Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm at the pacing stage.
Nagena's first clutch is due to hatch as early as Friday. (Going by the her first clutch last year which was only 57 days, and yes I realize it may take longer this time). Three of the eggs look problematic. Two have black patches (not on the surface, more like the shell is slightly transparent and there is something dark inside. One has a black and red patch covering nearly a third of the surface. No signs of mold and all of the eggs have grown alot in the past 6 weeks (especially apparent when compared to the newly laid second clutch). Have the snakelets died inside these eggs? Any idea what could have gone wrong? The other 17 eggs look fine (or at least those I can see do, since a few are in the middle of the stack and not really visible).
Corinne
dragonfly@w-link.net

Those transparent areas or "windows" are signs that the egg is too hydrated, and some moisture needs to be wicked away. If the situation becomes too problematic, the babies can die in the egg. I lost three clutches of high dollar babies last year from this due to an incubator malfunction.

To relieve the moisture overload, I just add a little dry vermiculite (or whatever it is in which you incubate your eggs) around the eggs that need it. If they still have windows and that new mixture is wet too, I add some more in a few days. You might also want to make sure that whatever is causing the higher than needed humidity is taken care of. If you use a shoebox of some sort to hold your eggs in an incubator, drilling a few small (less than 1/8" in the sides may do the trick.

As to whether bad eggs grow, No, they don't. Once they go bad, they do not grow in size at all, but I have seen eggs that grew to full size, then die for another reason.

Hope that helps a bit.
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Darin Chappell
Hillbilly Herps
PO Box 254
Rogersville, MO 65742