I re-read the breeding section of Kathy Love's "Cornsnake Manual" in early July. According to the information inside, I estimated that the eggs would hatch sometime around July 18. I was not going to be caught unprepared, as I had with the egg-laying.
When I peeked in the incubation box on July 15 I was excited to see that the eggs had begun shriveling just a bit. This is an indication that the baby snake is absorbing the nutrition inside the egg. It wouldn't be long....
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| Can You See Their Little Heads? |
I couldn't believe how smoothly things went after that. It was as if the snakes had read the manual themselves. The first pipping (the baby slits the egg with the egg-tooth and pokes its head out of the egg) began on July 18 and the last baby emerged on July 21. Twenty-four babies hatched in all, out of 30 eggs. Some of them had a bit more color than others, but they all appeared to be "normals," and I was disappointed not to see any bright Okatee coloring. However, their colors can intensify after each shed, so I am still optimistic.
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| Look Closely & You Can See an Egg Tooth |
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| Pencil for Comparison |
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| Color Comparison |
