Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've fudged up my first clutch of monitor eggs. I didn't really grasp the need for near 100% humidity and I overventilated my homemade incubator, which involves a few inches of water in a larger rubber maid with a smaller uncovered container also rubbermaid, inside, eggs nestled in vermiculite (which i made too dry also) covered in sphagnum moss, governed by a thermostat, with flexwatt underneath ranging from 80-87F throughout the day and night. Humidity is in the high 90's. I've read a FR post about the resiliency (spelling?) of eggs he didn't dig up outside, so I'm wondering what to do to hydrate them, since I feel they are still viable? They were fertile upon laying, because the two that looked dudish went moldy overnite. Do I stick with adding water to the medium, or should i add a tiny drop of water to the eggs (or will they drown, despite being very dimpled)? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. These are auffenbergi if it makes a difference.

Thanks much,
MikeV

Adjust the humidity in the container and it will help. Just don't over do it. I usually add water to the medium around the outer edges a little at a time. It will take awhile for the eggs to hydrate. You can also lay a dampened paper towel over top the eggs. If your humidity in the container is 90% I am not sure if that was your problem. Could be you have infertile eggs or the medium is soaking up the moisture from within the eggs.

I am sure others have more ideas for you.

Good luck

I'm leaning towards the substrate being too dry. I believe my mixing was in error, as most monitor hatching picks I've seen are in a vermiculite medium and the bottom of the eggs was a little in error. Since I added water yesterday, on day 4 and they haven't gotten appreciably worse since then, I'll breathe a little easier. How long typically before well formed (good shells and weight) but infertile eggs show themselves to be duds?

Thanks for the input,
Mike

First, small eggs, that is from the odatriad species, seem to be very sensitive to flucuation. So they do not take that well. I once said, if you allow the eggs to collapse, you can expect to loose half. Consider that depends of how much they dry up.

Of course, from your description, I really have no idea how bad or even if they are dehyrdrated. I hear so many descriptions and each person has a different idea. A pic would be very helpful.

If your eggs are or were, full and nicely shelled, then they were fertile. They could also be dead, if not nested properly. Which is totally different then infertile. Infertile eggs do not shell.

About eggs taking lots of flucuation, only large eggs that carry lots of water can do that. But only during certain times during incubation.

The great thing about monitors are, when you mess up the eggs, if you feed them, they will shoot you more. You don't have to wait a year. I think they do that, just to make us look bad. Good luck and congrats of getting eggs in the first place. FR

Frank,
Thank you for clearing up my egg misconceptions. I believe they collapsed and as such I may have severely limited mortality.
Between Day 1 and Day 2 this happened. I'll post pics of before and after.
The pair is fattening up as we speak, incidentally the first two of the 8 eggs I dug up were duds and I was thinking to myself that multiclutching would really be better than having my first clutch go perfect, since isolated success isn't exactly success now is it.
Thanks again,
my monitors lead decent lives due to the expertise you share around here

this is were it all went downhill. the egg in the foreground of the last picture was a dud.

top view, same egg. the discoloration is just dirt, they still smell ok and feel not like the duds did when all the yolk dried up

are so toasted, they do not resemble anything with a chance to hatch. Viable eggs are clean and white to yellowish white, round to oval. With monitors, anything other then that, drops the chance of hatching very very quickly. Of course if your a turtle or tort guy, with those, eggs will hatch that I would consider ammo for a wrist rocket.

I have to ask, what characteristics did you use to determine which were duds and which were fertile. In my opinion, all the eggs you showed don't have a chance in heck to hatch. But of course, anything is possible, just not very probable. Better luck next time. FR

When I dug them up, two were soft shelled, amorphous, and discolored. My dirt isn't up to snuff at all, so it clung to the other 6 eggs as well and discolored them. I posted a pic of the worst egg as well to show the depth of my blunder. I only have a camera phone available at present and the picture quality adds to the lack of any discernable white. The first picture posted was after 12hrs of the eggs being unearthed.
They've yet to go bad, so I'll just keep them in my quasi-incubator till they do or a miracle happens.

As for the ackie thread I'll let this egg buzz wear off and go back to not speaking on things I am not equipped to;

For clarity's sake, I've yet to see any "red" ackie hatchlings at the few reptile shows I've been to in S. Fl that look much like some of the vibrant ones I've seen posted on this forum. I also live in the vicinity of people who smuggle endangered species and lose licences regularly. Many would pounce on the opportunity to breed a perhaps half "yellow" "red" to a "yellow" and sell the hatchlings as "red".
Hence my paranoia, because I believe shady reptile dealers are bred here (S.FL) in vast numbers. Then again I doubt many manage to breed and hatch monitors. So I guess I'm a little heavy on the paranoid and a little light on the realism. My bad.
I wouldn't know the difference between a bartiji or any of the other forms of the ackie if my life depended on it, and technically, since I've not seen Samoan,Seman, or Savu timors i can't be certain until my pair produces hatchlings that look like the ones DnJ says are Roti's.
Not trying to rile anyone, sorry if I sound pompous, I'll get back to the drawing board and stop armchair generaling.

-Mike

It's great that you got eggs, though. That's an accomplishment in itself. Just keep doing what you're doing (well, except for the egg-ignoring part).
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1.0 melinus
0.0.3 rudicollis
0.0.1 exanthematicus
0.0.1 niloticus

The egg you posted singly is long gone. The others its hard to tell since the picture qaulity is so bad. But things do not look good.

You got the egg making part down so don't worry you will have another chance. Keep at it and stay away from those who are shady in S.Fl.. Being I am here also thats what I do. There are some good guys down here too.

You are welcome to talk about anything within the TOS. You do not have to be expert, if fact, thats how good information comes up.

In this case, you opened the door and I stepped in and tried to clarify. Its really not about right or wrong. Maybe its about seeing this stuff a little tiny bit clearer.

Also, you did not make a blunder, you recieved eggs, that is a positive step, not your on the next step of learning, and a very difficult one, that is to nest them properly. Its my belief that this step is by far the hardest and most important, at this time of our understanding. So don't feel bad.

About S.Fla. you have a very strong point. I feel a bit the same as you. I would guess the reason may be all the dealers. One keeper/breeder that works for Fla fish and game once told me how many dealer permits are issued, it was very scary. With so many, there has to be lots of very good ones, and lots of not so good ones. Also, the number means, they have to be very thrifty, or maybe cutthroat, to exsist.

To a smaller degree, SoCal is the same. Again, I believe its merely the numbers. The rest of the country gets to live in bliss or igorance, whatever you want to call it. Anyway, keep at it, and talk about whatever you like. FR