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They just started collapsing about 4 days ago, even though there was what I thought to be enough dampness in the vermiculite (just damp to the touch). It's now 120 days since they were laid. About 6 days ago I noticed that the hovabator had to have the temp adjusted up, it had dropped from what I had it set at (30 deg C.) to 26.8 deg C. I'll never trust those wafer thermostats again, I know that. Other than that, I don't think I did anything wrong. What a bummer.

Another photo...

Hey man,

Sorry for your loss... I know the feeling you're going through... Just keep your head up and move on...remember, they're monitors, and there are many more eggs to come... or at least that's the way I see it... Mistakes are there for us to learn from them...

As for vermiculite, I have never tried it, but I have seen that most people opt to use perlite over vermiculite...Perhaps vermiculite acts like a sponge and absorbs a lot of water, while perlite is more 'breathable'... I am by no means a person to give pointers on incubation, but maybe you could try perlite with the next clutch..

Also, do what I plan on doing for my next clutches, set the eggs up in large containers, with lots of perlite/medium.. This will prevent great fluctuations in temp and humidity... Why the hell did I not think of this when i first set up my eggs...what a bonehead...

Anyways, again, sorry for the loss, just keep at it, and you'll succeed.. Take care,

bob
The Odatriad

Thanks Bob. I cut the eggs to see if I could get some clue as to what went wrong, there was nothing there to begin with, no blood vessels, just some opaque fluid in it. I'm assuming that they were never fertilized in the first place, so that makes me feel a little better. Still sucks to be waiting for 4 months for this.
Thanks for the words of encouragement, you can bet I'll take the advice of the pearlite and larger incubation dish for the next time I have eggs, hopefully they'll be fertilized and healthy.

Appreciate it again amigo.

Sorry. those look way dead.

FYI, hatching eggs form a partial clutch is not the best approach, I know, you have no choice. But, It may well be the eggs being weak, then the incubation.

Also, I do not use vermiculite. I did for 25 years. I found that vermiculite is not very consistant. That is, it performs different from batch to batch. At times, a lot different.

While pearlite is a bit tricky, once you get it down its very consistant. Which is very very important with varanid eggs.

Better luck with the best clutch. FR

Thanks Frank, appreciate it. I'll be ready the next time.

Ceramic granules? It’s a type of potting medium used for aquatic plants. I switched over to it a few years ago. However I have only used it with geckos and turtles mostly, not sure how it would fare with monitors. Anyway just thought I would mention it to you.

-Mike

I have decided I do not like my incubator to be set at 30C (86F). I see that as the extreme high end for my preference. I attempt to keep my incubators at 27.5C - 29C now. I found with temps that were regularly at 30C my babies came out smaller and with large yolk sacs. At lower temperatures, they come out larger and with no yolk sacs or very small ones. Others have had this experience with temperatures that are on the higher end of the "acceptable" range of temperatures.

My timor eggs are at 92 days and looking very good, even the one I cracked open.
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^x^ Bloodbat ^x^
Monitors, monitors everywhere
and all the food they ate.
Monitors, monitors everywhere,
their parents loved to mate.

Thanks for the input, I'll definately take note of it the next time!

I'm a rank beginner when it comes to incubating monitor eggs (so anyone with more experience, feel free to jump in and yell at me), but I wouldn't go by feel when adjusting your water/vermiculite or water/perlite mixture unless you have done this enough times to know what you should expect it to feel like.

I started off with a 1:1 mixture using perlite and it felt surprisingly dry to the touch, to the point where a friend who has had a lot of experience hatching reptile eggs had a look and freaked out at how dry it seemed. On his advice (bad mistake on my part) I added more water. I concluded later that his experience hasn't been with monitor eggs (the few he had hatched ended up having to be cut out of the eggs), nor was it with perlite (he had only ever used vermiculite). I later mixed a fresh batch of perlite at 1:1 and transferred the eggs back over. Much later in incubation I even dried out the mixture a bit more by wiping condensation off the sides of the egg boxes once a week for two (possibly even three?) weeks.

This photo was taken this morning and you can see how the dry perlite is sticking to the still wet hatchling.

Does anyone else wish all reptiles were livebearers?
Just a thought. I've got a breeding pair of Timors and am pretty much scared of them laying eggs.
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Eryx - All the fun of a boa in a convenient pocket size!

n/p