Reptile & Amphibian Forums

here are some pics of the egg. wrinkly on bottom, dark end covered in little white mites - ugh!

think I should toss it? I can't imagine anything will be coming out of it and I hate that I am building a mite colony!
bad egg

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Chameleon Help & Resource Info
1.0 Nosy Be Panther Chameleon - Cyrus
0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
1.1 Side-blotched lizards - Ana and Stan for now
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skippy
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh, Died 4/21/06
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha, donated to science 4/4/06
?.? Pinktoe Tarantula - no name yet

I have had some look so deflated , it seemed impossible for anything to come out, but they did Just try and contain those buggies. I have had eggs go bad but never had mites on them. Maybe they were in your substrate.
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PHEve / Eve

Contact PHEve

I'd transfer the good eggs to some new substrate. I'd give the "bad" egg the sniff test. I've yet to have a stinker hatch. Since this egg is the same age as the hatchling's you could also try slitting it in case the hatchling is just too weak to get out on its own, but it's not looking too promising.

Good luck,
Alice

thanks Eve and Alice,

There are no good eggs, it is just the one (those other pics on that page are from an earlier clutch, it is just the last 4 pics of the single egg.

Eve, I used a brand new bag of vermiculite so not sure they'd be in there. I know they can remain dormant for REALLY long periods of time.

Alice, it is so tiny that if I cut it I would be afraid I'd slice the little one - where would I do it? On an end? I have performed "sugery" on moth cocoons as well as caterpillars stuck in a molt (actually cutting skin that hs not broken and is strangling their soft little bodies So I can do it, just need a little guidance. I have to say, it did seem ot have a smell

thanks,
lele
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Chameleon Help & Resource Info
1.0 Nosy Be Panther Chameleon - Cyrus
0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
1.1 Side-blotched lizards - Ana and Stan for now
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skippy
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh, Died 4/21/06
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha, donated to science 4/4/06
?.? Pinktoe Tarantula - no name yet

Take a forceps (or tweezers) and gently grasp a small portion of any part of the egg where there is a bit of slack. In the leathery reptile egg which is very due to hatch, there is usually a bit of deflate-ability. You make a slit in the part of the eggshell which you have pinched out. This will generally exclude the embryo from being sliced. Just be sure to grasp only the most outer part of the egg, not a big pinch of it. The baby lizard will be curled up, tail curled over its head.

But, it doesn't look so good for "that" egg,

it does look like there is a slit where that darkened area was. I rinsed off the egg just to clean off as many mites as possible and bits of verm.

will let you know the outcome in a little bit, but I am not too hopeful either.
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Chameleon Help & Resource Info
1.0 Nosy Be Panther Chameleon - Cyrus
0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
1.1 Side-blotched lizards - Ana and Stan for now
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skippy
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh, Died 4/21/06
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha, donated to science 4/4/06
?.? Pinktoe Tarantula - no name yet

but ya have to make sure, or it will drive ya nuts wonderng
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PHEve / Eve

Contact PHEve

yeah, she (why do I keep thinking it was a girl?) did not look good. Here is a pic. There was a slit in the egg where her head was - could she have started to come out and then died in the egg? Maybe I should have checked on her soon after Stan Jr. came out. What happens if you open one and it is just a day or two too early - is there a way to "close it up"? With cocoons we can do it with toweling and then mist, but that is a little different.

Speaking of Stan Jr. I do not think he is eating. I have tiny baby turkistan roaches and ff. I had toweling down but took it out so the roaches wouldn't hide underneath. I tried to put him in a bowl witha few roaches but he freaked. any tips??

He is in a 2.5 gal with a 40w light but raised up high so his basling temp is about 75-80 and he has shells and other cool places to hide.

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Chameleon Help & Resource Info
1.0 Nosy Be Panther Chameleon - Cyrus
0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
1.1 Side-blotched lizards - Ana and Stan for now
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skippy
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh, Died 4/21/06
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha, donated to science 4/4/06
?.? Pinktoe Tarantula - no name yet

When I see mites working on an egg, it pretty much has meant in the past that the egg was dead.

Too bad

Hopefully the new batch of eggs will all hatch.

You may need higher temps for Junior. Even though he's tiny, you might want to try moving him into a 10 gallon so that you can have a better gradient. I'd shoot for a high temp around 95, and the cool end in the high 70's. I have some sagebush lizards in a 10 with a UV coil at the cool end and a 50 watt spot on an elevated basking site on the warm end. Sometimes they just won't eat unless you can get the temps up. I'd mist at least a couple times a day to keep him hydrated. Will the roaches burrow in sand? Sometimes being able to burrow can make the lizard feel more secure.

In terms of the lost egg, the baby looks to have been dead awhile. I've hatched a lot of leopard geckos. With some questionable way overdue eggs I'd slit it in case the baby was not strong enough to make it out. Most of the time, the baby was already dead. In the few cases, where a baby did manage to make it out, there was often a physical deformity or the baby just never thrived (probably internal problems). Most of these babies needed to be euthanized. Now, I don't open eggs any more and let nature take its course, and if they don't make it out, it wasn't meant to be How much water are you using? Sometimes too much water can lead to late term death. If you're using a 1:1 ratio of water to substrate by weight , maybe scale it back to .8:1.

-Alice

Someone said not to overheat (I know this happens with chams) so I have been keeping him in mid-80's now. I can move the light closer to get a higher basking temp (I use a temp gun so get accurate readings). He has lots of stones and places to cool off and hide. I do not have sand in yet so I could monitor his eating and pooping. He will be one week old tomorrow, do you think it is OK to put in sand?

Fortunately, this species of roach does not burrow, but of course they hide. He has not seemed interested in the ff either. I'm going to hatch out some silkies for him, but that will take a while and the mealies I have are too big. I am going out to look for caterpillars - his mama loves the geometrids (aka inchworms). I know my Leps well so won;t feed him anything poisonous

As for the egg substrate, I use very well squeezed out (LOL!) vermiculite and maintain their temps at about 80-85. They are ion a small critter keeper with glad wrap over top with some small holes. I check the temps 2x/day so there is air exchange but no/minimal temp variation thru the day and night.

Hard to know if #2 could have been saved if I'd acted sooner, but it is so hard to know. This new clutch of four look big and healthy - nice rosy glow , but we shall see.

Any other advice appreciated!

lele
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Chameleon Help & Resource Info
1.0 Nosy Be Panther Chameleon - Cyrus
0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
1.1 Side-blotched lizards - Ana and Stan for now
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skippy
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh, Died 4/21/06
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha, donated to science 4/4/06
?.? Pinktoe Tarantula - no name yet