The Eggs are Hatching! Pictures!

[Catherine]

Actually to be more accurate, one baby snake has cut a tiny slit in his egg and stuck the tip of his nose out and has started breathing air.

It sounds more exciting to say the Eggs are Hatching!

After sticking his nose out, it still may be a day or two before he exits the egg. The others will do the same when they are ready. Snake births are a bit secretive. The egg box is still in the incubator, but I might bring it home tomorrow. The incubator is a safe place for them during hatching. It is temperature and humidity controlled. I won't disturb them until all the eggs have hatched. Baby snakes are very timid.

[LPC]

Best wishes for successful hatching!

[Tobi]

Good news. Yes I hope they all hatch out okay. It's getting interesting now. I shall be watching this page!

[Catherine]

I have brought the egg box home and I will try for pictures. It looks like there are six eggs. This is Pete and Sam's clutch. Pete is a pretty female, but she is small and never lays too many eggs. There were eleven, but some of her eggs failed.

One has hatched and I have seen him and he is dark coloured. He has been out for a few hours now so he is bold enough to crawl around in the box.

Three eggs have slits and the babies are air breathing. Just the tip of the nose peaks out then disappears. They will be out soon.

Two eggs have no sign of hatching, but look healthy, so we cut a fine slit in the side and there is definitely a baby in each egg.

The odd time we need to open an egg like that. It has to be done very carefully, so I just watched. Sometimes everything is fine and the baby is slow or is having trouble getting the egg open. Maybe the egg has a slightly thicker shell.
Sometimes there is a reason why the egg doesn't hatch on its own and it would never have hatched because something is wrong with the baby. I am always hopeful since Daniel my big healthy pine snake was cut from her egg and she is four years old now and a mom.

I will keep you posted. If my shy babies let me, I will get pictures.

[Catherine]

This is Pete, the mom.




This is Sam the dad.

[Cibach]

Oh Catherine, how exciting!!
I can't wait to see the babies.
Good luck to them all.

[Catherine]

This morning three of the shells are empty and a saw a baby out for a few seconds and it was not the one I saw last night. I can see another nose poking out of an egg. The two eggs that we opened definitely have live babies in them. They look okay. I will know for sure when they actually leave the egg.
It must seem that they spend a long time in the egg after they start hatching, but this is when they absorb the rest of the yolk into their stomachs.

Hatching is a quiet exciting time because to see them I have to sit by the egg box very still. The box is full of peat moss, covered with sphagnum moss so the eggs are not fully visible. Baby snakes are born in secret and just getting a quick peek is amazing.

I will get pictures when I transfer them from the egg box. I set them up as a group with water and anything else they need. It lets them be together in a safe, quiet environment so they can gain confidence. The first two weeks of their lives they use up the yolk in their stomachs and grow. Then they will have a first shed. After that they will start looking for food. That is when I will offer them food. It has to be done carefully. If they get scared it can put them off of eating and sometimes they never eat.

[Catherine]

You can see the slits in the eggs and if you really look you can see the tip of a nose sticking out.

See the little face sticking out of the moss.

See how tiny it is.

The first born

So tiny


Are you sitting down? I got pictures of an actual hatching. I have seldom seen this!

He is working to get his face out of the egg.

You can see the nose sticking out

A little more

The head is fully out

It is a slow process

He has a beautiful face

He is resting

Movement

We have hatching!

When you are long, it takes some time

If you look at the picture just below the hatchling there is a previously hatched baby watching.


Almost out

Birth is always a special moment

Nearly done

Looking good

Getting there

Finally the tail

The egg shell is empty


This is the best I have ever seen and it was daylight so pictures were possible, not easy, but possible.

[Catherine]

One more baby is out so there is just one more egg to go. It looks okay, it just needs a few more hours of rest before it leaves the egg.

Mostly I don't get to watch like this. Sometimes they all come out at once and all I get to see is empty shells and hiding newborns. This has been a rare opportunity to see how they hatch.

[Tobi]

These pictures are wonderful, and so special!
It must have been great to watch the actual hatching. Thanks for such great pics...I feel as if I am there, watching.

They are in the big wide world now! Aren't they tiny and beautiful?

When they come out of the shell, do they start to eat quite soon? And what do they eat at that stage?