Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I posted this message in the breeding forum, but figured I'd put a brief description of my problem here where it might get more hits.

I had a female drop a clutch of eggs that I wasn't quite prepared for. I bred her to my male pastel in the spring, but she didn't show any of the normal signs.

The eggs sat in the cage for two days before I could get them into a per-lite and water mixture. A couple of the eggs are pretty severely dimpled, and a few are a bit transluscent on one side. I have candled most of them and they seem fertile.

Oh, and I have an incubator on the way, should arrive tomorrow...

My main question is whether or not the transluscent side on some of the eggs is a problem? It seems to be mainly on the side that is on the wet perlite mixture, so I didn't know if it was just a result of the added moisture. None of the eggs have browned or anything, and no mold is growing.

Any advice or input would be very welcome. Thanks. I have the feeling that I'm being an over-anxious "mother", but needed some experienced inpt. Thanks.

Dave.

I'm new to this too and I incubated too wet this year (my first year). The eggs touching the pearlite got translucent/gray and I ended up losing over 1/2 of my 9 egg clutch. My suggestion would be to try to raise the bottom eggs off of the moist pearlite in hopes you can save them. If left on the pearlite which sounds like it is too wet like mine was, you might lose your eggs like I did. Good luck and I hope some more seasoned breeders will offer you good advise based on successful clutches they've had. I've seen alot of photos of BP eggs sitting on a kind of grate and not actually touching the Pearlite which is what I'm going to try next year.
-----
.

Have you been hugged by your snake today?

Ball Pythons
1.1 100% het Caramel Albinos (Edward & Bella)
0.1 66% ph Caramel Albino (Rosalie)
0.1 Caramel Albino (Bellatrix)
1.0 Butterscotch Ghost (Nick)
1.0 Honey Bee (Aragog)
0.1 Pastel Orange Ghost (Nagini)
0.1 Spider 66% ph Ghost(Nymphadora)
1.1 Mojaves (Lucius & Renesme)
0.1 Pastel Lesser (Narcissa)
0.1 Pinstripe (Arwen)
1.0 Pewter (Salazar)
0.1 Bumble Bee (Alice)
0.1 Lemonblast (Luna)
0.1 Blond Pastel (Katie)
1.0 Bell Pastel (Jasper)
0.1 African Dinker (Esme)
0.1 Normal (Madame Olympe Maxime)
0.0.3 Baby 66% ph Caramel Albinos (Edward x Bella)
0.0.3 Eggs in the incubator (Jasper x Esme)

Corns
1.1 het Amel, Anery, Charcoal, Bloodred (Romeo & Juliet)
1.0 Blizzard het Bloodred poss het Anery Lav (Tumnus)
0.1 Anery Lav (Lucy)
0.1 Plasma (Victoria)
0.1 Opal (Jewel)
0.0.22 Babies (Romeo x Juliet)
0.0.18 Babies (Tumnus x Lucy)

Hogs
1.0 Albino Western (Hogwarts)
0.1 het Albino Western (Hufflepuff)
0.1 Tri Color (Molly)

You can get light diffuser (for fluorescent lights) at your local hardware store. This will raise them off of the substrate and you won't have to worry about them being too wet. They look fine in the pick and should plump up with proper temps and humidity. I have seen worse.

Thanks for the input. I took about 1/4 of the perlite out and remixed some fresh dry substrate in. The humidity is holding steady at around 90%, but the top surface of the perlite is much drier.

My incubator will get here tomorrow, and I will get some of the light diffuser material at the hardware store to keep them up off the damp perlite.

I've been working towards this clutch for around six years now, saving up to buy equipment and animals to put together this little project, so I guess I'm just way over-analyzing the situation. I'm gonna be on pins and needles for the next sixty days or so, I imagine.

Expect frequent updates.

OK..........my friend had female balls setting on eggs that were flat as could be...I took them home and ran them under water for awhile then set them up and put a dampish rag on top of them....
4 of 4 hatched and 5 of 6 hatched....figured they were setting under mother for 2 weeks at least.....they are tough....

otherhand my eggs were setup right away and a few in the same incubator died....sucks....why?...LOL...

yours....the 2 wet looking ones...good luck...all the eggs I ever had that got any type of that stain or dampness to them...were dead already.....you'll see them turn greenish and smell real soon....good luck....

...good luck......hopefully they turn back.....

...
-----
................JY

I'm with JYohe on this one. I'm pretty sure I see two dead eggs, hopefully no others, but I can't see them well enough. The mixture was(is)too wet.
I fourth (or fifth?) the advice on getting them up on something that elevates them before it's too late.
-----
www.strictlyballs.ca

After losing a 7 egg clutch due to issues with incubation substrate, I switched to the no substrate/light diffuser method and haven't had any issues since. It's simple to do and very inexpensive, and you never have to worry if your substrate is too dry or too wet.

-----
www.cafepress.com/jbartolettherps

The eggs don't look much better. I've got them in the incubator, and I completely redid the perlite substrate so that it's much drier, but still reading 90% humidity at the eggs. I just got the eggs into the incubator today, so I'm hoping the eggs will plump up and clear up in the next few days. My only hope is that since the eggs were so young, maybe they can bounce back. Honestly, if I can get 50% to hatch, I'll be happy. I feel like kicking myself for not being prepared for this clutch.

The hovabator I have isn't big enough for any of the tubs I've seen that are using the light diffuser instead of substrate. I think next year I may try and put together one of those fridge incubators instead of the hovabator.

No new pics yet, but I'll take some later today or tomorrow. My fingers are gonna be crossed for about the next two to three weeks. If they can make it past that mark, I'm thinking they might be okay....