Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all. I wrote a while back about an unusual egg that candled differently than any other I've candled. The egg in question at 1st glance appeared infertile (sickly yellow glow). The egg was removed from the clutch, but on further inspection did show some blood vessles and pinkish glow on the bottom 1/2 to 1/3 of the egg. My working hypothesis is that I have an infertile ova in the same shell as a fertile one.

The egg has since begun to mold heavily on the top half of the egg (the infertile side). I think that tonight I am going to carefully disect the egg and take a peek at whats going on. If it does appear to be an infertile mass in with a developing embryo, I will remove the infertile mass and affected area, and cover the exposed part of the egg with a sterile saline dressing.

I have seen the pictures and story on-line of a carpet python egg that ruptured early on and was still successfully incubated to hatching even though the egg shell was severely compromised and open.

I figure at this point I have nothing to lose, and it will make for interesting discussion. Realistically, its probably more likely that the entire egg/embryo is already dead. If not, it surely will die if left as is. Of course I will take some photos and share whatever I find.

Any thoughts/ideas/suggestions?

n/p
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Bryan, Atlanta GA

1-0-0 Ball Python - Apep
1-1-0 Rats... no wait... ROTTEN Little Cats - Ra, Bastet
1-0-0 Horse... whoops... BIG Golden Retriever - Jake
0-1-0 Wife
2-0-0 Kids

.

LOL, if we're just givin' stuff away I'll take anything anybody doesn't want . Even pay the shipping. I seem to have become the "Dump a Reptile " place in the neighborhood lately anyhow.

Quig

embryo, I will remove the infertile mass and affected area, and cover the exposed part of the egg with a sterile saline dressing.

How can you be sure to get the right parts? And if you don't get everything, bacteria may attack the viable embryo. Either way, it does not look good for the egg.
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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

"Either way, it does not look good for the egg."

Yeah, that why I figure I have nothing to lose. I think the egg will surely perrish (if it hasn't already) if left alone, so why not give it a shot. May be pretty interesting.

As far as knowing what to remove and what to leave, I guess that will be largely guesswork. I'm assuming the two eggs (if that is in fact what I'm dealing with) will be distinguishable from one another (i.e.: each enclosed within their own membrane).

I'll get on here tonight with an update, probably around 9 or 10 ET.

would be cool to see if you can save the viable baby....

Keep us posted

Raul

the rest of the clutch? I have an egg that started molding about 5 weeks ago. It has since gotten to the point where there's nothing left to do. Not only do I want to remove it to dissect it, I want it away from the others. It is attached to 2 other eggs though and I don't want to damage those. They are both perfect and will be hatching in about a week and a half. So, how can I remove the bad egg? I'm sure there's some trick.

I actually seperated each egg shortly after they were laid and before they had adhered to each other. In your case, I would leave them alone. Since your good eggs are just a few days from hatching, just let it go. A bad egg will not normally affect good ones. Here is a picture of a clutch from last year in which one egg died a few weeks in....as you can see the others hatched out just fine (notice the seriously ugly greenish egg to the top of the photo).

Joe Pociask Pythons

First of all though, it's so hard to wait. The closer the hatch date gets, the harder it is. Anyway, my egg looks nothing like that. It has gotten progressively worse over the last few weeks but still could be viable. But when I candle it, I see no movement and inside just looks like a big dark mass with no kind of form whatsoever. It has also sunken in alot recently and it's oozing this pus looking liquid around the mold spot. I'm just assuming it's dead. Could there actually still be life in there or am I just gonna have to wait and see on that one too? I just wanna know if the I'm reading the signs I'm getting correctly. I can post a pic later tonight when I get home from work for a better idea of what I'm talking about.

without seeing the egg up close and personal, its hard to say....you'll know soon enough!

I'd say go for it too. But like Christy said, make sure you take pictures. BTW carefully sawing away at the juncture of a couple of eggs with dental floss can sperate them from each other and facilitate removal.

Mark

>>without seeing the egg up close and personal, its hard to say....you'll know soon enough!

If you are seeing veins I doubt the embryo is dead. They break down pretty quickly after the egg goes bad, from what I have observed.

If it were me I'd just treat the mold - but good luck and let us know how it goes - take pictures!

Christy

i could have swore you said "cover it with some salad dressing", and i thought "THAT'S not a very good idea!"

: )
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

Come on man.....you need to keep the BP market integrity in tact. If you keep spreading the tricks around how will we make any money? Not everybody knows that if you sprinkle salad dressing on freshly laid eggs you get morphs as follows:

italian = albino (fresh made with fresh spices = high conrast)
creamy italian = caramel albino
blue cheese = pied
ranch = pastel
thousand island = spider
oil and vinegar = platty

Now be quiet and dont tell anybody........

LMAO, so that is how its really done!!
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Nita Hamilton
4.13 Normal BP's, 1.0 Het Orange Ghost BP, 1.0 Het Pied 1.0 50% poss Het Orange Ghost BP's