Egg orientation importance???

[Tim_Cranwill]

I had a clutch of corn eggs laid this morning and when I went to remove the eggs, the female made a bit of a fuss and ended up turning some of the eggs over a few times. I looked closely for evidence of which end was up on each egg before they were disturbed but I may be wrong on a few.

In any case, here's my question: How important is the orientation of the eggs?

Any experiences or advice is welcome!

[Tinytim12333]

I belive but im not sure... if the embryo has attached to the egg all ready it may die. Just hope you didnt damage any eggs.

[Zoe]

I believe you may still be in the safe zone. The embryo does not attach itself to a certain point on the egg until a little while after being laid (not sure how long) so it may be fine.
Not much you can do about it either way tho :\

GL!
Zoe

[gonesnakee]

I'm not sure how long it takes for the "baby" to attach it's self to the top, but if they had already I hope for your (& their) sakes that you choose right. Something you might want to do in the future is when they are not a nice big stuck together clump, but kind of loose & scattered is give them all a quick dot before you touch any of them or her. That way if or when she freaks out & some of them do, you know which way was up before she starts "thrashing" as you try to take them away. I had the same problem before & had pretty good luck with my guesses on which way was up, but a quick small dot from a pen can save alot of guess work & hopefully some baby snakes. Nothing worse than tossing eggs that were fertile to begin with. Good Luck Mark I.

[Tim_Cranwill]

Thanks Mark. I had the same idea about ten minutes after the whole thing happened... good old hind sight!

[Jeff_Favelle]

Tim, buddy, I've bounced corn eggs off the floor and had them still hatch just fine. I wouldn't recommend it, but eggs can be oriented however you like the first week. After that, problems tend to occur.

[Vanan]

I agree with Jeff, if they're good healthy eggs which are meant to carry healthy babies, there's a lot that they can handle. Although I wouldn't recommend juggling your year's clutches!

[gonesnakee]

Heh Jeff, so they don't usually attach themselves for quite a few days then? I've always worried about it after the first day, I guess I've always been a bit paranoid then? Does this also mean I should stop using them for raquetball? lol Mark I.

[Jeff_Favelle]

Mark, sometimes they attach themselves right away, sometimes they never attach themselves. I've just found that with colubrid eggs, its best not to rotate or roll them after the first 10 days or so. But they are pretty tough kill anyways. Or easy to kill. Depends on who you are and what you are capable of, heh heh....

[Mardy]

Well Dom hatched an egg that he slit be mistake 3-4 weeks before hatching and taped it up with black electrical tape and it was ok.

Amazing the will to survive,
Only time will tell.

Mardy

[gonesnakee]

Another example of eggs surviving is I had a Snow Corn this year who's last 5 eggs had to be manually forced out & 3/5 seem to be still doing fine in the incubator. We'll see I guess. Mark I.

[marisa]

Somewhere I heard that eggs that don't come out of the vent don't do well.....but I heard this a long time ago and it could be (and most likely is) BS.

Any truth to that though?

Marisa

[Linds]

Marisa,
As I understand it, the reason that eggs that have to be surgically removed do not survive is due to the fact that when they are passed through the vent they receive a special bacterial coating that is vital to their survival. Hopefully someone will be able to elaborate more on this...

[gonesnakee]

I have also heard something alomg the lines of what Linds is saying, but I'm not sure where, anyone? The eggs I was refering to were not surgically removed, but were forced out the poor girls vent. M.I.