To cut or not to cut??

Those ones with the slits are alive. They cut those slits with their egg tooth. You'll see yoke slowly oozing out of them and there will be bubbles (like Doug mentioned) on some of them. That is from the snake breathing, which means it has already had its head out a little but went back in. Those ones should be fine. Good luck with them.

Originally Posted by RossCA

Those ones with the slits are alive. They cut those slits with their egg tooth. You'll see yoke slowly oozing out of them and there will be bubbles (like Doug mentioned) on some of them. That is from the snake breathing, which means it has already had its head out a little but went back in. Those ones should be fine. Good luck with them.

That's right, Ross. Every time they feel the box or lid getting clunked around and messed with, it only makes them want to duck back down in the egg and prolong the process of coming out. When I have to mess with lids to check for heads sticking out, I either look through the side of the opaque plastic box, or SLOOOOWLY take the lid off without them noticing any distubance, then slowly and gently put the lid back down the same way.


~Doug

Yep, that's what I do, try to disturb them as little as possible. Sometimes I try to get pictures while they are piping, so I'll open the container as slow as possible and they will often keep their heads out. If they go back in, I just wait and sneak up real slow with the camera. But, I find that really interesting how that one you had went back in and got its self tangled up and drowned. That would be a very good reason just to observe them through a see through container. When you are new to it, its so hard not to observe them often.

Haha, I can't stop going in there and checking them out!!

I know this was a few months ago, but I'm curious how these guys turned out... any luck?

Actually not that good. Out of 10 eggs, 7 went full term and never hatched. 3 came out just fine and are awesome looking. Out of the second clutch, 1 out of 5 hatched with no problems. The others all went full term and never hatched. They were all fully developed inside the egg, but dead. :-(

That's strange. I haven't heard of that happening to the majority of the clutch before, but then again, I'm not the most experienced.

Yeah, I am pretty bummed about it.
Maybe, it was something I did.