Spilotes egg PIPPING!

[LdyDrgn]

awww... these babies will be BEAUTIFUL!!

http://primareptilia.com/gallery/albums/spilotes1/first_pip_macro_2.sized.jpg

[Bartman]

Congrats! Cant wait to see pics of them out :)

[Tim_Cranwill]

Cooooool! :D

How many eggs?

[LdyDrgn]

12 in this clutch, 7 in the second. One of the eggs in the first clutch looks to have twins.... soon we shall see for sure. :D

[LdyDrgn]

A second has pipped, this is the one with the speculated twins.

http://primareptilia.com/gallery/albums/spilotes1/second_pip_2.sized.jpg

I'm having a hard time containing myself, LOL.

[Simon Sansom]

So am I, LOL!

Congratulations! That's really fantastic.

Simon R. Sansom

[Katt]

That's KILLER!! Congrats!!! You must be hopping up and down!

Pics pics pics!!!

[vanderkm]

Fantastic!! congrats many times over - know you must be so excited. Can hardly wait to see pics,

mary v.

[LdyDrgn]

Thanks everyone! We are hopping up and down, LOL.

We got the second one out of the egg since we didn't know if there were two snakes or not. I'll post pics of him/her tomorrow. The first one that pipped is still sitting there with its nose sticking out once in a while, hehe.

[gurkee]

Congratuations.
How long are the youngsters? Rather large, right?

gurkee

[LdyDrgn]

Thanks, gurkee. :) Yes, the one that is out is good sized. I would need to get a pic of it next to a ruler so I could measure it accurately.

Two more have pipped.

[Simon]

Congrats~!!

Hope to see more pics coming up~!!
Wonderful species~~

[LdyDrgn]

Here you go! This is the baby we removed:

http://primareptilia.com/gallery/albums/spilotes1/spp02.sized.jpg

MY, what big EYES you got!

http://primareptilia.com/gallery/albums/spilotes1/spp02_3.sized.jpg

Shortly after posting these, the first one to pip came out of the egg. Brighter, deeper yellow on this lil one. Absolutely gorgeous!

http://primareptilia.com/gallery/albums/spilotes1/spp01.sized.jpg
http://primareptilia.com/gallery/albums/spilotes1/spp01_2.sized.jpg

[Crazycorn]

How are their temperaments?

[gonesnakee]

So Sweet! Congrats, Mark I.

[LdyDrgn]

Mark? LOL My name is Michelle.. you were close. ;) Oh wait, YOUR Mark... it was so close to your "Congrats" I got confused. Don't mind me, I have had very little sleep since they started pipping. *yawn*

They are very skittish at the moment, but they should be rather calm in a few months. The father is a LTC that is handleable outside the cage. The mother was CB at the Moscow Zoo and is also handleable outside the cage even though she was never regularly handled before we got her.

I tell people these snakes seem a lot like a Mamba, only without the venom, LMAO. A lot of fun to handle them as they are FAST moving! You really got to keep on your toes, heh.

Thanks for the congrats. :)

[Vanan]

Wow!! Absolutely awesome babies!! All the best getting them started! Then you get to REALLY enjoy them! Meh, ever thought of moving to Canada? ;)

[LdyDrgn]

Thanks, Vanan! I think it's crossed our mind a time or two...

As far as I understand, shipping these across the boarder shouldn't be a problem but we need to really look into it. They aren't listed in any of the CITES appendices. I don't know what other paperwork would need to be required....

[TheRedDragon]

Beautiful babies Michelle! I think Spilotes are really awesome looking snakes, and yours are exceptional! Congratulations, and good luck with the little ones. :)

[LdyDrgn]

Thank you, Erin :) I appreciate the kind words.

[Simon Sansom]

Now THAT impresses me far more than any new "morph" of anything else ever could!

You should be very proud of yourself.

Have any other eggs started to pip yet?

Simon R. Sansom

[LdyDrgn]

Thank you, Simon! We were afraid of what they would look like as hatchlings, LOL. The only baby I ever saw was at the Daytona show and it was a black/dirt brown, super skinny, covered in mites, hatchling. When ours started to emerge we were more than pleasantly surprised!

They are all pipped, some have been done manually by me on the advice of someone who has been hatching eggs for several years. The eggs weren't disturbed and they are still in their happy little fluid filled world. I noticed a couple of eggs were rather thick and harder to cut, so I think our friend was right on the money with his advice. I would hate to think that the baby had drowned because he couldn't cut through the thick shell.

I awoke this morning to two more crawling around, so that makes five out so far. Two or three more will probably emerge sometime this morning or afternoon. Once I get good and woken up I will take pics and post a link to the album where they reside. :)

Edited to add link to the album: Spilotes babies (http://primareptilia.com/gallery/spilotes1)

Edited AGAIN to say that after the first edit I found two more roaming around the incubator, LOL. The remaining five all have their noses sticking out of their 'window'. 100% HATCH RATE!! How awesome is that???

[vanderkm]

Incredibly awesome. Congrats again - the pipping and hatchling pics look fantastic - very major accomplishment to have such a perfect clutch hatch out. They are incredible looking at this age, can only imagine how great they will be as they mature. Love the eyes on these guys.

mary v.

[LdyDrgn]

Thank you, Mary. :) I love their big, black eyes, too.

All of them have hatched now. Pics of them all are in the album I previously linked.

The second clutch should hatch around the end of October.

[Scales Zoo]

Wow, way to go! I was sure I had replied to this thread the other day, but maybe the post never went through.

Ryan

[LdyDrgn]

That's possible, Ryan. You guys need to keep me updated on what's going with you. ;)

[Beardonicus]

I think it's crossed our mind a time or two...

Say whaaat? You better be joking LOL. ;)

[~Suntiger~]

Congratulations!! They are fantastic looking. :D

[LdyDrgn]

LOL, David... because of the new laws that 'they' are always tyring to get passed. We've considered Australia, too! hehehe

Thank you, Suntiger. :)

[Beardonicus]

You guys don't breed any native species anyway lol. When they start regulating boas, then theres cause for concern LOL.

[Tim and Julie B]

Man that is one of my favorite species! Congrads on the babies! TB

[LdyDrgn]

Thanks, Tim :)

[Pitviper]

Hi @all,

i´m keeping 1,2 spilotes and hope for mating and eggs by the next few months, as my male is very interrested in one of the females... ;o) I´ve seen your "care-sheet", isn´t the humidity a bit to poor? After all i´ve read about it, it should be about 80%. Oh well, your 60% worked after all as you prooved. At what temperatures did you incubate the clutch, an how long did it take? Did all eggs pip? The pipping-rates on spilotes are rather low as far as i know. I wish you luck and further success. I´d be glad for any additional information on keeping and breeding, as there is not much ´true-stuff´ on spilotes to read. Anyone interrested in the spilotes-article of the Cologne-Zoo (german language) ?
I´ve had several snakes before, but now im´m specialising on spilotes, it´s the most impressive colubrid i´ve ever seen.
Greets to Gurkee! Didn´t get my mail?

Spilotes rule!
Carsten

[LdyDrgn]

Pitviper, I sent you a PM with info. :)

They seem to do fine on the humidity. They get sprayed daily and more heavily when in blue. I get perfect sheds every time and they eat well. *shrug*

I would be interested in the article, however my German is rather rusty.

[gurkee]

Hi!

First of all, congratulations for the 100% hatch rate. It's always nice to have all of them come out.
From what I've heard Spilotes eggs have rather thick shells so it's always a good ideal to cut them open a bit that the babies don't drown.
But since I've got no experience, it's only what I've heard.

@LdyDrgn:
I can't wait for the paper you are working on. Does it come yoon ;)

@Pitviper:
No, haven't got mail from you, sorry.
I have also good experience with humidity below 80% during the day. Sheds are good, expect on terrible shed of my male, but I think it had nothing to do with humidity.

greets,
gurkee

[LdyDrgn]

Gurkee, I am waiting for the second clutch to hatch so I can have more hard data. At that point I will just add the info to the caresheet on our site. I will share what I have at this moment with whoever wants it so long as it is understood that it is what worked for us. We aren't experts, LOL.

I also noticed the very thick shells, although the second clutch looks to be much thinner. After waiting 24 hours from the third snake to pip, we went ahead and manually pipped all the others. :)

[LdyDrgn]

Quick update on these babies. All have shed and 8 have taken f/t peach fuzzy mice already. :)

[gurkee]

Nice to hear.

When will the second clutch appr. hatch? Any idea?

greets, gurkee

[LdyDrgn]

The second clutch should hatch around the end of October, beginning of November.

11 of the 12 babies have eaten. :) 8 took the mouse of the tongs for me and I left the mice in with the other 4. One ate last night before I turned the lights out and 2 more ate in the middle of the night. The only one that didn't eat was the last one to hatch. I expect it will be ready to eat when I feed again in a few days.