Major bummer

[Jeff B]

When I was cleaning out the tub tonight I took a close look at the 3 stillborns and unfortunately one of them was a snow, possibly would have been a erythristic snow, which to my knowledge would have been a first. Talk about a painfull realization, I feel sick right now....if only those 3 would have made it too.
But the bright side is 9 lived and appear to be perfectly healthy, so I guess I will count my blessing.

[guidofatherof5]

The glass is always half full.
Sorry for your loss.
I just had 7 radixes born. I love having babies around.

[Jeff B]

Your right Steve, congrats on the radix!!!, the babies are fun to have around

[infernalis]

Sad fact of breeding Jeff. Hate to say it, but in time you get used to it.

[ConcinusMan]

I couldn't stand it when I see my due female concinnus doing the jiggy dance. cancel all appointments, call in sick to work, do whatever I had to do to be there. I know that if I were not there, some would have suffered that fate. Some just don't have the strength to break free of the membrane and they can get stuck to objects, dry out, and well... poor lil guys need help sometimes. And there's almost always a few that come out and it's already too late for them. You may "get used to it" but it's hard not to feel the loss, regardless of the potential dollar value of the lost ones. Snow or not snow, this morph or that morph, or regular snake, it pains me to see the lost ones especially when they die after taking a breath or two. then I turn my attention to those that appear well. Makes it all better!

Like steve was getting at, it appears that you are seeing your glass half empty. Take a look around at the squirming live ones. Your glass is half full. One might argue that it is more than half full since you have healthy live offspring. I've experienced a true EPIC FAIL and was presented with 28 fully developed dead concinnus my second time around. Not one survived that birthing. (sept 1992)

Mother made up for it with 52 offspring in 1994. about 45 made it to their 6 month age, 5 died during or after brumating. 40 healthy strong babies made it to about 1 year old before being released in the same location I found their mother when she was about a year old(1988). 40 lived and were released in early summer 1995. 40 very fit youngsters. My cup runneth over.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

oh Jeff that is seriously a huge bummer.....

[gregmonsta]

Congrats on the litter there's always next year

[Snakers]

it seems we always loose our bestGood luck with the live babies

[Scott F]

Hey Jeff,

Sorry to hear about the stillborns, The good to come of this is you know(for a fact) that the adults are 100% hets for albino, erythristic albino, erythristic, melanistic (did you get my pm on this one), snow, and possibly erythristic snow. If the erythrism leaches into the snows like it did on the albinos, that could be a way cool new morph.

Scott

[Jeff B]

Yeah no doubt the value of the parents now, triple hets, thats a powerful breeder pair, one I won't easily part with.
Regarding your PM I will have to look at the mel closer, but right now I am leaning on that the ery genes causing the mel to have some pattern showing. It would be super cool if as it gets older developed a purple-ish background color with black spots, as the ery genes kick in as it gets older and developes full adult coloration. If you noticed the stillborn mel was solid jet black, but then again it was dead, so probably will need to just be patient and see how the mel developes and what it looks like in 6 months before we draw any real conclusions.
My cup might runeth over with beer tonight after work