Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Has anyone ever known eggs to take almost 6 months? I may have had them in lower temps at 68 - 72 since April but come on this just seems to long, its now Oct.

What do ya think? The eggs still look fine, but nothing is happening.

Here is a pic I took recently of the first 2 layed April 5, I have them on foam in a plastic lid , resting on damp vermiculite in a larger container.

I also have another that was layed April 28th that should be ready. The last couple were not layed until late May.

So do you guys think they will hatch or has it been too long?
Driving me nuts, any thoughts will be appreciated, I look at them a zillion times a day, LOL

Henkeli eggs layed April 5/05

-----
PHEve / Eve

Contact PHEve

it does seem awful long, but i honestly dont know what to tell you to do, because of course it would be a bad idea to crack em open and find an embryo.

tough call.

did sindar ever lay any other clutches after that? do they smell the least bit? i just noticed a pair of eggs i had went bad, noticed the smell and checked them, tapped them lightly and the one kinda broke easy. the embryos had started growing but some unknown force killed them off. i also had good eggs hatch out within the last month, so i dont know what could be going on.

hopefully a surprise will pop out any day now! ill keep my fingers crossed.
-----
-Mike Martin
North Carolina

if they were mine, i'd open them
i don't think i could wait as long as you have been!!
it's killin me just thinkin about it haha.
good luck with them and hopefully they'll hatch out for you.

Have you thought about candling them? I made a fairly easy candling rig by just putting a piece of tin foil over the top of a flashlight and folding out the top center to make a little hole for the light to shine through. Then you put the egg on the hole, and if you left a little extra tin foil around the hole it has a nice nest to keep it safe. Then in the dark turn on the flash light and you can see through the egg. I have been able to see lizards moving on occasion. That would certainly let you know they were still viable. Sometimes I have seen sort of pink with slightly darker areas or even blood vessels. I assume that also means a viable egg. Then sometimes I have seen a flat black mass on one side where they had looked healthy pink the week before. Those I figured are dead. It isn't all that easy to tell. But at least you might get an idea.

Tanya

the led produces virtually no heat and it's a concentrated light.
the newer ones come with a rubber tip that has a small circle that the eggs set in quite nicely.

sorry to say but i bet that they went full term and they were too weak to break out.i had this happen twice this season once with henkle and once with phants, both times were in the begining of the season for them.

hey take the eggs out, one at a time, and place them on a hard flat SMOOTH surface,and see if they role. if they go back to their original position,like all the weight is in the bottom of the egg, then theyre probably dried out or dead.

on this, and just continue to WAIT , The eggs do not have any smell, look fine.

Thanks everybody, I will try and candle them , Hubby and I tried last week, we could only tell something was in there , they was solid not empty.

AHHHHHHHH How dissapointing it would be if they are not good,

But hey guess it has happened to everyone. I like to be positive and hope for the best, so I will do that, let ya all know,
-----
PHEve / Eve

Contact PHEve

i've hatched out over 14 this season and all of min have been incubated at a higher temp in the lower to mid 80's some took as long as 4 to 5 months so all i can say is make sure the humidity is up but don't ever let the water touch the egg cuz they will go bad very quickly............good luck they are hard to hatch i had to keep trying new ways of incubation before i got one that worked i lost about 8 eggs untill i got it right

The longest I've ever had eggs incubate was 192 days with pietschmanni. I like to err on the side of caution as there is not much worse than opening a viable egg with a baby not quite ready to hatch. Some times you can catch a whiff of mustiness with eggs that are carrying dead embryos. Good luck.