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I think I flipped my clutch!! HELP!

T

Thickthroat

New member
I am so devistated!!! When I went to take the eggs out I accidentally dropped them from about 1 foot in the air. I didn't see them fall (don't ask why I'm already beating myself up about it!!) and I didn't make a mark on the tops!! I know your supposed too! Now I keep comparing my pictures back and forth and I think they're flipped!! This tragety happened about 3 hours after she finished laying her last egg. Do you think they looked flipped? To me it seems like they need to be flipped over and then they'd look like they're in the same lay out form. Do they have any chance of surviving if they are flipped?? I just wish I could do something but I don't even know if they're flipped for sure! I feel sooooooooo bad!! These are my first eggs.

Also they look more yellow in the other picture but I think that could be the lighting of the picture but could it be that they're turning yellow cause they're dying?
 
I can't tell from the picture. All you can do is make your best guess. If the eggs were really fresh you may be alright. The embryo doesn't attach itself to the egg for a little while after it is laid.

Good luck.
 
wade said:
I can't tell from the picture. All you can do is make your best guess. If the eggs were really fresh you may be alright. The embryo doesn't attach itself to the egg for a little while after it is laid.

Good luck.
Click to expand...


She started laying around 2am and got done at 7am and this happened at 11am. I CANT BELIEVE I DID THIS!! I've been waiting for these eggs for 2 years!!!!
 
Man what a bummer. Since you have no markings and the pictures aren't helping that much you better leave them alone. Wait a few days and candle them with a flashlight to check for vein development. You will know if they are alright then. I wish the best for you and keep us updated on them.
 
This early in incubation isn't going to make a difference as I've seen females move their clutches around worse than that when I peek at them, waiting for the 12-24 hours for them to finish laying before I separate her from her clutch.. In fact, I read somewhere last breeding season that someone experimented with some snake eggs, flipping, or periodically rotating, some in a clutch and not others, and they all hatched perfectly fine.
 
Really? That gives me some hope. I just really hope they're ok. I have learned my lesson... Be VERY careful and make marks!!
 
I was just reading about egg position in Kathy Love's book, and I will quote her:

Eggs never have to contend with rotation in the wild; they are left in the same position in which they're deposited for the whole incubation period. This allows embryos to develop the entire time in a stable position within the egg. A small pocket of air forms inside the uppermost area of a developing egg that it is important not to disturb once the embryo starts to grow. The first several days after laying are much less critical, so try to do all moving/adjustments to eggs right away so later rearranging is unnecessary.
 
I wouldn't worry a whole lot about it. This early in the process, they should be fine. I don't like to admit it, but last year I dropped an entire clutch of Milk Snake eggs. Fortunately they all survived the fall and less than two months later, they all hatched.

I think your fine!

Wayne
 
Relax and take a deep breath. I droped my incubating contaner which had a clutch in it about 4 feet into some clothes many years ago. They were old school bloods crossed to okeetee . They were about a month old and about 85 to 90 % of the eggs hatched, which is normal for me to get 75 to 100 % hatch rate from a clutch.
 
No worries, just like everybody else said you are well within the safe window for flipping eggs. They are tough little buggers. I'll bet every breeder out there has their own story of dropped eggs myself included. Everyone I've ever heard turned out just fine. Of course because you dropped them the hatchling we hatch out to forever crawl upside down but that's not so bad, right?:roflmao:

Terri
 
So this is the reason/way breeders separate the stuck together piles of eggs? It can be done safely early on in the development cycle of the egg? By separating the eggs it provides a more even heat and humidity across the eggs so most will pip around the same time (meaning top of the pile if not separated will hatch a day or two sooner than the bottom eggs)?
 
I don't separate my eggs or make any attempt to. I don't think I have ever heard of anyone who does. Everything I have read says to do it for fear of damaging the eggs.
 
There is pictures all the time on here and other sites of a entire clutch of eggs and each one is placed on their own in the medium/container. I haven't separated my clump either. I have taken the slugs off a clump though very easily. I had one clump of eggs last year hatch out over a 2 day period with the top ones first and the bottom ones last.
 
I don't separate but I know a lot of people who do. It does help the eggs hatch at a more uniform rate and it is easier when using hatching medium like vermiculite or perlite. I'm always afraid I'll tear an egg so I just leave them alone. My thought is the less human intervention the better.

Terri
 
I've seen the pictures but always assumed they were laid that way or separated while still wet. I wouldn't do it myself.
 
My snakes have laid eggs separately only once and I put them in the incubator that way, all lined up pretty. Most of the time they lay them in a clump so I just incubate them that way. They do hatch over a few days instead all at once when clumped.
 
wade said:
I've seen the pictures but always assumed they were laid that way or separated while still wet. I wouldn't do it myself.
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Wade there is a art to separating the eggs At first when I tried I popped a few eggs. Then I learned how to roll the stuck egg back and forth and watched to see how they were taring apart so not to take to much shell off of one of the eggs. The problem with leaving them all stuck is a dead egg sometimes poisons all the eggs attached to it and sometimes not. Sometimes the eggs in the middle of the pile don't get enough moisture and die or produce a small hatchling with a huge egg sack.


I do it every year with no problems. only the last 2 years I had no trouble this year and since I switched to Sphagnum so no troubles this year. I went back to using what worked for me in the beginning Sphagnum moss.
 
wax32 said:
My snakes have laid eggs separately only once and I put them in the incubator that way, all lined up pretty. Most of the time they lay them in a clump so I just incubate them that way. They do hatch over a few days instead all at once when clumped.
Click to expand...

wrong, I get clutches that hatch over a few days and I separate my eggs. It has nothing to do with being separate or clumped. I have had clumped clutches do the same.
 
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