Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have two out of three clutches of eggs. One clutch is king eggs, the other corn (in seperate hova-bators). The corn layed 21 smaller eggs and the king layed 7 large eggs. The king eggs look pretty good. One swelled up a bit, but is still looking nice. I have all the eggs half covered in moist perilite. I then have moist but not too moist) moss on top of the eggs. The temps are between 78-80. I do not have a humidity guage in there, but I keep the trays (below the eggs) filled with water.
I have noticed three of the corn eggs start to grow mold. I know mold is okay, but they smell. The eggs still look solid and white (besides the part starting to mold). I noticed a majority of the eggs have hair-like cracks in them. Just surface cracks. Kinda hard to describe, but kinda like old paint does when it dries out, before it peels. I was wondering if I put the eggs in the hova-bator too soon. They were kinda leathery/moist when I put them in. Freshly layed, They had not dried. The eggs are not drooping, sagging, and are still white. They are not yellowing and don't look bad to me.
Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong. I want to do everything I can to get these little guys to hatch.
Or, am I just freaking out over normal stuff?
The king eggs did not do the cracking thing and they have not molded at all. Thanks for any feedback
-----
**********Misty**********
We are the people our parents warned us about!

1.1.2 bearded dragons
0.1.1 water dragons
2.4.5 leopard geckos
15.23.7 corn snakes
1.1.0 jungle corns
5.2.0 king snakes
1.0.0 royal (Ball) pythons
1.0.0 Sinaloan milk snake
0.1.0 Tri-Hybrid milk snake
0.1.0 rat snake
1.1.0 Leucistic rat snakes
0.0.1 prairie ringneck snakes
0.1.0 chilean rose hair tarantula
1.1.0 emperor scorpions
1.1.0 Congo African Grey Parrots
0.1.0 German Shepherd hybrid dog

After reading your post nothing jumps out as being wrong. The eggs you describe sound pretty good - the fine cracks may be nothing, or they may indicate low calcium in the shells. This could make them vulnerable to mold attack.

Remember that this is not a cake being baked. One can do everything perfectly correct (i.e, follow the recipe) and still lose eggs.

Mold is not uncommon as a problem. I have never had a moldy egg hatch, but they can and do hatch normal babies. They can also hatch babies that show developemental abnomalities. Or they can just go bad and die.

Some advocate that mold can be treated with a dilute (5%) bleach solution. This may or may not save the egg - or harm the embryo.

I urge you not to give up on eggs until they are obviously dead and/or well past hatching time. I have had eggs that appeared dead have live embryos inside. I have also had eggs that looked perfectly good have deformed embryos that died.

In a way its a bit of a crap shoot. All we can really do is make the conditions as conducive to developement and hatching as possible. After that nature does the rest.

Good luck,
John D
-----
0.1 Creamsicle Cornsake "Yolanda"
1.0 Bairds Ratsnake "Steely Dan"

>>I have two out of three clutches of eggs. One clutch is king eggs, the other corn (in seperate hova-bators). The corn layed 21 smaller eggs and the king layed 7 large eggs. The king eggs look pretty good. One swelled up a bit, but is still looking nice. I have all the eggs half covered in moist perilite. I then have moist but not too moist) moss on top of the eggs. The temps are between 78-80. I do not have a humidity guage in there, but I keep the trays (below the eggs) filled with water.
>>I have noticed three of the corn eggs start to grow mold. I know mold is okay, but they smell. The eggs still look solid and white (besides the part starting to mold). I noticed a majority of the eggs have hair-like cracks in them. Just surface cracks. Kinda hard to describe, but kinda like old paint does when it dries out, before it peels. I was wondering if I put the eggs in the hova-bator too soon. They were kinda leathery/moist when I put them in. Freshly layed, They had not dried. The eggs are not drooping, sagging, and are still white. They are not yellowing and don't look bad to me.
>>Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong. I want to do everything I can to get these little guys to hatch.
>>Or, am I just freaking out over normal stuff?
>>The king eggs did not do the cracking thing and they have not molded at all. Thanks for any feedback
>>-----
>>**********Misty**********
>>We are the people our parents warned us about!
>>
>>1.1.2 bearded dragons
>>0.1.1 water dragons
>>2.4.5 leopard geckos
>>15.23.7 corn snakes
>>1.1.0 jungle corns
>>5.2.0 king snakes
>>1.0.0 royal (Ball) pythons
>>1.0.0 Sinaloan milk snake
>>0.1.0 Tri-Hybrid milk snake
>>0.1.0 rat snake
>>1.1.0 Leucistic rat snakes
>>0.0.1 prairie ringneck snakes
>>0.1.0 chilean rose hair tarantula
>>1.1.0 emperor scorpions
>>1.1.0 Congo African Grey Parrots
>>0.1.0 German Shepherd hybrid dog

-----
until next time make mine slither.herb
www.housesnakes@yahoo.com

>>I have two out of three clutches of eggs. One clutch is king eggs, the other corn (in seperate hova-bators). The corn layed 21 smaller eggs and the king layed 7 large eggs. The king eggs look pretty good. One swelled up a bit, but is still looking nice. I have all the eggs half covered in moist perilite. I then have moist but not too moist) moss on top of the eggs. The temps are between 78-80. I do not have a humidity guage in there, but I keep the trays (below the eggs) filled with water.
>>I have noticed three of the corn eggs start to grow mold. I know mold is okay, but they smell. The eggs still look solid and white (besides the part starting to mold). I noticed a majority of the eggs have hair-like cracks in them. Just surface cracks. Kinda hard to describe, but kinda like old paint does when it dries out, before it peels. I was wondering if I put the eggs in the hova-bator too soon. They were kinda leathery/moist when I put them in. Freshly layed, They had not dried. The eggs are not drooping, sagging, and are still white. They are not yellowing and don't look bad to me.
>>Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong. I want to do everything I can to get these little guys to hatch.
>>Or, am I just freaking out over normal stuff?
>>The king eggs did not do the cracking thing and they have not molded at all. Thanks for any feedback
>>-----relaxthats completly normal i use to just lightly rub the mold off.just sit back relax and what.
>>**********Misty**********
>>We are the people our parents warned us about!
>>
>>1.1.2 bearded dragons
>>0.1.1 water dragons
>>2.4.5 leopard geckos
>>15.23.7 corn snakes
>>1.1.0 jungle corns
>>5.2.0 king snakes
>>1.0.0 royal (Ball) pythons
>>1.0.0 Sinaloan milk snake
>>0.1.0 Tri-Hybrid milk snake
>>0.1.0 rat snake
>>1.1.0 Leucistic rat snakes
>>0.0.1 prairie ringneck snakes
>>0.1.0 chilean rose hair tarantula
>>1.1.0 emperor scorpions
>>1.1.0 Congo African Grey Parrots
>>0.1.0 German Shepherd hybrid dog
-----
until next time make mine slither.herb
www.housesnakes@yahoo.com

It sounds like there is too much moisture. The hairline cracks are not all that uncommon, and are usually nothing to worry about. Mold is fixable, but it is a sign of a problem, usually too high humidity. It really is best to squeeze as much moisture as you possibly can out of the bedding material. If you squeeze it by hand, I don't believe it's possible for you to squeeze it too dry. Although you may get the mold to disappear using various remedies, too much moisture also causes problems that won't be evident until later on. I have found over the years that too much moisture will cause a rise in the occurance of kinks and "dead in eggs".
-----
Carol Huddleston
www.lowbellyreptiles.com

Thank you very much. I ring out the moss, but have decided to let it dry a bit more. I will try the little tricks to getting the mold off.
thanks again to everyone
-----
**********Misty**********
We are the people our parents warned us about!

1.1.2 bearded dragons
0.1.1 water dragons
2.4.5 leopard geckos
15.23.7 corn snakes
1.1.0 jungle corns
5.2.0 king snakes
1.0.0 royal (Ball) pythons
1.0.0 Sinaloan milk snake
0.1.0 Tri-Hybrid milk snake
0.1.0 rat snake
1.1.0 Leucistic rat snakes
0.0.1 prairie ringneck snakes
0.1.0 chilean rose hair tarantula
1.1.0 emperor scorpions
1.1.0 Congo African Grey Parrots
0.1.0 German Shepherd hybrid dog

You can use anti-fungal foot powder and a blush brush. Put a little portion of the powder on a paper plate. Tip the brush into the powder and lightly tap off the excess. Brush the exposed portion of the egg lightly.

I use the generic foot power from CVS pharmacy. Works…

Many reasons why mold appears and if your eggs condition continues to deteriorate don’t toss it out until it starts stinking and collapses completely. That egg may not have been fertilized.

Like the other poster here stated, relax and maintain the recipe you will do fine.

I agree with Carol.

I don't think that it is possible to squeeze enough water out of the Perlite. I would start with fresh Perlite, weigh it, add an equal weight of water, mix it well, and move the eggs to the fresh medium.

Paul Hollander

Misty,

I wouldn't put moss over the eggs. I'd half-bury them in perlite, leaving the tops exposed. If the eggs are in clumps, the top ones don't even need to be in contact with perlite (see pic below). While moss is good as an egglaying medium, I haven't had much success with it as an incubation medium. I've even seperating clutches, incubating one half in moss and the other in perlite. The moss eggs went bad. Some people have suggested that the moss actually draws moisture out of the egg. That's just a theory, but any way you slice it, no moss for me when incubating eggs.

Some eggs look good but are actually bad. Therefore you can have clean, healthy-appearing eggs that "die." For me, if eggs get past the first 30 days of incubation, I'm reasonably sure they'll hatch. Before that 30 days, anything goes. On the other hand, eggs can look terrible and still hatch out babies. The good news is that moldy eggs generally won't affect healthy ones.

Tim

Third Eye

I had a clutch of Kisatchees where 4 eggs developed mold. I used the foot spray for athlete’s feet and it worked to kill the mold without any harmful effects on the babies. All eggs hatched fine. I have also used a very light coat of clear fingernail polish to kill it when the mold was a very small area and not all over the egg. Didn't notice a problem with any of those babies either. The fingernail polish was a suggestion from Doug Moody and it was used on a very severe patch of mold, I thought the egg was done for sure, but it made it. If using the fingernail polish, don't be surprised if the egg becomes very transparent looking in that location though.

Both need to be used sparingly though

you could candle the eggs to see if they are fertile. If you hold a small light up to them you will see red veins if they are fertile. The mold isn't much to wory about. Wipe it off, and/or get some anti foot fungus powder. I have used lotrimin powder with success.

The cracks you describe are a little wierd. Can you post a pic that will show them?

As far as moss for incubation... I love it. I usually use vermiculite but this year I tried perlite. I found that it was too dry and so now I have all of my eggs like yours with a nice moist blanket of moss over the perlite. All look great so far. In the past I have used only moss and it works great as long as you dont get it too sopping wet.

cheers

Those pics look almost exactly of the ones I took of my King laying. I have not uploaded and of those, but here she is before she became gravid

-----
**********Misty**********
We are the people our parents warned us about!

1.1.2 bearded dragons
0.1.1 water dragons
2.4.5 leopard geckos
15.23.7 corn snakes
1.1.0 jungle corns
5.2.0 king snakes
1.0.0 royal (Ball) pythons
1.0.0 Sinaloan milk snake
0.1.0 Tri-Hybrid milk snake
0.1.0 rat snake
1.1.0 Leucistic rat snakes
0.0.1 prairie ringneck snakes
0.1.0 chilean rose hair tarantula
1.1.0 emperor scorpions
1.1.0 Congo African Grey Parrots
0.1.0 German Shepherd hybrid dog

Good luck with your eggs! What does the male look like?

this is the father to my king eggs (which are doing great - no problems, like the corn eggs)

-----
**********Misty**********
We are the people our parents warned us about!

1.1.2 bearded dragons
0.1.1 water dragons
2.4.5 leopard geckos
15.23.7 corn snakes
1.1.0 jungle corns
5.2.0 king snakes
1.0.0 royal (Ball) pythons
1.0.0 Sinaloan milk snake
0.1.0 Tri-Hybrid milk snake
0.1.0 rat snake
1.1.0 Leucistic rat snakes
0.1.0 chilean rose hair tarantula
1.1.0 emperor scorpions
1.1.0 Congo African Grey Parrots
0.1.0 German Shepherd hybrid dog