• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Egg Questions

M

MTL Reptile

Ball Breeder
Joined
Mar 18, 2011
Messages
107
Reaction score
1
Points
0
Location
Mt. Laurel, NJ
i am still trying to get all the basics down for breeding. i thought of something so i figured i would ask:)
when the eggs pip, do you HAVE to cut them open. why or why not?
i have heard of the babies drying out and dying after the eggs are cut. why does this happen and how can i prevent it?
any other info you think i would need regarding the eggs would be a great help! thank you
andrew
MTL Reptile
 
You dont have to, but if the egg tooth breaks inside the egg then the babies drown, thats why we cut, but learn from my mistake dont cut untill more then one have pipped. I just lost 3 of 6 snakes due to exactly what you described, if all of them pip then no reason to cut.
 
Mine took for ever to emerge from there eggs just about a week when I seen the first one pip on Thurs then the other on Fri I cut the other 8 in that clutch I had no problems with the eggs getting dry I just kept the Humidity up and they all emerged just fine! I'm no expert by far that was my first clutch so I'm still learning as well but it was pretty simple!

good luck!!!
 
so dont cut until at more than one have piped? but if all pip, dont cut? they still have the chance of their tooth losing even after they pip correct?
if the eggs and snake start to dry, how do i add the water? spray the egg? vermiculite? or surroundings?
still a little confused on when and when not to cut them all... thank you
 
MTL Reptile said:
so dont cut until at more than one have piped? but if all pip, dont cut? they still have the chance of their tooth losing even after they pip correct?
if the eggs and snake start to dry, how do i add the water? spray the egg? vermiculite? or surroundings?
still a little confused on when and when not to cut them all... thank you
Click to expand...

As far as cutting, everyone has their own beliefs, and the resulting routine. Personally, I cut all of mine at day 56 and then keep a close eye on them. If they start to dry, you can add some water to the egg itself, but only a few drops at a time (this is a risk of cutting them too early). Jerry's idea of using water already in the incubator sounds like a great one. The only thing that I would do different is to suggest using distilled water. It's something that I started doing several seasons ago, as it has no pollutants or anything else that could be found in tap-water.

Plenty of people prefer to let them pip on their own. This means that the snake is exiting the egg naturally and there is no cutting to worry with. There is also no chance of the egg drying out (unless your vermiculite, or whatever medium you choose, dries out).
 
I'll add one question or comment, and by no means the expert either as I just learned from my last clutch and now with another clutch due (day 62 -jungle burms). If you cut as I did on the last clutch, you should pull the snakes head out to get it breathing air. When you cut into the egg, you have a good possibility of cutting the blood line, hence circulation that is keeping the baby alive, if it's head is not pull to get air, the baby might drown. Again, I'm not the expert and I've cut two clutchs and lost about 6 each time before I found this out, I know shortly if this was my error, because I will cut and pull just the heads out in the next day or two on my jungle burms. Although I'm unsure how long they will incubate since they are part retic.
 
I've never pulled heads up after cutting, I let the snake do that :shrug01:

The water in my incubator is all bottled water(pure and clean):D
I guess I worded that wrong but Matt is correct, when adding water to the egg use distilled(bottled) water.
I keep an extra bottle in the incubator just for adding to tubs or the eggs eventually if they need some.
 
Oh yeah, the heads...I've never done that, either. I try to keep my grubby little fingers off the snake, unless I'm poking it to make sure it's alive, and I don't recommend doing that too much. Just as I used distilled water (I understand bottled water being better than tap, but even that can have additives that I'm not sure how they might effect the animal inside an egg) to keep from contaminating the eggs with foreign objects/substances, your fingers can do far worse, in that regard.

In my experience, healthy snakes will poke their heads out when they're ready. BTW, when I cut eggs, I only cut a small window. I know some like to cut half the egg off, but (IMO) you shouldn't do that until much closer to day 60.
 
I never pulled heads out either and they all came out fine. I cut around day 52 and then just put them back in the incubator and haven't had any issues. I bought a breeder female from a guy recently and he showed me a clutch that he cut on day 29! He said he's done it before and they all do fine. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself! :shrug01:
 
JoeVerC said:
I never pulled heads out either and they all came out fine. I cut around day 52 and then just put them back in the incubator and haven't had any issues. I bought a breeder female from a guy recently and he showed me a clutch that he cut on day 29! He said he's done it before and they all do fine. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself! :shrug01:
Click to expand...

To edit my last post, I cut on day 52, also. Not 56 (seems like it's been FOREVER, as I continue to wait this season, so I guess I forgot the details!! lol). But day 29 sounds insane! :eek: Surely he meant #49!!

I also meant to put an "IMO" next to my statement regarding distilled vs bottled. There's probably no difference; it's just how I've always done it. There are lots of ways to reach the ultimate goal. You'll figure out what works for you by experience. Other's advice can help get you there with less failures, but ultimately you'll find your preferred way of doing it. Just have fun! That's what it's all about!
 
No I'm pretty sure it was 29 days? He wasn't sure who the father was and asked me to take a look. They had no coloring or pattern yet. I almost fell over when he said 29 days. He said he always does that and the snakes always come out fine. I thought I was impatient!
 
I don't cut any of my eggs unless I think something might be wrong (i.e. several days past their "due date"). I did cut some eggs last year out of impatience and I regretted doing it not long after. I found cutting eggs to be problematic. I maternally incubate all of my ball clutches so it's important for the eggs to remain intact until the babies are ready to come out on their own. I've never experienced a baby losing an egg tooth in its egg, myself. That's not to say it couldn't happen but it seems to be such a rarity that it's not a concern for me.


I've seen quite a few cutting videos on youtube and many of them just make me wince. Some of the prehistoricpets vids actually turn my stomach. He's so quick with that razor blade and then fishes around in the egg to pull the heads out. I just can't imagine manhandling still-in-egg babies that way. Just my opinion, of course.
 
thank you for all the help guys!!
so when they pip, i dont need to cut them? because when i saw people cut, they were all piped....
also, how should i go about cutting.... how deep, how much, ect. thank you
 
If you cut, barely get through the egg, take your time, there's no rush. Cut on the top too, the baby is usually at the bottom, but again, you never know, or in the case I had two weeks ago, there where twins and cutting more than just the egg itself would have resulted in a possible injury to the snake. You only need a whole big enough for the head to get out, I use a quarter size whole for Burms
 
There is no NEED to cut the eggs early - people do that because they want to know what's inside.
If they're cutting after the snake has pipped - what's the point? In most cases, a snake that is going to die during the hatching process does so before pipping; due to an inability to fully slit the egg. If there's a head popped out, leave it alone.
Not that this is any of my business, of course :bleep:
 
Back
Top