Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all,

Have any of you ever had you collared eggs turn orange after a couple of days? After a few weeks my dickersonae have turned orange. They still appear to be nice and full with no signs of rotting out like a bad egg? just curious what others have also experienced. They've been cooking now for over 2 weeks, and about 2 days after they were layed they changed orange specifically.

too wet? The substrate? May want to ask Will or Brockn
I wish you the best with your eggs!
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PHEve/ Eve

Contact PHEve

thats how old my leopard lizard eggs are and thats exactly what they did. they are still firm and healthy, and none are defflated, but i think it might have to do with the sand they were burried in.

there substrate is relatively dry. barely damp to the touch.

Thats what I heard from a buddy who lost his first clutch. He was told to make the substrate damper!

But I would ask BrockN he hatches alot of them !
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PHEve/ Eve

Contact PHEve

i've tried to contact brock, but he never responds back ?? i have more gravid female dickersonae so maybe i'll just experiment with different substrates when my other females lay.

I have always seen my eggs turn from a nice white color to a brownish orange color and still hatch fine.

John E.

I've had good luck in using a course vermiculate with distilled water for my egg tray medium. For most collared sub species (including the dickersonae) the 1:1 ratio seems to work well. I measure the verm and water both by gram weight. By using the course vermiculite, the eggs are able to breath and the water is not in as much direct contact with the egg surface as is would be if you were using a thin/flaky verm.

I sometimes need to add droplets of the water later on toward the last few weeks. Especially if the eggs are prematurely dimpling. A few droplets surrounding the eggs applied with an eyedropper works wonders along with a little fresh air fanned on them using the egg tray lid. I don't vent my egg trays as it helps keep the humidity level more steady and much longer, thus ... less water needs to be added toward the final weeks of incubation. If you vent your egg trays then you'll likely need to replace the moisture more often than not by adding the droplets as needed.

If the eggs are failing with near fully developed babies in them, this is telling me that the temps may be a wee bit low. Lower temps equals longer incubation time. If temps are 82-84F and this happens repeatedly, then I suggest increasing the incubating temps to 84-85 instead for your next clutch.

I've used perlite in the past and have produced various species (petrosaurus thal, lacerta lapida, various species of uros, yellowhead and aquaflame collareds etc) with somewhat average success but the course vermiculite seems to work the best for me so I've been using it primarily for a few years now with much greater success.

Below is a pic of one of my clown agama egg trays which began to pip this morning. Notice the course verm I'm using. it's not flaky but more like little corks so to speak. This allows lots of nooks and crannies ... yeah sort of like an English muffin ... lol. Also notice how the only eggs that are dimpled are the three which are about to hatch. The rest of the 13 eggs in this clutch are a little soft but only begin to dimple as they're pipped. I used the clown eggs as a good example because these are at full term eggs which show the condition of the eggs at 54 days in the incubator at approx 84-86F. Although my mix ratio for the clown agama is 1:2 ... I still use the 1:1 for most of my collareds.

Oh Vonnie, I almost forgot. I usually lay the eggs with the embryonic disc up but I really only do this for a photo showing that they're viable eggs but I do admit, I most always lay them this way unless they've already calcified (whitened) and the disc is not visible anymore.

Hope all your eggs go full term this season.

John