Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello
My female black rough neck is laying eggs right now. She deposited two out in the cage~ thats how I know what she is doing~ but is now down in a burrow so I think she is depositing the rest of what I am hoping will be a healthy clutch.

The two that were out look like nice healthy eggs but I don't really know what healthy monitor eggs look like~ I've included a pic of one. I tried candeling them but could see no viens. I know they were just laid though~ and with smaller snake eggs I often can not see viens on the day they are laid. IF these are viable will I be able to see viens within the week do you think? I have been looking for information but it doesn't seem as there is very much out there. I am planning to incubate the eggs at 86F whether I see viens or not~ just wondering if anyone else has any exp with this?

Thanks!

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Cheryl Marchek
AKA JM
The Red Dragons Den
Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons~ for you are Crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!

Hi, and monitor eggs are a bit different. So my advice is to not worry about it. Incubate them and if they are dead or infertile, they will not hatch. In most cases, they go stinky within a week or so. Weak eggs can die at any time and particularly at the time they are suppose to hatch.(did not develop fully or correctly)

About candling, it does no good, it will not help a monitor egg to hatch. In fact, it can only bring harm. Of course if you know what your doing, it may not harm them. The consideration here is, candling has no benefit to the egg, only you. If you think about it, the benefit is the egg hatching, not knowing its fertile.

I will mention this, if you take a normal healthy developing egg out of the incubator and candle it in an air conditioned room, the egg can pop. Yes, it happens.

About veins, they normally start to develop in about a month. But that is only a generality. As it can occur within days or not for several months. We have had eggs take over a year to hatch and eggs from the same clutch, hatched at 3 1/2 months.

So, back to the start, incubate them and leave them alone and that is the very best you can do. Anything other then that, can only bring harm to the egg. Remember you have two possible outcomes, the egg will hatch, or not. Even if fertile, does not mean it will hatch.

If you take the varanid average of egg hatching, in the U.S., and take away about a dozen people, then you can say monitor eggs rarely hatch, no matter how good they are. Congrats you have a female. Cheers

I'm still excited~ even though I know there is a better chance of failure than success. All I can do is try~ and ask questions when I can't find the answers on my own.

I appreciate the info~
And I'm just a happy camper this week! We've got eggs! Thats enough for now.
LOL!
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Cheryl Marchek
AKA JM
The Red Dragons Den
Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons~ for you are Crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!

Cheryl, congrats and good luck with them

Quig

P.S. The Darkling is growing
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Don't interupt me when I'm talkin' to myself

Good! I'm glad he's doing well!
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Cheryl Marchek
AKA JM
The Red Dragons Den
Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons~ for you are Crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!

And not candling still allows you to be excited as you want. Remember, candling does not help any egg. You should be excited, good on you. Post pics of all the eggs, oh and how many, and did you see copulation? etc. You know, the details, Cheers and mucho excitement.

Don't worry~ I stopped trying to candle them when you said too! I don't have much hope for them though. She laid them all over the cage over a 2 day period. I think if they were good she would have gone ahead and made a proper nest. Oh well~ they LOOK good to me so I"m still incubating them. There are ten in all~ this pic was taken after I had collected them all. After this pic they were moved into two different deli cups~ 5 in each cup~ covered with barely damp moss and put into an incubator at 86F. I plan to open the deli cups at least once a week to allow air exchange. It's not been a week yet~ but I opened it today to have a peak and all the eggs still "Look" nice and healthy~ but like I said~ I'm not holding out much hope.

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Cheryl Marchek
AKA JM
The Red Dragons Den
Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons~ for you are Crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!