Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hello,

well, this is my first season trying to produce some hognose. i have bred mainly various new / old world rats and geckos before.

i woke up to one of my het axanthic females laying eggs. she was right at 200g and it's her first season. i candled them, and i see veins in only 4 of the eggs. they look yellowish and like duds to me though.

thoughts? anyone have yellow'ish eggs that turned out to be fertile? even seeing the veins in some i am kind of doubtful.

thoughts?

thanks...
jonathan

Those are enlarged ovum. Did you see copulation?

i paired them up numerous times, but did not observe copulation.

Sorry dude. Those are not fertile. Put the pair back together, and you might get lucky on the double clutch....assuming your lady is in good physical condition after laying.

Good luck,

Dan

Enlarged ovum is from no viable sperm what so ever. Like no copulation. When that ovum migrates into the oviduct, they are fertilized then shelled. When shelled, there is a tread type pattern and the eggs are yellowish to white.
If the eggs are full(inflated) they absorbed water they are normally viable. If there is a tread pattern and the eggs are deflated, it "could be" no viable sperm( or the zygote died before they were deposited. The sperm can die inside the male or while the female is storing it.
There is more to the reproductive biology that you can determine by examination. Of interest is, they can have infertility in nature as well as full term dead neonates.
A couple of days ago, I found a clutch of hatched eggs with one infertile. Many years ago, I did some croc nesting work and found full term dead, infertile and many hatched neonates, in each of 8 nests. I can post a couple pics if you like

thanks for the feedback and info. i kept a handful of them anyway just because i saw veins. figure it only takes up a little space in the incubator. the ones that i could see veins when i candled have turned white. the other ones are still yellow. not sure if that means anything or not. any ideas??? they are all inflated without dimpling or mold.

i am going to wait on introducing the female again. she is chowing down on mice, and i would like her to gain some more weight first. maybe the next batch...

i got some fertile eggs from another female and a couple females that haven't laid yet. hoping for a nice little variety for my first season attempting to breed hogs. i know that they are a blast to raise. i'm sure it will be even more satisfying to hatch my own out

jonathan

Hi geckoejon,

I agree, those are all slugs, or mature, unfertilized ovum. However, I will point out that eggs that are initially veinless are not necessarily bad. When females have access to really good nesting options, they can lay their eggs very quickly after the pre-lay shed, before veins become visible. I had a clutch of 16 diamond python eggs two years ago that were adhered (luckily), the majority of the eggs were not vascularized and would have been tossed if they were not stuck together in a pile. However, two weeks later I re-candled the clutch and all 16 glowed pink with veins. I shudder to think of how many fertile eggs I might have tossed that were simply well nested and deposited before they showed veins...yikes!

Will

hello will,

thanks for sharing. i will keep that in mind.

jonathan