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these are on day 22....they look way too dented to me......what can we do to fix

Not wet enough , your humidity is to low and your substrate looks to be to dry .that’s why your eggs are collapsing . David

can they be saved?......if so....how?

Add water till the egg laying material is damp but not so damp when you squeeze it water drips out. The moss you have on top, dampen as well but again, no water should come out when you squeeze it hard...the eggs may plump up and be good, but no guarantees. You just have to rehydrate them and hope for the best.
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PHLdyPayne

>>can they be saved?......if so....how?

I have found Kingsnake eggs in the wild that looked much worse and they still hatched.

I have not had this happen with any of my eggs, so I can only offer an opinion based on what I have read.

IF, they were mine; I would add a very small amount of water in one or two of the corners to stabilize the eggs and prevent any additional water loss. You do not want to try and rehydrate them only stabilize.

The Barkers (See page 235 of their Ball Python book)experimented with moving dry eggs to a moister environment with negative results. They theorized that eggs some how adapt and that drastic changes can be detrimental.

Dave
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PIJAC Member

Everyone else is right - rehydration is the key. Yes, you can possibly save the clutch, but there are no guarantees.

I would add only a small amount of water to the substrate.

I would also take a small bowl, cup or other container that can fit within your egg box and fill that with water - make sure it does not splash when you move the box. The increased surface area of the water in the container will help it evaporate faster and will increase the humidity in the air of the egg box. This will allow your eggs to draw exactly the amount of water they need from the ambient air - similar to how it works for the "No-substrate" method.

This will also reduce your risk of over watering (and thus drowning) the eggs.

At this point I would not disturb the eggs too much or switch to the no substrate method.

This is what I would do if I were in your situation. Last year I did have eggs that dented prematurely despite having my humidity above 90% throughout the incubation period. It does happen from time to time that they dent early, however, your eggs look more dented than I would feel comfortable with.

I would do one of two things:

1-I would prepare a new box, with substrate moist, but not wet. I would then place the eggs in the new box, and hope for the best. I might put a dry layer of substrate on the top, where the eggs will be placed.

2-I would place a small bowl of water in one or two corners of your box, and replace the water as it goes down....or, just drizzle some water in two of the corners of your box.

Dave

Did you ever candle them? I used to think why candle as whatever will hatch will hatch. But now I’ve decided it’s worth knowing what not to worry about and possibly damage good eggs trying to save bad ones.

These may not have been fertile/live to start with. I've had good looking not live eggs that take 2 or 3 weeks to collapse. I've got 2 out of a 6 egg clutch now that have never shown veins since the day they where laid. They are about 2 weeks old and all still look perfect but I expect those two to start collapsing and eventually molding any time now. I'm not going to loose any sleep over those two and more importantly when they start to collapse I’m not going to increase the moisture level and risk the good four.

I'm not recommending giving up on them if you have any doubt they might be alive but it could be that they never had a chance and if so no use worrying about your incubation now. In my case I probably should have thrown the no vein ones out day one but hope springs eternal that maybe I just can't see something on the bottom. Once they get collapsed like yours I'm not sure if good ones would still candle well or not though but worth a try if you haven’t already tried candling. If you do see veins now or have tried before and seen them then I would recommend the stabilization the other poster suggested as I have also heard the Barker’s report those valuable experimentation results saying big swings are worse than too dry or too wet all along. Stabilization is probably the thing to do even if you don’t see veins but maybe you could stop worrying as much if it looks like you couldn’t have done anything different the last 3 weeks to make any difference anyway.