Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am used to losing infertile eggs during incubation, they turn moldy and rot away. But I wonder if anybody had something like this happening to them:
I got a healthy-looking six-egg clutch from a possible pied male and a possible pied female. The eggs candled pink and had visible veins. I put them in an incubator at 89 degrees. Little by little all the eggs have been dying. They have shriveled and hardened. The only way I can describe them is that they look like they "cooked", like when you boil a chicken egg. There are other clutches in the same incubator that are doing fine. There hasn't been any hot spike during the incubation. There is only ONE egg left and it looks the same as the others.
This same pair produced a six-egg clutch last yer WITH THE SAME results, but at that time I attributed it to high temps. Not this time. Could it be that this pair has some genetic defect or should I just think that it was a temp problem (even if the other eggs in the same incubator are dong OK?)
I am not planning on breeding them together next year. At least not breeding the female. I am giving her a break and will pair him with another possible het pied female I have, and will see what happens then.
Any comments?
-----
Sed et serpens erat callidior cunctis animantibus terrae quae fecerat Dominus Deus...

How was you humidity? Sounds like what happened to us last year. They looked dehydrated, deflated look...
-----
Jason Rossi
Herp Herp Hooray
Make sure to download our new podcast
at iTunes or listen on our webpage below
www.rossireptiles.com

I know quite a few people who obsess with getting their temps uniform in every inch of their incubator. I am here to tell you that doesnt matter at all. Air movement is your enemy. A fan is an egg killer. No fan, no drying out problem. I have eggs in my incubator sitting on dry paper towels, the moisture from the other egg boxes is enough to keep them healthy. I don't care if they hatch in 55 days, or 59 days, or 62 days, whatever. as long as the temps don't run high (over 90) it really doesn't matter. without a fan, nothing ever dries out. Kurt d.

Humidity was fine and the incubator fan was running well. I as mentioned, the other clutches in the incubator are OK...last year out of six eggs only one survived (sadly, not a pied, so the pair didn't prove out yet)
-----
Sed et serpens erat callidior cunctis animantibus terrae quae fecerat Dominus Deus...

Im pretty sure that a fan in the incubator to move the air wont hurt the eggs as long as your humidity is kept high. Now I have no idea why anyone would put eggs into the incubator on dry paper towels unless you were wanting to experiment with some Normals to see what would happen. I have a large incubator frigerator size, I keep a 6 inch fan going in it all the time to keep the temps evenly stirred up. I also have a 32 qt tub of water in the bottom of it besides doing the egg crate over the wet Peralite in the egg boxes. I do have say the eggs on a paper towel sounds like a tremendous money saver not having to buy shoe box tubs and Peralite but I dont think I will try it.
-----
JEMreptiles@gmail.com from sunny AZ.

Lots of cool Ball Pythons along with
0.0.1 Vietnamese Blue Beauty and some great Bull snakes.
1.1 Argentinian Black and White Tegus
1.0 Gotti Pitbull (Tank)
2.0 Beautiful Bengals (Stryker and Cynbad)
12 Tarantulas
Last but most Important 2.2 Children