Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all,

I have a yellow ackie clutch that is at day number 94 of incubation. On Thursday evening when I got home from work I saw that one of the eggs had piped and the head was out. A couple of other eggs had dimpled and had the beginnings of slits in them. When I got home today the first hatchling had emerged and more of the eggs had piped. There are 15 eggs total. The other 2 that looked like they were starting have not progressed any further and the dimpled 2 look more collapsed. Currently I have 1 hatched, 2 with heads out, 2 dimpled or collapsed, 1 with a weird red coloring to the shell along the perlite. 3 that are minorly slit with no heads showing (they are similar in appearance to the first 2 that have not progressed) and 6 that look like they have looked for the past 2 months white and full and solid. How long should I wait to slit the eggs myself? Should I only slit those that look closer to hatching or that are having trouble? They are about 2 weeks early on the average 110 days. Should I slit all of them? Thank you in advance for any help you can give me.

Eric

If they are going to hatch and be healthy they won't need any help getting out of the egg on their own. Let them incubate untill they hatch or rot...I've learned my lesson on trying to help herps hatch... they've been doing it for millions of years without human help. So I say leave them alone be patient,it might take some a lot longer to emerge than others. Best of luck to you! -Lance

Thanks for the response Lance. I was thinking the same thing. I have been reading in the forums about cutting eggs open but most people seem to do it with snakes and not monitors or lizards. Is that what you have seen? Anyway I will keep everyone posted and also keep my fingers crossed I have 9 more eggs from another female due to hatch in about 1 month. Have a great rest of your weekend.

Eric

Usually snakes hatch within a few days of each other. Some Monitor, as well as Tortoise and other lizard eggs may take a month or so between the first pip and the rest emerging.