I should be sleeping...
In the valley of lost socks, the one-footed man is king!
Kali's clutch started hatching out the day before I left. Of course, four hours before I left a pip came out with the yolk stem (like an umbilical cord) still attached. At least one forum member has claimed this is the snake equivalent of a preemie, and considering the fugus attack on these eggs, I can understand why it migh have wanted to leave early. Anyway, didn't have time to take photos before I left, but I did put it in a deli cup with the yolk stem attached and Derrick graciously agreed to check on the hatchlings and for eggs (Ifrit was ready to drop a second clutch) the yolk had fallen off. Phew! I was worried it might have to be cut.
Here's the remains of the yolk sack and stem
The little guy looks good. I think it's a butter.
It does have a big spot/knot at it's "belly button" though. I've noticed hatchlings have a little slit on their scales above their vent that I assumed was where the yolk stem attached. The "preemie" has a big spot in the middle of that slit. Here's a bad photo. (it's hard to hold a squirming hatchling upside-down in one hand and take a photo with the other!!)
Here's some siblings I came home to :) A normal (bottom) and a caramel. You can tell because the normal has redish spots in the light areas between saddles on it's head, whereas on the caramel these are yellow.
There's one egg left, and it hasn't pipped. I'll give it a few days, but I'm a tad worried there's something wrong enough with the hatchling that it can't pip. Like, deformed or something. I had one of those last year (warning; graphic!) :/ Still, I'll open it up in a few days if it doesn't come out and see what's what.
Here's all the unhatched eggs by my ghetto incubator!
These are two clutches by Ifrit. The first clutch (on the right) should hatch in about two weeks. The second clutch (on the left) was laid just two days ago :) Thanks to Derrick for making a treck to move the to the incubator; there was an eggbox, but even so they dry out!!
Interesting to note the difference in size. While I haven't taken measurements, I don't *think* the eggs of the second clutch are smaller than those of the first when they were laid, but rather that the eggs swell as their contents develop. I wonder if that's the case? I'm not 100% sure if it's possible; the eggs can't uptake anything but water, so any increase in mass would have to be that. But maybe yolk is denser than baby snake? Mmm, perhaps I ought to measure and weigh an egg or two in that second clutch tomorrow.
Oh yeah, in case you were not fully convinced of wedding awesomeness, we played Ultimate Frisby afterwards. In the dark with an LED frisby! :D
*random* back in the days of yore, I probably would have hated something like an ultimate frisby game. I'm not terribly coordinated, you see. One could rely on me to fumble a toss and to throw with wild innacuracy. But though Ultimate Frisby is new, I am not a total frisby virgin (though I haven't gotten any in possibly a decade) and a previous night or two of tossing it around a bit and I seemed to be able to pass it reasonably well. And to my surprise, on an okay throw I more often than not could catch the thing. And, of course, it was all in fun, and I had a chance to be obnoxious and loud and mostly didn't catch or throw much; just charged and blocked the opposite team XD
Anyway, I had a point in relating this. Lately I've noticed a strange increase in my reflexes. Normally I'm a clutz. A refined clutz, yes, I've managed to train a fair amount of it out, (though I still often bang my hips on corners as if I somehow think I have significantly less structure there, I wonder if I was not wired with a somewhat male body-image). But say, if something was falling, the best I used to do is maybe swat it, I never would catch the darn thing. But lately, maybe the past year, I surprise myself by unthinkingly, unerringly catching ye Random Falling Thyngie. If I had incrased smell and hearing, (and if I wasn't so out of shape) I might think I had indeed managed to contract some kind of lycanthropy.
Ah well.
Kali's clutch started hatching out the day before I left. Of course, four hours before I left a pip came out with the yolk stem (like an umbilical cord) still attached. At least one forum member has claimed this is the snake equivalent of a preemie, and considering the fugus attack on these eggs, I can understand why it migh have wanted to leave early. Anyway, didn't have time to take photos before I left, but I did put it in a deli cup with the yolk stem attached and Derrick graciously agreed to check on the hatchlings and for eggs (Ifrit was ready to drop a second clutch) the yolk had fallen off. Phew! I was worried it might have to be cut.
Here's the remains of the yolk sack and stem
The little guy looks good. I think it's a butter.
It does have a big spot/knot at it's "belly button" though. I've noticed hatchlings have a little slit on their scales above their vent that I assumed was where the yolk stem attached. The "preemie" has a big spot in the middle of that slit. Here's a bad photo. (it's hard to hold a squirming hatchling upside-down in one hand and take a photo with the other!!)
Here's some siblings I came home to :) A normal (bottom) and a caramel. You can tell because the normal has redish spots in the light areas between saddles on it's head, whereas on the caramel these are yellow.
There's one egg left, and it hasn't pipped. I'll give it a few days, but I'm a tad worried there's something wrong enough with the hatchling that it can't pip. Like, deformed or something. I had one of those last year (warning; graphic!) :/ Still, I'll open it up in a few days if it doesn't come out and see what's what.
Here's all the unhatched eggs by my ghetto incubator!
These are two clutches by Ifrit. The first clutch (on the right) should hatch in about two weeks. The second clutch (on the left) was laid just two days ago :) Thanks to Derrick for making a treck to move the to the incubator; there was an eggbox, but even so they dry out!!
Interesting to note the difference in size. While I haven't taken measurements, I don't *think* the eggs of the second clutch are smaller than those of the first when they were laid, but rather that the eggs swell as their contents develop. I wonder if that's the case? I'm not 100% sure if it's possible; the eggs can't uptake anything but water, so any increase in mass would have to be that. But maybe yolk is denser than baby snake? Mmm, perhaps I ought to measure and weigh an egg or two in that second clutch tomorrow.
Oh yeah, in case you were not fully convinced of wedding awesomeness, we played Ultimate Frisby afterwards. In the dark with an LED frisby! :D
*random* back in the days of yore, I probably would have hated something like an ultimate frisby game. I'm not terribly coordinated, you see. One could rely on me to fumble a toss and to throw with wild innacuracy. But though Ultimate Frisby is new, I am not a total frisby virgin (though I haven't gotten any in possibly a decade) and a previous night or two of tossing it around a bit and I seemed to be able to pass it reasonably well. And to my surprise, on an okay throw I more often than not could catch the thing. And, of course, it was all in fun, and I had a chance to be obnoxious and loud and mostly didn't catch or throw much; just charged and blocked the opposite team XD
Anyway, I had a point in relating this. Lately I've noticed a strange increase in my reflexes. Normally I'm a clutz. A refined clutz, yes, I've managed to train a fair amount of it out, (though I still often bang my hips on corners as if I somehow think I have significantly less structure there, I wonder if I was not wired with a somewhat male body-image). But say, if something was falling, the best I used to do is maybe swat it, I never would catch the darn thing. But lately, maybe the past year, I surprise myself by unthinkingly, unerringly catching ye Random Falling Thyngie. If I had incrased smell and hearing, (and if I wasn't so out of shape) I might think I had indeed managed to contract some kind of lycanthropy.
Ah well.