and I could make out no veins where I could before. I decided to slit the egg open.
I slit right at the spot where the snake should have piped and easily found the thin membrane that is punctured by the snakes "egg tooth/scale". However I could not see the snakes head at all. She looked upside down and started to squirm. I quickly repositioned the sack so the snake was upright and made a small incision to break the sack.
This is where I notice major problems. In my hand the snake poked out what would have been a head and took her first breaths of air. But stretching the neck out into the air is all this poor thing could do. First there are no eyes or nose at all. There is what looks like a lower jaw that moved with breathing. Down the spine she was horribly kinked the entire length of her body. She lived in my hand for countless moments as I studied her for signs of a continuing life but each moment seemed a struggle for her to move and breath. (This was a very hard moment for me)
She was euthanized earlier with a CO2 chamber and now rests peacefully under ground to hopefully become one with nature and be a benefit to mother earth.
I was surprised the whole clutch went as long as it did to see pippies. I used the same methods for incubating with the same male and different female before and had relatively quick hatching times with really great success rates and never kinked babies. There was one day when I came home from work that I noticed that the temp in the incubator spiked up to 89*F and the rheostat gauge had been moved up. So the eggs where like that for many hours. That is the only oddity to the incubation period I had recorded.
Good news is I have 4 healthy males and 2 healthy females from this clutch. And man they are big compared to prior baby corns I have hatched. So I have high hopes for all of them and I am sure they are all going to be happy healthy snakes life long.
If anyone else has theories as to how the above may have happened or if this could have been prevented by some precautionary step then I am happy to discuss.