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Well, I have some bad news.
Unfortunately, one of the babies died last night or early this morning. It was one from the "pinky eater" group. I can't really discern any reason for the death. There was no sign of stress or illness that I noticed, and aside from not eating this week (which could be related, but is too broad an occurrence to put too much stock in) I can't think of any sign of illness from the upcoming time period. Aside from the skipped meal on Monday, this one was eating and pooping normally, and behaved the same as all the others. I double checked temps, and everything is the same as the other tubs. I'll keep a close eye on all the others, but my thoughts at this time are that it was a fluke occurrence, like a congenital defect that finally compromised the animal's health. The death looked fairly sudden (the snake was twisted up and upside down), so that would be in keeping with my theory.
I took the opportunity to examine the animal more thoroughly than I have been examining the live siblings, largely due to a fear of inflicting stress. He was exactly 20 inches long, and weighed 16 grams. He was also WAY too small to probe safely, and I had to dissect the tail region to ascertain that he was, in fact, a male.
I'll be keeping a close eye on the rest of the babies, but here's hoping that it was a one-off occurrence.
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