2005 Season Results

Well the second baby is out. She's 14 inches long and is the absolute picture of her daddy:

Here's her picture:


Here's a picture of her daddy:

Well four more have come out, and 8 more are still trying to decide if they should come out of the egg...

I've been measuring the babies. (all except the one that died) #2 is 14 inches. The next three to come out of the egg are normal banded and I will be giving them away:
#3 (12 inches)


#4 (13 inches)


#5 (12.5 inches)


The sixth one out of the egg is also aberrant. The top-down view of the snake doesn't really show the way the bands end and there is a bold swath of black from jaw to tail on either side of this snake. I guess you could call it a "blacksided" king. (12.5 inches)


The next one is almost out and looks like it's another normal banded

Well almost all of the babies are out of their shells. One is left. I just noticed (and am embarrased to admit) that I put "Jester x Lucille" on the photographs. I even had a folder on my computer to store the photos that said "Lucille".... which is fairly interesting as the mother snake here is NOT my Ball Python Lucille, it is my Kingsnake Licorice. So if you notice a discrepency, that's why!

The 7th and 8th babies are banded. I didn't bother to measure their lengths yet:

#7:


#8


The 9th baby was very interesting because it has very thin little pin-bands and is somewhat aberrant. I like this one. I might end up keeping it if it's a female.


#10 is banded:


#11 is a super feisty aberrant baby. This one has already struck and bit me about five times. I like it when they're this feisty as babies. Of course all I can think is "ooh, I'm quaking in my boots." followed by a semi-sarcastic "How can I be scared of you, you silly thing, you're a WORM!" .... I'm so unkind! But they're SO CUTE when they think they're going to scare you off!


#12 is banded and also VERY feisty.


#13 is aberrant and was a lot more calm than the other babies:


And #14 is still hanging out in his/her shell.

The next clutch, Pegasus x Bishop is one I'm very excited to see hatch, that one should be pipping today sometime.

Nice clutch. I just love the black & whites no matter how the pattern is.

Don't you just love it when you make a mistake in your recordkeeping and it takes you awhile to notice it even when it is blatently obvious?

I love the black and white too. All of these should remain pure black and white since both parent snakes are pure black and white. No cream or yellow coloring.

And yes, my mistake with the labels was funny... even their little hatchling delicups had LUCILLE on them instead of Licorice. I guess it's been on my mind a lot that a guy is going to buy Lucille from us tomorrow, and our cat named Lucille will be captured and hopefully fixed. Too many animals named Lucille!

So far none of the rest of my clutches have started to hatch. My kings have started hatching on day 62 so far this year, and my three imminent clutches are on: Day 62, 59 and 58. I'm going to run out of places to put them. Between those three clutches I have 20 eggs!

I have learned to stack. Here's a pic of my stack of kings.

Well the last baby finally came out of it's shell... In actual fact I could see the fat yolk filled tummy and got tired of waiting for him to come out of the shell, so I tipped him out into his hatchling container...so his pick is sort of "ooey gooey". But as you can see he'd fully absorbed his yolk and was just being stubborn:



Well I had expected my next clutch to start hatching yesterday, but it fooled me and only started hatching in the last hour. There are SEVEN eggs, and so each of them (I hope) has a fifty percent chance of being albino. (IF the papa is het for albino).... the first one to pip is NOT an albino. Six more pips to go before I know if the papa is het for albino. And if none of them are albino, that just means that it's unlikely he's het for albino. It won't be 100%.

Nicely the first egg to hatch was the one that was "odd" ... it had a bulge in it like there was a weakness in the egg wall. Cutie so far as I can tell though.

Euphrates clutch is now at day 60, the last two eggs anyway, and Queenie's clutch is at day 59. It's SO exciting!

Two black-eyed noses are out.... 5 more eggies to go!

AS of this morning... three black eyed noses. Starting to look like no albinos this year!

Well one of the babies crawled out of the egg prematurely, before having absorbed ANY of the yolk. I was being VERY good and leaving them alone, not trying to disturb them and frighten them too early out of the egg, but alas, this one still spooked for whatever reason. It was crawling around the container on an "umbilical leash" and I was afraid it would pull it's innards out. Knowing that it was too late for it to crawl back into the egg and calmly absorb the yolk, I pinched the umbilical quite close to the snake's belly and snipped, leaving it pinched for a minute or so, in hopes of sealing off any blood vessels. There was very little blood, and the little skinny thing is wandering around the egg box. It's really interestingly patterned. I wouldn't expect any banded snakes ... this one is .... jeepers... out of time, will post more and a picture later