My eggs go 9-11 months and just dryout and die. Temps are mid 70s. Any ideas?
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My eggs go 9-11 months and just dryout and die. Temps are mid 70s. Any ideas?
You said.."My eggs go 9-11 months and just dryout and die. Temps are mid 70s. Any ideas?"...its hard to tell you what went wrong for sure....but it might help me to give you some possibilities if you provide more information.
Did they grow/swell a lot during the incubation? How moist is your incubation substrate? What do you use for an incubation substrate? What kind of container did you put them in? Were they incubated in the dark? Was there any moisture beading on the sides of the incubation container? Did you open any of the eggs to see if there was an embryo inside? If there was, how well developed was it?
I used a RM shoe box. A mix of perlite and vermiculite. Humidity 2:1 buy weight. I open he boxes weekly add water if the medium dries out. Temps mid 70s. Embryos are fully developed just don't hatch. The light levels are dim. No direct light just indirect. I've never had any trouble hatching until 4 or 5 months ago.
I have heard of eggs containing fully formed embryos in them in both pardalis and calyptratus....but I can find no definite reasons why.
I have also read that eggs that were incubated in continuous light did not hatch well. I can't find where I read this right now.
Here are some sites with information pertaining to the above...
Ferguson in his scientific paper concluded that Panther chameleons require moderate levels of UVB. Commercial low level UVB producing bulbs (such as the Zoomed 5.0), when used correctly, produce adequate amounts for successful reproduction whereas too much UVB can negatively effect the hatchability of Panther chameleon eggs."
http://www.martinsreptiles.co.uk/ukchams/uvlightingresearch.htm
Sorry I can't give you a better answer.
"FWIW: I believe that elevated temps cause an increase in respiration inside the egg. If you increase respiration too much, you exceed the shells capability to transfer gases quickly enough and the embryo smothers. Now maybe chameleon eggs are more sensitive to this but I have seen stories of eggs going full term and babies stillborn, but perfectly formed. Even tho it takes longer, I will opt for lower temps."
http://www.bio.miami.edu/ktosney/file/BDeggs1.html
"without high UV-B irradiation, all viable eggs died at term"
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/68753/ABSTRACT?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/101523434/ABSTRACT
I don't really know what is going wrong, but I think I can help you get around it. I start off with 75 % water weight to vermiculite ratio. Then every couple of months I change the vermiculite out completely. Just start over essentially. That way you won't have to add any water or worry about the eggs drying out. Hope this helps it has helped me to eliminate any problems I have had with Eggs.
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