It's good to have a vet who is also a personal friend. Dr. Dale Porcher and I have known each other since we were little kids in the 1960's so when I e-mailed him this morning with the triplet dilemma and photos he said, "Yeah, bring them in and let's separate them." I put the little guys in a bowl and drove over to his office. I don't mind admitting that I was shaking like a leaf the whole time for fear of injuring the neonates somehow. Dr. Porcher is also a reptile person and he breeds ball python (foo!) morphs. It took less than five minutes for him to tie off each hatchling. You can see the clipped off ends of the sutures in this photo...
...but it did take a lot of hands to hold them while he did the knot tying...
Right after the cuts were made. Each neonate is now free and has its own little yolk sac...
I appreciate all of the very nice comments that have been made about these hatchlings and we will do our best to keep them going. They are very tiny and the weights are as follows: The two larger neonates are both 14 grams. The really little one is only 4 grams. That's not much bigger than a mud turtle hatchling. I will get measurements in a couple of days. Right now they are all back in the incubator.
As for the genetics and whether or not they are identical and so forth, those kind of things are beyond me. I really don't know but I'm sure others do.
...but it did take a lot of hands to hold them while he did the knot tying...
Right after the cuts were made. Each neonate is now free and has its own little yolk sac...
I appreciate all of the very nice comments that have been made about these hatchlings and we will do our best to keep them going. They are very tiny and the weights are as follows: The two larger neonates are both 14 grams. The really little one is only 4 grams. That's not much bigger than a mud turtle hatchling. I will get measurements in a couple of days. Right now they are all back in the incubator.
As for the genetics and whether or not they are identical and so forth, those kind of things are beyond me. I really don't know but I'm sure others do.