I am very concerned about this hatchling?!

[Bruce Whitehead]

I lost her... hard belly... my own fault for popping her out of her egg to check her condition.

I thought she was ready to come out, but I was wrong.

I feel just horrible right now.

Bruce

I do have a few pics that may help (I'll go for something educational at this point)... but I am not up to posting them right now. It will either tomorrow or the next day.

But all her sibs are doing great. Just one left to exit the egg.

1.0 pastel. 0.0.1 normal and 0.3 normals

[Spaniard]

Sorry to hear about your loss.

[TheMolenater2]

Oh man, sorry about that...

[frankykeno]

Bruce don't kick yourself hon. It's not your fault or her fault or anything other than nature being nature I think. Some young creatures are just not meant to make it. I don't think in striving to help her you likely did anything to damage her anymore than she was already damaged by developing in that manner.

Hon, it's like saying a human baby lost due to a cord tangle is the momma's fault. The sad fact is even with all our technical know how for human births, our own babies are sometimes lost to birthing or developmental issues.

None of this is much comfort, I know but just don't be hard on yourself, Bruce. Breeding any animal is going to mean losing some of them but if we've done the best we can do, then we really cannot do more than that. You have my phone number, my friend, and you know you can call anytime.

[Bruce Whitehead]

Thanks all...

And for Jo.

Yeah... *sigh*... I know. But you know me. I need to trace all the steps and see where I may have screwed up with her, but fortuneately along with that I like to find out the odds of what chances her situation would have afforded her.

Have talked to a few people that have been very generous with their feedback and experience (one of the many reasons I love snake people).

Keep in mind these are all *maybes*

Chances are if had not cut the egg, she would not have exited. She may have simply expired in the egg.

With her cord wrapped the way it was she was not absorbing her yolk, so leaving it would have resulted in her possibly starving to death.

So as I understand it... her yolk would not have disengaged from the sides of the egg (it was still attached when I popped her out) which is what resulted in the hard belly.

As far as removing the hard yolk from her abdomen. This probably did kill her. Too much stress for a young babe. But only a few with hard belly make it.

And honestly, from looking at her, I can say that I did not feel she was going to make it... and the amount of hard yolk in her belly was huge.

My best chances would have been to tie off the umbilicus while she was still in the egg and hope for the best.

Many do try and untangle gently while they are in the egg. The way she was sitting in the egg, I can say that I would not have been able to untangle or see the knot as it was tangled beneath her... so either way it was not good.

It wasn't until I popped her out that I could really see how bad it was... and again, that was my bad as I did think she was ready to come out. Definitely a mistake I will never make again.

If this happens again I will be far more equipped, and ultimately I hope the documenting of this proves of some use to others. I think we often hear of snakes not making it, but we do not hear the "whys"... I like hearing why.

BUT that all being said... I have some amazing baby snakes to tend to and enjoy. So far all of them are looking amazing... one of the girls jabbed at me last night.

And I wanted to take a sec and thank Corey, Kara, Deb, Marc, and Jo for the time spent chatting, emailing, etc. I really appreciate it.

Bruce

[Bruce Whitehead]

And for the record... if anyone can bring any experience to the discussion and offer criticisms and potential interventions I am more than welcome to hearing them.

Bruce

[West Coast Jungle]

Bruce we all know this comes with breeding animals. Dont kick yourself too hard. There is only so much you can do and you did alot. There will be better days ahead.

[adizziedoll]

I'm so sorry to hear you lost her. Keep your chin up, you cared a lot and you did what you could do -

[frankykeno]

I think that your reflection and sharing of this experience will help you and all of us new breeders, Bruce. Sometimes it's so easy to talk about the victories but really hard to talk about the times it just didn't work out all that well.

I do know you and I know you'll be soul searching like mad to make sure there was nothing else you could have done. I don't know if there was, I'm not experienced enough myself to say but I do know this....you did all you could do and that's the best any of us can ever do.

Go spend time with the snappy little hatchlings. That'll raise you up. Most of mine are having quite a lot of fun playing "hey who can tag Jo next!"

[sg1trogdor]

Man thats a bummer she really was a looker . Don't feel too bad though Like others said its just nature. It no ones fault especially not yours .