Lo and Behold

Last night (day 53 for my eggs) I was checking in on them every hour and nothing new. Just before bed I thought I would take one more look. I look in...totally expecting to see nothing different...lo and behold look what I found!
Two little heads poking out!!!! Whooo hooo!



My first ever clutch! I even got to see one slit the egg right before my eyes! That was so cool.



This morning 5 pipped! At 3:45 pm the 6th on decided to join the party.


They will stay in the egg for 1-3 days as they metabolize their yolks. The left one on the bottom had her head stuck. She couldn't pull it back in the egg. So I cut the hole bigger for her. That was nerve racking! Trying to cut the egg without hitting her or veins on the inside of the egg. Can't wait to see if they look like mom or dad.
They do have moms cute star head pattern.

Eggs - day 53!

I'm getting excited! Today is day 53 for my 6 ball python eggs in the incubator. They should start to hatch sometime today...or sometime this week. It's not an exact science. Unlike bird eggs that you can pretty much depend on to hatch on a specific day. Reptile eggs may take a little shorter or longer depending on the conditions and temps in the environment.

I was able to separate them last night. That's good news. They were stuck together in a big pile the whole time they were incubating--that's normal. The mother would have wrapped herself around them and incubated them herself.
Here's mom on the eggs
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This was right before I put them into the incubator. They are stuck together in a clump.



A sign that they are close to hatching is that I was able to carefully separate them. Another sign is that they are starting to dent in a bit. (The shells are leathery and not hard like a chicken egg.)
At least some of them are denting.



This pic was taken through the incubator window so it's a bit murky. There is one huge egg. You can see it in the right hand side. It was the bottom egg in the pile and is a lot bigger than the others. Can't wait!!! :) Maybe it's twins??!!

Snake Sex

Warning: For the non-reptile people out there - just skip this post. ;)

I'm very excited! I got my first lock on Friday! (that's snake sex) . For those of you who are new to my blog...I have snakes. Ever since I was a kid I've been an animal lover but not just our furry friends. I was a kid snake catcher, frog lover, turtle picker upper. I've also had a fascination with genetics since High School Biology.

This season I wanted to breed one of my ball pythons. I've only got one female big enough, but that's enough for me to start. At least 'till I know what I'm doing. The female is the larger one in the picture. Females snakes are usually larger than the males.

Ball Pythons are a very docile python and only get to be about 4 feet in length. They eat once every 7 days. (Can you imagine doing that!) Are native to Africa and spend 85-90% of their lives in a burrow. They must know how to meditate better than me.

My female hadn't eaten in 6 weeks. That's not unusual in breeding season. Still I gave them a brake on Sunday--and low and behold snake sex makes you hungry! She ate like a champ. He'll go back in with her as soon as she digests.