Reptile & Amphibian Forums

At this time I have 81 eggs about to hatch.
One of my snows laid only three eggs two of which were obviously bad and one I wasn't sure about.
I went ahead and placed her egg with one of the other batches to incubate.
Well, it has been 57 days now and I was wondering.....Do you think the egg pictured on the right could look like that after 57 days if it wasn't a good egg.
Usually bad eggs get bad pretty quick and start to grow mold within a couple of days.
I am just wondering if anyone has had an egg go this long without a baby growing in it.
I've had a couple go this long or longer only to have the snake die before hatching and even a couple that pipped but didn't have the strength to hatch but I just don't know if an empty egg could last witout rotting.
Am I making any sense here?
I feel like I am talking in circles....lol
the pic
it is the egg on the right

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Corn snakes and rat snakes..No one can have just one.
"resistance is futile"
Jimmy (draybar)

Draybars Snakes

I would have to say it is fine, I have not had any corn snake eggs look like that but some of my crested eggs have looked similar and produce healthy babies.

Hope this Helped
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Derek Dunlop
DDReptiles
http://www.freewebs.com/ddreptiles/index.htm

Have you tried candleing the egg? Might help...just my 2 cents
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0.1 Snow Corn "Hope"
1.0 Redtail "Kilo"
1.0 Ball Python "Road Hog"

Had a problem clutch last year. Out of 16 eggs, 8 were infertile when laid.

The remaining 8 were fine for most of the incubation period. Past records show that my eggs average around 63 days to hatch. Around day 53, 4 of the eggs started looking dodgy. By day 56 they were well and truly bad. The temp and humidity remained stable throughout and I had religiously not used chemicals near them, same as always.

Of the remaining 4 eggs, 3 hatched on day 64. The remaining egg still looked sound but I left it and it was dead by day 68. Guess the hatchling just wasn't strong enough to make it out.

So yep, sometimes things have looked great for me right up to the last couple of weeks, then - blam!

For my two cents:

1.) The suspect egg looks like it has hydrated well and isn't yellow, in other words it is not deflated or dimpled at all. An infertile egg will dimple/deflate/yellow in about 4-10 days after being laid indicating there is nothing live inside and the development process is not working.

2.) The suspect egg looks to have two issues. One is some moldy stuff growing on the surface and two, some degree of thin or stretch marks on the egg - that is the darker/translucent splotches. Neither are a 100% indication of a bad thing, i.e. the embryo could be developing fine regardless of the appearance of the egg.

I have had a couple eggs over the past several years that appeared to be developing fine only to have the development stop for no apperant reason. In these cases, the egg appeared fine, but the clutch hatched except these. I opened the eggs up 10 days after the cluch was done and there was a developed embryo but sizable yolk sak. So sometimes 'something happens' and the development doesn't complete.

I also had some eggs that looked like your suspect one that did fine... (now who is talking in circles!?!?)

I would keep it positive for your suspect egg, but candling would give you a good idea what is going on inside.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out...
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2.3 Albino Nelsoni Milksnakes
0.1 Snow Corn
0.2 Sunglow Corns
1.1 Albino Motley Corns
3.3 '04 Albino Corn hatchlings
1.0 '02 Albino Stripe Corn
0.0.12 Sunglow/Moltey eggs simmering
0.0.20 Snow/Amel-Het Anry eggs simmering
0.0.5 Sunglow/Amel-Het Anery eggs simmering
0.0.13 Motley/Stripe eggs simmering
Bunch.Bunch Bearded Dragons
Bunch.Bunch Crested Geckos
0.1 Great wife
2.0 Great boys
0.0.2 dogs (they're great too!!)
and Corey's Yellow Knee Tarantula "Fang"