Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey guys,
Wondering if any of you have had this problem....my silky eggs just wont hatch, they have been in the fridge for about a month now....any suggestions? I got some to hatch just a few days after being laied, but so far nothing else has hatched...suggestions please!

uh, I assume you took them out of the fridge?

Did you wait until they were gray/black before putting them in? They need time to develop before exposing them to cold (the gray is the silkworm itself, the egg is translucent). If you did that and they did not get moldy they should hatch, but keep in mind that can be anywhere from 3-10 days (usually around 3-7) depending on temps. If you look at one under a handlens or scope you can see the little silkie developing.

lele
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Chameleon Help & Resource Info

0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.3 Mad. Hissers (2 died ;(
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha

Haha,
Yeah, I did take them out of the fridge....I let them turn sort of a purply-black before putting them in the fridge, but one batch has been out almost three weeks, and hasnt hatched (I assume it wont), the other about 5 days, no hatch....

They won't now. If you have a hand lens or magniyying glass you should be able to see that they are collapsed/sunken in. Sometimes it happens for no apparent reason (to us at least). There could have been too little or too much moisture in storage, too cold. Any number of things. They will sometimes hatch without a cold period, as you have found out.

When you took them out of fridge where did you put them and in what sort of container? Did you have leaves or food in with the eggs?
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Chameleon Help & Resource Info

0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.3 Mad. Hissers (2 died ;(
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha

After 2 weeks some eggs I had put out were not hatching so I tried another batch--and stupid me left the zippy bag of eggs out at room temp...I did not notice until the next day so it was too late to return them to the refrigerator. Almost 2 weeks later I go to throw out the container I had the eggs in and to my surprise there were 100's of babies! I now have over 900 1 inch silkies that I'm not sure what to do with. I have 2 adult beardies and they only eat 1 or 2 large ones a day.

I'm going to call some pet stores (Austin TX area) and hopefully I can work out a trade with one... 900 silkies eat a TON of chow! I have already set aside 80 of the largest ones as my future breeding stock...I'm going to package the eggs in smaller bags so I don't have to go through this again!

BTW when the eggs finally hatched the container(plastic bowl with loose fitting lid) had been moved to the warmest room in the house and placed on top of a light strip...I think my daughter may have added a drop or 2 of water for humidity.

Even with 900 silkies I will have to set out some more eggs this week to keep my beardie's supply constant!

The eggs are on paper bag material in petri dishes with the lids on, no eggs or food. They are sitting on top of my snakes cage with a heat light next to them...maybe I need to warm them up and add some H20 to them?

looking at them with a lens/magnifier. If they are collapsed you are just wasting time. No condensation? That can mold the eggs and you won't necessarily see the mold right away. You also don't want to fry them :-O ! In the winter here (NH) I place them on the light strip between the vents and it seems to be ideal. Did you order these or breed them? I don't recall if you said - I ask b/c if they were ordered the seller likely has a guarantee. If they are your own, check them out for collapse and take another batch out.
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Chameleon Help & Resource Info

0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.3 Mad. Hissers (2 died ;(
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha

I know it isn't really FUNNY, but I can relate. A few years ago I had some of my luna moths emerge in their cage and never saw any pairing (they can pair upwards of 15 hours) so when my female began laying I figured they were infertile. I released them both a day or two later b/c it was late in the season and I did not really need any more little ones (I do not breed these for food). I completely forgot about the "aborted" eggs in the cage and about 10 days later I went to get the cage to clean it and, like you, saw zillions of little ones that had hatched in the last 24 hours! Thanks goodness I didn't wait another day! I would have found dead ones instead. I ended up shipping most of them to another breeder in Ohio who had access to host plants longer than I do here (but I did keep about a dozen and fed them on sumac thru the fall! It was very pretty to see their green bodies against the gorgeous colors of sumac!)

As for what to do with them I am sure sunbirdx would take some! You can easily ship them in petri dishes or other containers so long as they have enough food for the trip and are well packed. You will find plenty of folks who will take some! I have shipped them to some friends on the cham forum.

Good Luck!!!

lele
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Chameleon Help & Resource Info

0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.3 Mad. Hissers (2 died ;(
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha

Sure, I would take some of your extra 900! Haha, that was pretty much what happened to me, I had about 200 hatch without a diapause, and was never able to feed them all off...now I cant get anything to hatch!
My house is about 80 degrees inside, i think it would be too hot on a light strip to get them to hatch, would probably cook them! I added a bit of cotton soaked in water to up the humidity, so we'll see how that goes. I bred the myself, bought 100 juvies, got an extra 100 on accident, and allowed about 60 of the worms to become adults and breed. I now have about 10,000 eggs or so, and the first two batches I took out of the fridge wont hatch. They have been in the fridge for about a month...

Sounds like you have done everything right. Be very careful supplying humidity as it can surely cause mold - especially if your house is that warm. Is this a new batch or the ones you've had out for 3 weeks? Have you looked at those with a lens? it is very easy to see the collapse. I look at a LOT of eegs with all my WSM rearing and can usually spot collapse with the naked eye (granted they are a bit bigger than silkie) and I was testing myself this year to see if I could tell if the poppy-seed sized silkie were or not - I could! OK, with my reading glasses, but that just gives me "normal" vision (hate these old lady eyes!)
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Chameleon Help & Resource Info

0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.3 Mad. Hissers (2 died ;(
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha

Are they collapsed when they are depressed in the center? Because some of my eggs coming out of the fridge look that way.

there may be a very slight depression which is normal (picture the little silkie curled up inside) but if it is no good then it will be collapsed from the middle and at least one side will be down, too.

Check out the photo on the linked site below. The egg that the mite is feeding on is slightly depressed in the middle - but evenly. If infertile it will be much more sunken. But if it has been a full 3 weeks don;thold out too much hope.
Mite feeding on caterpillar eggs

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Chameleon Help & Resource Info

0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.3 Mad. Hissers (2 died ;(
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha