Hatching Black Racers??????

[Mom2Four]

Ok, it has been a while since I was here last, chalk it up to four human kids, goats, chickens, dogs, cats, snake eggs, etc.. and a computer that is on again, off again.. but anyway, I wanted to update ya'll on what's happening with the Black Racer eggs we have been so **patiently** incubating..

So the eggs are starting to get small pin holes in them, all have developed and I think we are soon to have baby snakes.. YAY

See the goo, and the small hole, I have 4 eggs doing this.. We had one do this almost 2 weeks ago, then the egg shrank down, so we opened it up and the snake was still a bit translucent and not completely developed. I figured it was dead since the egg had been leaking goo and had shrank down so much.. unfortunately it was not..you could see it's tiny heart beating through it's skin... but it died shortly after... I really hated that.. lesson learned I suppose, that just because all the goo leaks out and the egg shrivels a bit, does NOT mean there is not still a viable baby in there.. There are 20 eggs left all looking really really good.. So I am keeping my fingers crossed for 20 black racer babies soon.

So honestly does this mean the babies are close, because I wrote this yesterday, and posted in the wrong place, so moving it today.. but the eggs are exactly the same.. I am about to go insane, I am checking these eggs about 45 times a day, even in the middle of the night, I see movement in some of them, but the holes get no bigger they just ooooozzz.. LOL

Thanks.........

[tspuckler]

That does not sound very good. I've hatched thousands of colubrid eggs over the years. Generally speaking, the snakes will make a slit (and often times more than one slit) in the egg. Sometimes the snake will stick it's head out of the egg and you'll see bubbles. But it there's liquid oozing from an egg, it usually means the egg is bad (or has gone bad).

The "pin hole" thing is weird, though it could be weakness in the shell where the eggs contents are coming out of (rather than a baby snake poking a hole). You did not mention if you were incubating the eggs, but I'd imagine they'd take 55-60 days to hatch if they were incubated at a set temperature in the low 80s (longer if they were not).

Here's a Black Racer I found back in April:

[jere000]

The ones that are oozing you should cut with a razor or nail scissors.

[Mom2Four]

That does not sound very good. I've hatched thousands of colubrid eggs over the years. Generally speaking, the snakes will make a slit (and often times more than one slit) in the egg. Sometimes the snake will stick it's head out of the egg and you'll see bubbles. But it there's liquid oozing from an egg, it usually means the egg is bad (or has gone bad).

The "pin hole" thing is weird, though it could be weakness in the shell where the eggs contents are coming out of (rather than a baby snake poking a hole). You did not mention if you were incubating the eggs, but I'd imagine they'd take 55-60 days to hatch if they were incubated at a set temperature in the low 80s (longer if they were not).

Here's a Black Racer I found back in April:

She's very nice.. looks a lot like the mama we found laying the eggs we have.. Here she is

[tspuckler]

Actually yours is quite a bit nicer! I had to do some "creative posing" with mine, as one of her eyes was so badly damaged she couldn't see out of it and if you look closely, you can see her snout is "rough." Parts of her skin was that way as well. Yours looks good!

[Didymus20X6]

I'm no psychiatrist, but I think my ophidiophobia comes from when I stepped on a huge black snake when I was a little kid. Although I wasn't certain of the species, I remember it looking a lot like your black racer. But don't worry. The 20 garters I've caught this summer are helping me on the road to recovery pretty good.

Cool looking snakes, though. Sounds like that one got ran through the wringer a couple of times. Any idea how she got those injuries?

[jere000]

I wanna catch a black racer so bad but i can't find any of them.

[Mom2Four]

Actually yours is quite a bit nicer! I had to do some "creative posing" with mine, as one of her eyes was so badly damaged she couldn't see out of it and if you look closely, you can see her snout is "rough." Parts of her skin was that way as well. Yours looks good!

She was quite the beauty... I hated to have to relocate her, but my neighbor HATES, make that HATE HATES snakes of all shapes forms and fashions.. so when we find them on his property we relocate them deep into the forest for him, as to save them. We also occasionally relocate the ones on our property, like the black rat snake that was in my chickens' nest boxes and has swallowed one egg and was working on number 2. Yeah I was NOT a happy person that day.. LoL, I mean I know they gotta eat, but he was 4.5ft long, he could have eaten any of the many ground squirrels, moles, rats, mice, baby bunnies, etc.. that roam my property.. but NOT my chicken eggs.. BAD SNAKE!!! MY FOOD!! He now happily resides in a cemetery far away with many vacant acres around it.. He seemed quite happy to slither off into the woods and make a new home.. LoL and I am sure the people there don't mind.

[Mom2Four]

Well the one that did that last week I cut and the snake came out, and well to say the least he was not ready.. very much alive but very translucent, as in you could see the beginnings of his patterning but also you could see his tiny heart beating.

I was watching some snake egg hatching videos in time lapse and some of them took over 48 hours from the time the first small holes appeared and the breeders said that was normal for them to make a small hole that would oooz for a few days... I will give them til tomorrow and if I see nothing then I will cut slits I suppose. I am just leery of that since the last one was not ready, and he could have survived with just that teeny oooz that was happening..

Keeping fingers crossed..

Thanks for the info..

[Mom2Four]

Also they were not incubated at a set temperature, they were incubated in nature so to speak.. In damp sand, in an almost identical setting to the way we found them.. and well we have had a mild and cool July here in the south, so maybe they are just a few days late.. the eggs are not shrinking or shriveling and the oooz is completely clear.. no signes of decay.. I have held them to the light and all eggs do contain embryos for sure. you can see them and their yolks