Hi everyone,

I was panicking earlier as one of my female chucks laid 4 eggs and as I write this I think more will come. I heard a bit of commotion in the viv and I looked as she has been biting one of the smaller females lately and I've been keeping an eye on them, and as I looked to where they were I saw at the back of the viv an oval thing covered in sand. You would think I'd of immediately though EGG!!! but I was in disbelief at first and I was stupidly thinking, it can't be, is it a pebble (as it was covered in red sand so I couldn't tell the colour) and then I though well how can it be, I haven't put any pebbles in here lol (this was my panicking mind lol) and any way after a minute or so of disbelief I really started panicking, because I had nothing set up. You see the thing is if some of you remember last year I posted a few questions about one of my other females Mable and we came to the conclusion that she was gravid, and any way long story short, time went on and she seemed to gradually get thinner with no sign of any eggs, so we then came to the conclusion that she had reabsorbed them. I was very disappointed as I had the incubator set up and had done loads of research in preparation. So this time I saw Digit get really fat so I though could she be gravid, but then one of my smaller females had had a growth spert at the same time and also put on weight, so I half though well Digit might just be getting fat. I have also felt a couple of lumps in her stomach, but then I though well my males stomach can feel a bit lumpy sometimes. So every sign I saw I was putting it down to something else due to what happened to with Mable, it was just like in the back of my mind I was thinking oh yeah it can't be. I think I just though after what happened with Mable that I was never going to get any eggs and I was kidding my self. Well tonight has proved I was kidding myself but not the way I thought. Any way sorry for rambling on but I just want to fill you in as things have admittedly been a bit half arsed this time so far because as I said I had nothing set up for any eggs although I did have the incubator I made for last time, so I saw the first egg and panicked like crazy as my really little female crawled over it, so my first though was I need to get it out before one of them tramples it, so I took some of the dry vermiculite out of the incubator and put it in a small dish and I had a sprayer to hand that I use to spray my plants with water so I dampened it a little and took the egg out as carefully as I could and put it in the damp vermiculite. I then noticed her at the other end of the viv with an egg behind here, at this point I was really panicking and I went to pick the egg up and I was shaking a little bit lol (god knows what I'll be like when I have kids lol) this egg was also still soft where as the other had hardened a bit so it was difficult to pick up, I'm just hoping I didn't damage it or anything with me shaking a bit and then finding it hard to pick up. Any way I went down stares and covered that dish with cling film to keep the moisture in, and then I quickly soaked the rest of the vermiculite in warm water and squeezed it out as hard as I could as I read before, at this point I had already switched the incubator on to be warming up. Any way so when all that was done I transferred the 2 eggs I already had in to there and then went back upstairs with it and pugged it back in. Pretty much straight away the surface temp was reading 80f ish and last time I checked the dimples where the rest of the eggs will go red between 83f and 85f which I think is about right. The other two eggs I have went a bit better when picking them up as I used a small spoon to gently scoop under them and managed to keep the more stable and level. So yeah at the moment 4 eggs and I think I'll be getting some more fairly soon, she hasn't laid any more for about an hour or so she is sleeping at the moment but I keep checking on her and I think I will be up with her most of the night to keep checking on her and for more eggs. I noticed the first egg at about 8.30pm ish and the rest not too long after that, and it is now 9.50pm so it's going to be a long night.



Any way now you are filled in on the situation a bit, I have some specific questions that I will list below.

1. first what do you think to what I've said? I know it's been a bit half arsed but do you think I did ok under the circumstances?

2. I'm really worried about the first two eggs as I think with the little chuck climbing over the first one and me maybe not picking them up steady enough that I might have damaged them, so what is the tolerance of movement when picking them up? Is it only if you were to turn them nearly fully over that you damage them?

3. How can I tell if they are fertile? I've heard of candling, can this be done without disturbing the eggs and if so how do you do it and what light do you use.

4. I've also heard about some if not all of them going bad, if they are all infertile will they all simply go bad or can they look OK but still be infertile? And if they will go bad due to been infertile then when can I expect to see signs of this.

5. condensation has already built up inside the incubator, not to the extent of running down the sides or anything, but how much condensation should I expect? I could open the vents on top a bit to let some moisture out if it turns out there is too much.

I think that is all the questions I have for now, I might think of more after I have settled down a bit lol, I'll post pics tomorrow of my incubator so that you can advice me better. I look forward to reading your advice and I'll keep you posted.



Thank in advance

Martin

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