Our first clutch of Taiwans, hatched Oct 27, 2002, at day 60.
This year I was a bit concerned, as the egg shells seemed really thick, tough, and like hard leather. We weren't sure if we should intervene or not. We decided to let mother nature take it's course. Yesterday, Day 64 - the eggs started to pip.
Right now, 7 babies are out - 6 more eggs pipped, and there are 5 good looking eggs yet unpipped. We had 20 eggs all together, one of which looked like a slug the day it was laid. There is another egg that looks about the same right now, but we incubated both just to be on the safe side. The 2002 clutch had 13 eggs (which were elongated as compared to this years).
They started to hatch out of the conjoined cluster in the center first .
None of the outer eggs have pipped yet. I am hypothosizing (first usage of word since high school science fair, haha) that because reptile eggs create heat, the ones in the center cluster tend to hatch first because of the higher temperatures those eggs maintain at various points of incubation.
I finally found the courser vermiculite, but I think I didn't wet it sufficiently first time using it. I ended up adding water to it, 2 weeks into incubation when the eggs started getting tough and showing signs of dimpling.
Got some pictures of the first ones out. These ones resemble the mother, high silver sides. We have a few that I think will look more like the male, with the heavy orangy yellow look. Funny thing is, they don't poke their head out of the egg for a cute picture. They sit hiding in the egg, I can go out of the room and check on them in 15 minutes, and there are 2 more snakes fully out of the egg. When they want to move, they move fast!
Very big babies! I was getting used to the burm and northern pinesnake babies - but just got to see what normal baby snakes look like at the Red Deer show. These guys are longer than the pinesnakes, maybe as long as the burms were.
They aren't bity this year. The first year we had them, My mother put the baby snakes into little rubbermades. They are very fast and flighty snakes as babies as it is, but the ones mom had to contain were also very bity. I remember how bity they were the day I sexed them, I'm glad these ones are less bity.
Whoo hoo!
Ryan
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