>>Dave, I find it very interesting that the hatchling weighs more than Its egg at the time of laying. I just recently started keeping similar records on a few of my egg clutches. I use a slightly drier moisture content than most when incubating my eggs. My eggs usually start to dent/collapse slightly a week or two before hatching. My babies are usually one-three grams lighter than the egg at the time of laying. the empty egg shell usually weighs in at one-three grams. the sum of these two weights usually equals the exact weight of the egg at the time it was laid.

Rusty,
This is a recent venture for me too, to measure and weigh eggs/hatchlings.

Dave, I am puzzled when I contemplate how a hatchling can weigh more than the egg at the time of laying. I understand that an egg can gain weight by absorbing moisture, but even then I don't know how that could cause the baby to gain more weight than the original egg weight. In fact the studies I am familiar with show that the more moisture an egg absorbs from its medium, the smaller the hatchling will be.

Rusty, all of which makes perfect sense, I had better check the batteries of my scales I think - the weights do seem pretty uniform if they are at fault but its certainly a possibility and I need to make sure that they are indeed accurate.

Dave, I'm not contradicting your data, like I said in the beginning of my post I find it very interesting. Have you had other similar results with other clutches or species? Has anyone else gathered similar data? All my data is from north american ratsnakes. Regards, Rusty

Rusty, no worries at all, great point raised, I'll buy new batteries sometime this week and reweigh the babies to compare weights. I have recorded one other species (C. helena see a fairly recent post on here) and they pretty much match up with what you'd expect, in the past I have had spurious measurements from these scales when the batteries are on their way out, although this is usually accompanied by them being unable to power the scales for anything but a brief moment too. Still, I think something is likely going on there as they do seem 'heavy' and I was surprised myself. Perhaps I have been putting too much faith in technology! LOL!

Many thanks for pointing out the obvious that I have been oblivious to!


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Devboy.

www.ratsnakefoundation.org

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