Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I dug up these a few days ago. Sorry about the crappy picture quality. By the way, the eggs are much whiter than they appear in the pictures, and even more so since they are covered in dirt.

That's three out of eight eggs that were laid (and I found another late-laid or consumed and passed/regurged egg in the cage yesterday, which makes nine). The other eggs were all bad, and I threw them out today. What's weird is, that I did not even suspect that she was going to lay, or that they even bred. I guess they just happened to breed on the week and a half ago I was gone, and laid the week after. It kind of caught me off guard seeing my female all deflated when the day before she had been quite plump and healthy looking. I guess they like to mess with me.

I have a question though. Is it typical for the female's first clutch to have a low fertility rate? Or did I screw up somewhere? Oh well, I guess I will hopefully find out via more eggs in the coming weeks.

Now my real test is going to be incubation. 3-4 months of time to give me a chance to screw up...

Cheers,
Ryan
-----
There are three kinds of people in this world: people who can count and people who can't.

Congrats Ryan,
And you didn't believe in the Easter bunny! Best to you- Mike

Lol...

"Hey look the Easter Bunny cam-... what the hell is that? THERES A LIZARD IN THE EGG! AHHHHH!"

here are my guys from last spring. 5 of 7 hatched I have 6 eggs in now

Ryan, Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but those look to be infertile eggs...They don't look full to me but maybe the picture is playing tricks on my eyes... I had one of my female red ackies lay a clutch of 12 infertiles two days ago, they looked really white but were not full (as in somewhat squishy)... :/
Here is a pic of the eggs I dug up the other day:

See how deflated they look...I put a clutch in the incubator that looked like those about a month ago and they turned yellowish after a week or so. I think my problem is my male...luckily the females give lots of chances for better eggs! Hahaha...well hopefully you'll get some good eggs real soon! Cheers, Lance

In the other post that those eggs also were not dented in as they appeared. Well, one is, but that is only slightly and it happened today. All of the other eggs looked like the ones in your pic from the beginning, except perhaps a tad darker. Anyway, the eggs are plump and white, so hopefully they are good. But even if they are, I will probably end up messing them up anyways.

Anybody know the answer to my question on infertiles on the female's first clutch?

Cheers,
Ryan
-----
There are three kinds of people in this world: people who can count and people who can't.

The eggs don't look good, but incubate them until they stink.

No, it is not "normal" for the first clutch to be bad with any type of monitor.

In real life, the eggs look like this. They are just as plump (except the middle one in a single spot, but I think that occured from being too dry), and are roughly the same color. I wish I had a decent enought camera to show their true appearance, but I don't. I wish the Easter Bunny would have brought me one of those too...

Anyway, I didn't think that it was normal. But I had heard somewhere that there was a good potential for the female's first clutch to be mostly infertile. However, it was most likely caused by low calcium intake, my lame male ackie, or some other of the many potential problems you face keeping monitors. Oh well, I'll keep these in there until they hatch or begin to stink, or grow a huge mass of mold around them like the others did.

Cheers,
Ryan
-----
There are three kinds of people in this world: people who can count and people who can't.

You'll know soon enough.

Good Luck

Hey congrats on the clutch! My female laid yesterday too! I have some similar questions and problems as you do. I posted a new and long post just now at the top of the forum. We should stay in touch while our eggs are incubating and compare notes. Have a great one.

Eric

while they do look a bit funky, i've had some pretty strange looking ball python eggs turn out fertile.

if ur concerned about fertility, why not candle them?

(i have no experience breeding monitors but it would seem reasonable that candling should work for monitor eggs as well?)

If they're nice and full leave them in the incubator till they hatch or rot. The viens that are visible when candling don't show up untill later in incubation. Even then though, if they're not stinking and growing mold...don't mess with them. Candling monitor eggs seems a lot more unsafe than just being patient. For example: temp changes, handling the egg, etc...seems like a whole lot of room for error to me but hey they're your eggs...and your decision to make. Cheers, Lance

Thanks everybody. I will do my best to leave them be and not screw them up. But even if they are good, I am sure I can find a way to mess them up. Hopefully the additional trio I received tonight will keep my mind off of them.

By the way, my animals are roughly 1 1/4 years of age. They did previously breed nonstop for a few days at about 13 months of age, but they yielded no eggs. Just in case anybody was curious on their history.

Cheers,
Ryan
-----
There are three kinds of people in this world: people who can count and people who can't.