Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm about a 10 year breeder just to give you an idea. Been keeping reptiles for 30 years. I produce about 750 to 1000 babies a year at this point of all kinds. Colubrids, Boas and Pythons. (All by myself I might ad. No little helpers.)Anyway, now to the heart of the matter. I had this female aru this year that I breed to a sorong. Oh, also I live in littleton Colorado in the high desert. She laid this clutch in her egg laying pot and they where the kind of eggs that look like they have water splotching right from the start. Weird looking surface but fertile in otherwords. After 3 weeks they looked like they may start collapsing in a little much and the female is also looking like she could really use a meal. (after almost 6 months without) So I decided to artif. incub. I started to pull the fem. up off the eggs as I realized not a single egg was stuck together. I've never had a clutch laid in a pile that didn't adhere to each. (Unless they are bad eggs then they don't stick.) These things where as slick as chicken eggs. She was fighting me and not wanting to let go of the pile. It was a nightmare! I had my hands full by myself. I can't emphisize enough how much she didn't want me to have them. She was fighting me for every egg. HERE COMES THE DEFY PART! Some turned a quarter turn or so but i had at least 2 at the bottom do a complete 360 degree roll. As of today the 6th of July, every last egg in the 16 egg clutch finished hatching out. Can anyone explain this to me? I defied any piece of literature I have ever read. I have accidentally killed numerous colubrid eggs by turning them much less. The only thing I can think of is: Maybe they rolled exactly 360 degrees and centrifugal force kept things in the right place. Or maybe after a certain point during incubation they aren't as vulnerable as they are when the embryo is younger. I have no idea. Give me your idea or has this happened to anyone else out there. I don't know anyone who has ever done this. It's a first for me. Rob Mile High Exotics

I had basically the same thing happen to me with a clutch this year except I had to remove the eggs from the mom because my box was not holding enough humidity and the eggs started to wrinkle after one day of not misting them down and I was getting ready to go on vacation so I had no choice but to pull them and artificially incubate. Non of the eggs where stuck together and they went rolling when I removed them I just candled them and Lightly marked the veining with a pencil and they all hatched. i think the water spotting ussually means their just to humid.

Wow that is strange! I recenlty lost a whole clutch of woma eggs doing allot less! Good Luck, Big Jim

Here is a picture while they were hatching.
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Hi Rob,

I have been breeding large retics for a while now and every time my female albino, which is in the 20 ft range, lays 1-2 eggs always rolls off the top of the pile. Everytime it happens it scares the hell out of me too however, the only eggs that never hatch from her are one that were laid infertile. I cant explain it either but I am glad everytime they hatch.

Thanks, R.D.