Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anyone know whether maintenance of orientation of eggs is critical from the moment they're laid, or becomes important at some interval thereafter?

I have a female laying eggs now for example and it's one of those clutches that are not all grouped together together. There's the odd single egg. I always try to gently encourage the females to crawl away from their clutches at their leisure after laying, rather than trying to wrestle them away from the clutch and perhaps disturbing the eggs during that wrestling match--the females often contract around a clutch if you try to pick them up to remove them, i've found.

So the occasional "loose" eggs concern me: Should i remove them at once and put them in place in the incubation box? Or does it not matter if they're moved some, partly rolled, re-oriented, by the female's movements as the finishes laying the rest of the eggs, so long as their orientation is maintained thereafter?

anyone got opinions? or better yet, facts?

terry

Terry

I think it doesnt matter the first hours (how many hours ???). I think they get settled in one spot and if you turn them after that they can drown or get crushed by the yolk sack etc... Look at Turtle eggs they sometimes get rolled down a hole and then roll all over each other at the bottom when being laid.

Keith
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>>Terry
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>>I think it doesnt matter the first hours (how many hours ???). I think they get settled in one spot and if you turn them after that they can drown or get crushed by the yolk sack etc... Look at Turtle eggs they sometimes get rolled down a hole and then roll all over each other at the bottom when being laid.
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>>Keith
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>>

Terry, years ago I was curious about all the myths concerning touching eggs, misting them, turning them etc so I did a little experiment which follows. My intention wasn't to start turning eggs but just to see as in your case and others if eggs got rolled over during incubation if it would hurt them.

I decided to started an experiment using 4 good snake eggs(veins when candled). I wanted to know if turning snake eggs would hurt them. I know there is no reason to turn snake eggs and I don't recommend it but I was curious if all the talk about turning snakes eggs making them go bad was just as incorrect as most other don'ts such as (don't touch them with your bare hands, keep them at 100% humidity, don't let moldy eggs stay attached to good ones, keep at a constant temperature, etc). Most of these don'ts have proven to be false and are used as excuses when eggs go bad. Some just go bad and some were never fertilized even though they looked good. Things happen.

I started with 4 eggs from a Leucistic Texas Rat Snake that were layed on 6-28-99. I waited until I could candle all 4 eggs and see great veins in them. I decided to turn the eggs at different stages to see if it would hurt them. All were turned and none were to be at their original layed postion when hatching. Following is the turning schedule.

EGG ONE-- On 7-7-99 I turned it one half turn to the right and never bothered it again.

EGG TWO-- On 7-7-99 I turned it one quarter turn to the right and I turned it one quarter turn to the right every week until 8-21-99 with it being turned one and three quarters turns total.

EGG THREE--I turned this egg one half turn to the right on 8-4-99 about one half the way through incubation and never bothered it again.

EGG FOUR-- On 7-7-99 I turned this egg one half turn to the right and on 8-4-99 one half turn to the right again and on 8-21-99 one half turn to the right again for a total of one and one half total times.

All four eggs hatched on 9-4-99 with 4 perfect males.

Even though this grouping is too small for any real scientific findings it does show that in this case using Luecistic Texas Rat Snake eggs that turning them at these times did no harm.

>>Terry, years ago I was curious about all the myths concerning touching eggs, misting them, turning them etc so I did a little experiment which follows. My intention wasn't to start turning eggs but just to see as in your case and others if eggs got rolled over during incubation if it would hurt them.
>>
>>I decided to started an experiment using 4 good snake eggs(veins when candled). I wanted to know if turning snake eggs would hurt them. I know there is no reason to turn snake eggs and I don't recommend it but I was curious if all the talk about turning snakes eggs making them go bad was just as incorrect as most other don'ts such as (don't touch them with your bare hands, keep them at 100% humidity, don't let moldy eggs stay attached to good ones, keep at a constant temperature, etc). Most of these don'ts have proven to be false and are used as excuses when eggs go bad. Some just go bad and some were never fertilized even though they looked good. Things happen.
>>
>>I started with 4 eggs from a Leucistic Texas Rat Snake that were layed on 6-28-99. I waited until I could candle all 4 eggs and see great veins in them. I decided to turn the eggs at different stages to see if it would hurt them. All were turned and none were to be at their original layed postion when hatching. Following is the turning schedule.
>>
>>EGG ONE-- On 7-7-99 I turned it one half turn to the right and never bothered it again.
>>
>>EGG TWO-- On 7-7-99 I turned it one quarter turn to the right and I turned it one quarter turn to the right every week until 8-21-99 with it being turned one and three quarters turns total.
>>
>>EGG THREE--I turned this egg one half turn to the right on 8-4-99 about one half the way through incubation and never bothered it again.
>>
>>EGG FOUR-- On 7-7-99 I turned this egg one half turn to the right and on 8-4-99 one half turn to the right again and on 8-21-99 one half turn to the right again for a total of one and one half total times.
>>
>>All four eggs hatched on 9-4-99 with 4 perfect males.
>>
>>Even though this grouping is too small for any real scientific findings it does show that in this case using Luecistic Texas Rat Snake eggs that turning them at these times did no harm.

Terry,

I've rolled many eggs over the years, lol, and in my opinion, as long as it's within a few hours of being laid, you should have no problems. I had a box of eggs fall 4' a couple of weeks ago. All eggs were completely upside down and turned every which way but right. All eggs seem fine now and are growing at the normal rate. You can also candle the eggs to see where the embryo is sitting in the egg. In the first few hours of being laid, it's a little free floating, and you can see it moving when the egg is turned or jostled. Just candle the egg and see where the embryo is.......then you know what to do.

Brandon Osborne

The female that laid these eggs did not have a nest box. I've been so busy, I didn't even notice her being gravid until it was too late. Egg were scattered about the cage and rolled by her. All are fine, except for the one that was questionable when it was laid.

Brandon Osborne

over the years i've tipped many an incubation container confusing the orientation of the eggs at different periods of developement and really haven't seen anything that would make me think it matters. (maybe i should slow down a bit!!) troy

There were some papers written on this subject back in the early '80's that suggest one has about 24- 36 hours post-oviposition before the zygote gets "fixed into position".
Best...
Jim

I once found a clutch of black racer eggs laid in an old railroad tie. I completely spilled all of them on the ground and they all hatched. More than likely the snake probably laid them within a day or two of me finding them.

a friend of mine unearthed a clutch of wild miami corn eggs with a bulldozer,collected them and they all hatched .though i do not recall the final incubation duration.Chris...........