Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello everybody, I've got a few questions about eggs. I just got my 2nd clutch of eggs this year, first clutch was dropped on April 6th, 20 eggs, they were infertile (no male around) Barney (my female) dropped her second clutch of 24 eggs on May 5th this time, there was a male involved, they were housed together from April 11-May 5th (separated them before she dropped her eggs) All the eggs are in an incubator, they are all looking like eggs, not the dried up jelly bean looking things found in the first clutch. My question is, i've read that infertile or bad eggs will shrivel up, there are a few with dimples in them, but nothing shriveled up like the first clutch. Does this mean the eggs are fertile and doing well, or is it possible that the eggs are infertile and just look good do to the incubator, and if they were bad eggs, do they shrivel up right away, or can this happen at anytime through out the incubation process. thanks everybody. i hope to get my girlfriend (my tech support lol) to help me post some pics soon. thanks again!!!

How are you keeping the eggs? Are they in containers in the incubator? Dimpling can be a sign of too low a humidity. Are you measuring humidity?

As far as how long it will take for infertile eggs to go bad under proper incubator conditions, way longer than anyone would think. I have been testing that this year and almost all last longer than 45 days some even as long as 60 days.

Thanks for the reply, i do have them in containers, with lids resting on them, not sealed, just resting, and there are small holes poked on the outer rim of the cups. I have them in 3 cups, 8, 9, 7 eggs is the eggs count. They are in hatchrite bedding, and kept around 83-85 degrees, 90% humidity and usually goes up to 100% during the day. there is no condensation on the eggs, and a small amount, on the cups, below the substrate level.

I use deli cups and only have 3 1/8" holes in them, so maybe you should seal the lid. My incubator even with a bowl of water in it usually is only about 60% but inside the cups always measures 99%. You'll need to have a plan to replace water lost in the substrate over the incubation term. I weigh all of my containers and mark them. Then every 2 weeks I reweigh them and replace the water lost using an eyedropper to the substrate not on the eggs.

Hi, fertile eggs should turn a pink color after about a week. You can see the color really well using perlite or hatchrite. One tiny hole in the side of the container is fine. The good thing about hatchrite is that you can use it directly from the bag without having to add water. Josh

Yea but don't tell anyone about Hatchrite being sold by the pound rather than volume so most of what you are paying for is water. shhhhhh. lol.

hahaha! you're right about that! Josh

Yeah, very good point...I am happy to stick with plain old vermiculite. Paid about $15 for a huge bag...which probably last me a lifetime since I don't breed animals much. Might only use a couple cups of it a year. Just found paying about $6 for a small bag about one twentieth of the weight/size as the big bag a rip off...when a little more than double the price and I get 20x the amount.
-----
PHLdyPayne