Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a snake that laid eggs last week. This was unexpected, so we got an incubator from a friend and have the eggs in some vermeculite at 89 degrees. There is one egg on the top of all the rest that seems a bit dehydrated (with a dent) and one that has some discoloration. It looks like it is going almost transparent. I'm going to try to up the humidity for the egg on the top, but don't want to oversaturate the bottom ones. I cannot seperate them. Any advice on this?

Also there is one that has the discoloration. It seems to be going just a bit transparent in that spot, but is still firm there. There is a decent pic of it below.

What is this and is there anything I can do about it?

Thanks in advance for all your help!!

The discoloration is not unusual-just a spot of less calcification. It should not have a bad effect...

The dent probably won't matter either, but you could try wetting then thoroughly wringing out a paper towel-then fold it to the size of the egg and rest it lightly on top for a day or two.....
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Brad Chambers
WWW.HCU-TX.ORG

The Avalanche has already started-it is too late for the pebbles to vote....

thanks for your advice. not to discredit you and i mean no offence, but how long have you been breeding and have you dealt with this before personaly? with the risk of sounding rude,i am only asking because i do not want to just take any old advice and hurt the eggs. please dont be offended! this is the very first clutch of eggs i have ever dealt with. also to boot, i was supprised to find the eggs, because i was not trying to breed my snakes.

was the spotting there from the start?
if not...it is from the egg being too wet or dieing...
too wet you just have to know...feel it....
dieing you cannot reverse....
if it is dieing it will turn greenish ,blueish inside then get worse and worse and stink....

...too wet you need to figure it out right now....

the top one with a dent?...I didn't see it in the pic....but top eggs do dent and I also use cloth rag pieces ,dampened and layed over the egg/ eggs.....I leave the rag the whole time...and rewet it as needed.......cloth rags are better than moss and paper towels in my opinion......

(I have hatched hundreds of balls by the way..thousands of eggs from snakes in general... ..I am old....you didn't want old advise...LOL...sorry....)

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..J Yohe ....

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lmao! thanks sooo much! lol old advice!! the spot was not there from the start, but it is not turning blue or green either. today is day 6. the top egg is really the only one that is dented. so i will use a small cloth. thanks so much.

No offense taken-it's wise to be cautious on forums....I have hatched thousands of snakes and a couple of hundred balls-I hatched my first clutch of balls in 1989.
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Brad Chambers
WWW.HCU-TX.ORG

The Avalanche has already started-it is too late for the pebbles to vote....

thank you for understanding

It's a window -- it should be fine -- a good size one you'll likely get to watch your baby develop.

When Laid

One month later

Hatching

Good Luck!
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Tosha
JET Pythons
Toshas Blog

Herp Medicine does not equal a bottle of Baytril - Dr. Scott Stahl

wow! thanks that is so awesome to see the windows! i am relieved now to know that it can be a normal thing! thanks so much!

The discoloration looks like it may be from water dripping on the eggs. Is water condensing on the bottom side of the lid? If so, it may be dripping down onto the eggs. They should still be ok at this point, but I would try to keep them from getting dripped on further.
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-Jeff
http://jefflumanreptiles.com

thank you for your advice, and yes, there was water on the lid, i have been wiping it off

>>thank you for your advice, and yes, there was water on the lid, i have been wiping it off

If you are having a big problem with condensation you might want to try having the container slightly tilted in the incubator. I usually put a pencil or something under one side of the tub which makes the container slightly unlevel. That makes the water run off the lid down the sides of the tub instead of dripping on the eggs.
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John Vandegrift