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help with new babies

T

tkbalt

New member
I have hatchlings for the first time and I'm a little unsure as to their care. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Four out of six eggs hatched. The other two eggs are still looking healthy, but aren't showing any pre-hatching indentation like the others did. I'm a little worried about these two eggs, but they were the two that were separate from the rest of the clutch that was stuck together, so perhaps they'll hatch a little bit later. I'm considering razor blading them, however, since I've heard that they're really all supposed to hatch at the same time.

Also, how soon do I feed the new hatchlings? They hatched this morning. I've put them in their own very small enclosure. Should I feed them pinkies? Pieces of pinkies?

Thanks very much for any help!
 
hope this helps

IMHO: alot of the hatchlings that ive raised are fed after their first shed which is usally about five to seven days after hatching. i usally try to feed them day old pinks but day old pinks are hard to get unless you raise your own mice. you could probably get away with feeding them pinkie heads that are defrosted. beware some newborn hatchlings can be picky eaters and may require various types of simulation to eat. if you encounter this problem feel free to ask what you can do as there are numerous ways to do it.

keep us posted on your hatchlings.
drizzt
 
Congratulations on the new babies! I wouldn't worry about the two unhatched eggs yet. They still looked healthy in the pictures, and cutting the eggs can often cause more harm than good. I would give them at least a week before resorting to cutting the eggs.

Feed the babies small pinkies after their first shed. If they can't handle whole pinkies, then try a pinkie head. Most of them can eat a whole small pinkie as their first meals, though. :)
 
You didn't really ask for this, but I'm going to offer some free advice (worth way more than you're paying for it :D). DON'T cut those eggs open!

The eggs are either not ready to hatch yet (they may have been a little farther away from the heat source than the others, and that would explain their being later to hatch), or they are just not right in some way. Either way, I would not open them up no matter how long they take.

It's been my sad experience that any snake that cannot get itself out of the egg has something seriously wrong with it, and if you try to help it in some way, you are only prolonging the time it takes for the snake, never meant to live in the first place, to die. It's sad, and very hard to keep your hands off of them, but it's best to just let things take their course. IMHO, of course.
 
Thanks very much to everyone for all the advice. I'll keep you updated on their progress. I'm so excited! :)
 
Looks like one of the two leftover eggs is hatching this morning already. It's nice to see it in progress, 'cause the other four were completely hatched by the time I saw them.

So, here's a genetics puzzle for you. The mom of these guys is a red albino (amelanistic). The dad is one of two males that I have, either a black albino (anerythristic) or a snow corn (both amelanistic & anerythristic). Any guesses, from the pics of the kids, which one is the dad? Is it possible to determine? I know there's a small possibility they're both the dad, but I'm hoping that's not the case.

Again, thanks for any help!
 
All of the non-amel hatchlings were sired by the anery male. That's for certain, because the snow would throw all amels with your amel female (unless she's also het for anerythrism, in which case they'd throw some snows too). It is possible that your male anery is het for amel, but that your female is not het anery, in which case they could throw some amels also, but there is just no way to know for certain.

All I can tell you for sure is the non-amel babies were sired by the anery male. Also it is not at all rare for multiple males to have sired different hatchlings within a clutch.

;)
 
As predicted, I'm having trouble getting the little guys to eat. Three of the six have shed (and those are the three I'm trying to get to eat), and the best I can do so far is to get one of them to curl up and go to sleep around a mouse head. I've tried whole pinkies, heads of pinkies, and shakin' 'em around a little to stimulate them. So far no one's eating anything. Advice is welcome. :)

TIA.
 
hello

Well the three that have shed might need up to a week or more to start eating. Sometimes.

You can try live pinkies. As much as feeding live is a BAD idea, it can make hatchlings eat. And then after they have eaten a few meals it is fairly easy to switch them over to thawed pinkies.

If you cannot get a stady stream of live pinkies for the next few weeks to fed them I suggest you get an anole, live or dead (the pet store can help you with this either way most likely) and scent the thawed pinkies or pinky heads. This should get them started.

If you want to try the bag method before going as far as scenting you can place each in a small paper bag with a pinkie and leave them alone overnight. this can help. A small box works too.

bmm
 
Getting hatchlings to eat.

First off, where/in what are you putting the hatchlings when you feed them? They should be in something small, such as a deli cup.
Put a pinky and a hatchling in a deli cup (with air holes) and a lid, then LEAVE IT ALONE for 24 hours. Make sure they are kept at a good temp for hatchlings, around 85-87 F. Your hatchlings are still very young and may not be ready to eat yet. If the pinky is uneaten after a day, wait at least 4 days and try again. After about 3-4 attempts at F/T pinky/pinky head in a deli cup, try a SMALL paper bag with the top folded over twice and paperclipped closed. Put the bag with the hatchling and pinky in another larger closed container in the rare case the hatchling finds an excape route out of the bag. Try this several times. Then start with live pinkies in deli cup, then paper bag. If a hatchling still won't eat, then go to brained F/T pinkies in the deili cup and then the bag. If it STILL won't eat, then try lizard scented in the deli cup and paper bag. As long as the hatchling looks good and is active, waiting over 2 months for it to eat can be normal, so don't panic. Getting hatchlings to eat is the most frustrating part of breeding corn snakes, but when you find the right combination for a particular hatchling, it's all downhill from there. Good luck, and just remember, not every snake is meant to grow up and you must learn to accept this fact of nature.
 
Thanks for all the advice. It's good to know that I have some time. The reptile expert at my local pet store said I pretty much had to get them to eat within 2 or 3 days after their first shed or they would die, which is one of the reasons I was freaking out a bit, but you guys have definitely put my mind at rest.

I'll try the putting them in a smaller space. So far I haven't been leaving them in with the pinkie very long, and they're in a small plastic feeding cage, not something as small as a cup or a bag. I'll give the tricks you guys mentioned a try and get back.

Thanks again!
 
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