# Do people “kill” unwanted number of eggs



## Herpetology (Sep 9, 2019)

Just wondering what you guys do if your snakes have more eggs than you can care for, whether it’s no more incubation room or not enoughchatchling racks? Do you drill them? Put them in freezer?

Is there any “snake” in the eggs after being laid? Or is it still just yolk and veins


----------



## Yellowtail (Sep 9, 2019)

I would like to think responsible breeders have a plan with the animals they pair and are set up to incubate and care for the resulting clutches. Why would you breed something you do not want? Snakes are not like dogs or cats that can have unplanned matings.


----------



## Wokka (Sep 9, 2019)

*I dont think there are many breeders who can predict how many viable offspring will be produced from a mating, with so many variables along the way. There is certainly an argument for only perpetuating the desirable traits for captivity as opposed to breeding everything!*


----------



## Herpetology (Sep 9, 2019)

Yellowtail said:


> I would like to think responsible breeders have a plan with the animals they pair and are set up to incubate and care for the resulting clutches. Why would you breed something you do not want? Snakes are not like dogs or cats that can have unplanned matings.


I guess I was meant to say like, if you have 30 rack spots and have 3 pairs of different species mate (so you only want 10 eggs of each) what would you do with the rest?
Not many people would be happy with a clutch of 40 eggs (in rare cases) from a species they only planned enough space for 20-30


----------



## Yellowtail (Sep 9, 2019)

Wokka said:


> *I dont think there are many breeders who can predict how many viable offspring will be produced from a mating, with so many variables along the way. There is certainly an argument for only perpetuating the desirable traits for captivity as opposed to breeding everything!*


We are talking about eggs here, how do you determine desirable traits from an egg? I have produced large clutches and only keep a couple for my breeding plan but I responsibly raise and sell the rest. If you mean culling undesirable hatchlings that is a different argument and I am not a fan of the US ball python breeders who produced thousands to only keep a hand full.


----------



## Neil j (Sep 9, 2019)

Herptology said:


> I guess I was meant to say like, if you have 30 rack spots and have 3 pairs of different species mate (so you only want 10 eggs of each) what would you do with the rest?
> Not many people would be happy with a clutch of 40 eggs (in rare cases) from a species they only planned enough space for 20-30



To get the full potential of clutch you don’t kill half your eggs. I have panicked and dumped an entire clutch. So I feel ya. But yeah defeats the purpose of selecting the best in the clutches. 
I’d get a heap of 5litre solly tubs and stack them up if you don’t build another rack. 
People don’t realise the responsibility until the eggs go in the incubator.
[doublepost=1567998112,1567998070][/doublepost]Do your best for them. You’ll be right


----------



## Herpetology (Sep 9, 2019)

Yellowtail said:


> We are talking about eggs here, how do you determine desirable traits from an egg? I have produced large clutches and only keep a couple for my breeding plan but I responsibly raise and sell the rest. If you mean culling undesirable hatchlings that is a different argument and I am not a fan of the US ball python breeders who produced thousands to only keep a hand full.



100% i would never cull a snake that has already hatched (unless it’s deathly ill, in which I would let a vet do it)

I’m talking about when they lay eggs, separating excess number of eggs to what you are able to care for once hatched, and either emptying them or killing them from anything able to grow ( in a freezer or fridge would do that right?)


----------



## Harry89 (Sep 9, 2019)

Perhaps instead of killing your unhatched eggs, you could ask if anyone has spare incubator and hatching facilities in your area, some breeders have quieter breeding years and may have space? Is there a reptile conservation group in your area that might help at all? I know Reptile Rehabilitation Inc. QLD sometimes have room to help out with excess egg loads. 

This may not be an option, but might be worth an ask all the same?


----------



## Sdaji (Sep 9, 2019)

Plenty of people do it, but because of negative opinion they remain quiet about it.

Personally I've never culled eggs and if I've had more offspring than I can deal with (which has almost never happened to me) I've generally just sold them cheaply in bulk or had friends help out. Generally I'd personally prefer to lose sleep getting stuff feeding and sold than going for other options.

I don't see any ethical issue with not incubating eggs, or for that matter humanely euthenasing reptiles and feeding them off to other species. For reasons inexplicable by any reasonable means, the majority of the vocal minority of herpers will scream blue murder if anyone feeds off humanely euthenased reptiles, while themselves feeding off rats and mice before having a nice juicy steak or lamb chops for dinner. I'll admit that I don't like the idea of it happening, but at the same time, I understand that I have no leg to stand on if I try to argue that this is somehow less ethical than feeding off rats and mice. As we all know, in this day and age you don't need to make any sense to kick and scream about something you don't like being wrong, and you'll probably even get people joining your tantrum.


----------



## Wokka (Sep 10, 2019)

Yellowtail said:


> We are talking about eggs here, how do you determine desirable traits from an egg? I have produced large clutches and only keep a couple for my breeding plan but I responsibly raise and sell the rest. If you mean culling undesirable hatchlings that is a different argument and I am not a fan of the US ball python breeders who produced thousands to only keep a hand full.


Desirable traits are inherited from the parents so breeders normally mate parents to achieve a particular outcome in the offspring. Unfortunately there is a lot that can go wrong between mating and hatching so often breeder allow for losses which may not happen resulting in too many offspring.


----------

