Once a hatchling breaks through the egg, it will spend the next 24 to 48 hours coiled up inside of the egg with only its nose or head poking out of the slit. During this time, the hatchling is absorbing the yolk through its umbilical cord and getting accustomed to breathing air. At this point, the new snakes are quite shy and will frequently duck back inside their egg if they feel threatened in any way. By the time, the snake is ready to leave the egg; it will have completely absorbed the yolk and dropped its cord.

It is important that the hatchling or hatchlings are disturbed as little as possible during this adjustment period. Frequent poking or prodding can stress the baby snake out and cause it to exit the egg before it is ready. Forcing or scaring the snake into leaving the egg early can lead to the untimely death of the snake. Immature hatchlings, ones that have emerged from the egg before their umbilical cord has dropped, can become tangled up in the incubation substrate, the shell of the egg it come from, or another snake. This can lead to the snake tearing or pulling the belly scales around the cord in order to free itself.

As long as the majority of the egg yolk has been absorbed, there is a chance that an immature hatchling can thrive. Untangling the cord from anything it has been caught on and placing the hatchling into a separate container lined with damp paper towel will keep the cord (and yolk if any remains) moist until it falls off naturally. This will not work in every instance and some snakes will be unable to survive the trauma, especially if there is any damage that resulted from the early emergence from the egg.

Another part of breeding that I would much rather avoid, is the discovery of deformed hatchlings. Each fertile egg laid by any given female has the potential to develop into a healthy hatchling that will exit the egg at the end of incubation. However, not all eggs or hatchlings will reach their full potential. Some eggs will die during incubation before the hatchling inside has began developing. This is unavoidable, as some eggs contain imperfect embryos or the eggs have been improperly incubated (IE: too damp, too dry, too hot or far too cold), or the clutch has been attacked by house hold pests, such as flies or ants. These losses can occur in even the healthiest of developing eggs, and while they may be cause for disappointment, they are usually taken in stride.

It is the eggs that go full term, without any external indication that something is wrong inside, that fail to pip or hatch on their own that make my cringe. Some of the hatchlings inside these eggs die during the later stages of development, due to deformities or other complications, others live long enough to attempt to hatch, while a small handful manage to break through the egg but are unable to full emerge due to severe kinking or other deformity, and typically die shortly after pipping. The cause of the deformities is usually blamed on improper incubation in the majority of cases, though a small number may be the result of genetic defaults passed on from the parents.

Discovering one of these deformed hatchlings in a clutch can be unsettling whether the animal in question is dead or alive. Some of them appear to be almost normal in appearance, with only one or two minor kinks or underdeveloped belly scales. Others are quite disturbing to look at, their bodies fused together or so severely kinked that it can't be stretched out.

Below you will find photos of both an immature hatchling and a deformed hatchling. Please be advised that some of these pictures are graphic in nature and if you are squeamish, you may wish to avoid viewing those of the deformed hatchling.

Photograph of an immature snow hatchling from 2006 with a section of the umbilical cord still attached:

Photos of a deformed snow hatchling from one of our 2008 clutches:

If you have any questions/comments about the information on this page, or have any facts or pictures that you'd like to have added, please feel free to e-mail us.

Thank you,