Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am hatching out some eggs for a customer of mine. the female is 7 years old, the male is about a year old. the first clutch had 5 fertile eggs. they were all quite large. The first one started sweating and changed to a darker brown color. the baby came out within 24 hrs. The umbilical cord never detached however and it appears as if he bled out.

24 hrs later the remaining eggs all hatched out, one of the babies has only one eye. breaks my heart.

the other 3 seem to be fine. they came out good and plump with attitude.

I incubated at 82F for the first month hoping to push for girls but I unexpectidly needed to incubate tort eggs so temps went to 85F.

any thoughts??? fluke birth defects, genetics, temps, first clutch...?
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Bennett

Home Of The Florida Orange
www.beardiedragon.com

Sorry you had to experience these problems Bennett. Poor little guys. I can't say for sure what could have caused the problems. All of the above reasons stated could have leant to the problems, and played some part in the outcome. Can't say it was genetics but that sure could have played a part along with her age, first clutch, and the change of temps which could have sped up formation at the wrong time in development. Really can't put a finger on the exact cause but more then one could have played a part in the outcome I would think. Good luck with the survivors. Keep us updated with the progress of them.
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Webshots photos
www.Mystical-Dragons.com

Agree, hard to say what the cause was. I just wanted to say that it probably was not the 3 degree change. Just think how much the temp changes in the desert. I'm sure the ground id heated by the sun for several hours after sundown, but surely varies more then 3 degrees. I just don't want you to feel it was anything you did in the way of temps. I truly don't think so. I had a 15 degree spike in temps by accident for 12 hrs and all 17 did just fine. I'm sure I was lucky, but comparing that to just 3 degrees.....

Also, to my knowledge, no one has seen any truth to incubating at different temps to manage sex for BD's.
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www.classylizard.com

the females firs clutch only had 5 viable eggs. the second clutch had none and the third (incubating now) has 20 but they are smaller than the first 5. I hope this clutch comes out healthy.

I was going on Paul's (from sandfire) experience. He said that his ratio of females was higher with the lower temp.
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Bennett

Home Of The Florida Orange
www.beardiedragon.com

Could be something to it, I've just always heard it doesn't work that way with Beardeds as it does some other herps. It'd be intersting to take a poll of bigger breeders that have been breeding for several years..
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www.classylizard.com

I am so sorry... I don't have any ideas either what might have caused it. I don't think it is the temp. It might be the females age and/or genetic.

How is the baby with one eye doing? Maybe he/she will do just fine. They adjust pretty well.

Keep us updated!

/Gunilla
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I thought you'd like to know that the one with only one eye looks like our "Socket" in more ways than one. Socket's jaw doesn't line up properly and I can see from your photo that your little guy with one eye doesn't look like his jaw is lined up properly either. Socket eats fine with his jaw that way. And I hope as he continues to grow that that doesn't change. I was told that the clutch that Socket belonged to was not incubated properly. I don't know if they got too hot or too cold or if the humidity was off??? I hope this little tid bit of info helps in some way.

~Veronica
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Beautiful Dragons

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Beautiful Dragons

does socket have a problem with depth perception that effects eating?
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Bennett

Home Of The Florida Orange
www.beardiedragon.com

Bennett,

We know some other breeders that had problem with clutches from 7-8 year old mothers this past year, when all prior clutches were fine, all incubated the same and same parents.

So they think it just the mothers age. We wanted to get one from a breeder in Canada, that has some really nice size past offspring, but her clutch at 8 years old had some problems also, so he decided to hold onto the ones that survived.

There are other breeders that have had healthy, thriving clutches with older moms.... so there is always the possibilty that the others may be fine.
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www.reptilerooms.com

well the good news is their owner came over to pick them up and fell in love with the one with one eye. She is going to keep it and give it a pirate name. So she will moher it and spoil it rotten.
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Bennett

Home Of The Florida Orange
www.beardiedragon.com

So sorry for the baby loss.
Yes, if the owner is anything like me this will be the most obnoxiously spoiled dragon in her bunch. I have this thing for the less than perfect. My two newest actually have all of their limbs, digits and *complete* tails--they look almost odd to me at times

Best to you and the babies,
michele
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