Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is my malagasy giant hognose female's, and my, first clutch of eggs ever. She laid about 10 eggs, of which 3 seemed good. One egg was non-fertile and went bad pretty fast. The two have been looking great until now. We're now at day 40, and they're starting to dent pretty heavilly. The humidity should be good, and the temps have been steady as a rock. Is this normal or is something wrong? If something's wrong, what could the problem be? I highly doubt it's not too low humidity. If anything, it'd be border line to too high. Could too much humidity cause this?

What kind of incubator do you have? If you have a fan blown incubator it is common for it to appear as though the humidity is high and still have the eggs dry out. Indentation is not necessarily bad if it is the result of lowered humidity. With some species it can be a good idea to let the eggs indent a little befor hatching, this gives the embryo more air space in the egg making it less likely that it will drown while attempting to hatch. Spontaneous indentation in high humidity environment is a sign of stress that the eggs are going through that can be caused by fluctuating temperatures or humidity. When it has happened to me, most of the clutch fails to hatch. I don't have any direct experience with this species, but I would recommend not giving up on an indented egg if no fungus is present and increasing the humidity.

My cornsnake eggs dented in and I thought for sure I had lost them...2-3 weeks later, they all hatched. So, what I'm trying to say is, unless they really look or smell bad, I would leave them as they are.