My California King eggs are hatching!!!

They were not supposed to start hatching for another week. I happened to look tonight, and one baby was stuck half way out of the egg...looked like circulation was cut off to the bottom half. I had to do surgery and open the slit in the egg. It was still attached to the yolk, so I cut if off (not too close) and it started crawling around just fine! Hope I did the right thing.
Others have slits, and one is sitting in the egg looking out and sticking out it's tongue occasionally. I understand that they may still be absorbing more of the yolk, so I'm in no hurry to get them out.
The first hatchers are some of the eggs we though may not be viable...very sunken. We have 11 in all and it looks like they may all hatch.
These eggs are from a 4ft California King we caught in our yard. We had no idea she was 'with egg'. She is so gentle we kept her for a few weeks, and the day before we were going to release her for lack of eathing...she laid eggs!!! We still have her also...gentle...great eater.
Wish me luck on the rest of the eggs!!!
Joe

Congratulations.

If I am worried about a baby snake having made too small a slit, I'll try to scare it into the egg, then use my little pair of scissors to make their slit bigger. I've never had one get stuck, but if I did, I would simply slit the egg larger, from a distant point and approaching where the slit is... I might actually be able to grab the new opening and rip it open until it joined the other slit. I did actually have to snip one umbilical this year, but that one was actually tied around the hatchling, and it would have died if I hadn't interfered. But so long as yours is slithering around, sheds, and eats and flourishes, I would say you did the right thing. Try not to disturb them too much (VERY easy to say, VERY hard to do!)

Post pictures when you have them! YOu can see pictures of my babies in the photo section! They are so cool! Love those cal kings!

First of all, congratulations!! It's always exciting to have new babies.

BUT, if that happens again, if a hatchling appears "stuck," LEAVE it alone! They're supposed to do that!! Baby snakes will peek their head out of the shell and remain there for another day or so soaking up nutrients from the egg. Always leave them in there until they are ready to come out and do not cut the cord to the yolk.

We are trying to decide what to do with all of them. We want to release some in the yard after a few months, but are worried they may not be able to fend for themselves after eating pinkies and pinkie parts.
We have though of trading with others if possible and maybe mating a few, but are not sure how to tell male from female.
Right now, we just want all of them to be healthy after they hatch!
Thanks for the advice...
Joe

If you got it from the wild in Arizona, you can't sell, but I know you can give them away. I'm here in Arizona myself! Perhaps we can trade or something. I have "non wild" cal kings that are easily sold in this state, but wild-type can't be sold here. Aren't Cal Kings great??!

I've gotten four of my cal king babies to eat, several are blue for their second shed and still have fat little yolk-tummies. My biggest "eater" is the one whose cord I had to cut (he got 1/2 the way out of the egg and just lay there, the cord of his umbilicus wrapped around him, almost cutting him in two, his little life draining away.) He was smaller than 8 inches, possibly only 6 inches long when he hatched out.... ate three times before he shed, twice since he's shed, and some of his siblings aren't yet ready to eat for the first time.

I'm not sure about releasing them into the wild. If I released ten cal king babies in teh wild, I would expect one to live to be a year old, if that.

Sasheena, a trade or two may be a good idea. You get new blood, and we can actually 'own' the snakes from you.

The kids have thoroughly enjoyed the experience...we were talking about breeding some if possible.

We have 4 out and healthy right now. Three are peaking out of the shell, and 4 more have not done anything yet. Still watching and waiting...

Joe

We now have 8 little California Kings! The last 3 eggs are in question right now...we're hoping though.

The kids are just loving this!!! What a great experience for them.
Joe

Final result - 8 hatched from 11 eggs. Not bad for people who have no idea what they are doing!

We let 6 go in our area, and are keeping the mom and 2 babies. What a great experience. They are all 3 great eaters, and have never even opened their mouths to us, much less tried to bite.

Enjoy your snakes, they are truely wonders!

Joe