Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So, your female lays her eggs, and wraps around them. You take her out, hopefully without getting bitten or any trauma, and then there are the eggs. The eggs are stuck togather, all piled up. How do you take them apart? Just pull em apart, I am just afraid the eggs will break or something. Just wondering, and guessing that when they are first laid, they are soft enough to just pull apart.

Dave

Why would you take them apart? If they are stuck, incubate them that way. If they're not, then incubate them that way as well.

OK, here is the deal, they were laid stuck togather, piled up. I put them in the incubator that way, in vermiculite, moistened, and the top couple eggs, not buried in the vermiculite appear to have gone bad. My question is, should all the eggs be partly buried, and if so, how do you get the attached eggs apart.

Dave

I never bury eggs. Too many mistakes that way. Vermiculite, perlite, etc etc have a tendancy to either like/dislike water more/less than the eggs. This either causes the eggs to dry out or implode (rare with Ball eggs. Those things are bullet-proof). That's why I use no substrate. But when I did used to use vermiculite, I would just lay the eggs on top of it and keep the vermiculite on the dry side. Too dry if better than too wet (just like too cold is better than too hot).

But I'll never go back to substrate again. Too many bad things can happen. 100% humidity and no/dry substrate = 100% hatch rate (from fertile eggs).

I think I might try that. I am setting up my huge walking closet taht is in my snakeroom to be an incubator, patterned after the sutherlands incubator room. I am using styrofoam insulation and some plastic/vinyl flooring. I think this will greatly improve my incubator "setup"!

Dave

Mom can do it. It is normal.
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RicK Denmon

Ball Boutique,Inc.

HOW do you get the eggs apart?

Dave

I heard dental floss works.
Never tried it just what I read.
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RicK Denmon

Ball Boutique,Inc.

>>HOW do you get the eggs apart?
>>
>>Dave
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Josh
My Email

Unless you can gently pull them apart, DON'T. Pretty much every book/caresheet in the world will tell you that.

You grab them and pull. Gently. Peeling one egg off of the others, one at a time. Be very carful, the sooner you do this after laying, the easier it is. I did this earlier this year with two cluthes of eggs. I did tear a hole in one egg, it doesn't look like that egg will make it even though it originally looked like it had sealed itself back up (kind of like a scab). All of the other eggs still look fine. Yes the dental floss is supposed to work well, however it's pretty much impossible to do with only one person. Next year I will have a different incubator and won't have to pull them apart.

Mark

>>HOW do you get the eggs apart?
>>
>>Dave

In my experience I was able to EASILY seperate them just after they were laid about 30 minutes or less I would say. If they do not separate easy i would incubate the pile of eggs just as they were laid.

Hope this helps,
Hermin Soler

Don't separate them. If you didn't catch em early enough that they weren't stuck together yet, DON'T separate them now. Don't get the eggs wet, maintain the temps, and you should be fine. -Whit

...if you havn't gotten to the eggs within a few hours of laying leave them attached. Remember that at laying the embryo is fairly well developed and a lot of manipulation of the egg is NOT a good thing! SJM