So lately I have got to thinking about kinked babies and have just realized that in my entire history of keeping snakes, across the board I have never had a single kinked or deformed baby to date. I have seen a few runts, but nothing physically deformed or bent. I see others having kinked babies relatively often and I, like those others usually have several clutches of babies a year of various species, both thamnophis and others. My question is.... where do kinks come from? How have I been so lucky? at what temperatures do those of you that have experienced kinked babies do you let the female's bask in? My own personal guess is that some kinks are probably just random deformities, while others may be from improper temperatures, either too high or too low, at crucial stages in developement when the spine and vertebrae are forming. I am actually leaning myself towards possibly, too high of a basking temperature may cause an increase in kinks, only because I have never allowed my females even more heat during gestation than when they are not gravid and I consistently have produced non-kinked babies, and I have heard that some keepers increase temps for their females during gestation? Keep in mind this is all my own speculation but I am purely curious... what is the underlying cause of kinked babies? I am thinking the majority of it has got to be an external environmental factor because I have had many litters of snakes born and have never even seen a kinked baby in the flesh!!! But with others I see kinked young born each year and it's really starting to bug me!! where do they come from!?!