Snakes will pip their eggs about 55 days into incubation although I have had some pip as early as 49 days and some go as late as 62 days. In order to get out of the leathery egg, ball pythons slice, or pip, the egg with their egg tooth. The egg tooth is very tiny and really isn’t a tooth at all. It’s a tiny piece of pointed skin that is effective in slicing though the egg shell.

When baby pythons first pip their egg they don’t come racing out. They usually hang out in the egg for at least a few hours with most hatchlings staying in much longer than that. They sit in the egg for a while to absorb their yolk and adjust to breathing air.

The baby snakes within a clutch will usually pip within a day of each other. When I see a clutch starting to pip, I inspect the eggs and then put them back in the incubator until the following day. By the next day the entire clutch usually has pipped and one or two hatchlings may have emerged from their eggs already.
Often a snake will make multiple slits in the egg. Sometimes they pip and then pull back into the egg if disturbed. This is all normal behavior and does not indicate a hatching problem. The entire clutch is usually out of their egg one to two days after first pipping.