Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi i would like to know how long before i can see if my Indigo eggs are fertile,and when should they start getting rough and hard any help would be appreicated thank again Tinamarie

Dear TinaMarie,

depending on your ability and experience, you should start seeing some darkened areas within a few weeks if you are candling. I don't bother to do it, I assume eggs are fertile unless it is obvious they went bad, molded extensively, caved in, etc. Give life a chance, sometimes a healthy snake hatches from a sorry looking egg.

The eggs are normally laid soft but become turgid, firming up within several hours of being laid. The normal egg has tiny rough looking "spicules" on it. I am suspicious of eggs that are smooth, or trapezoid shaped, as they are usually infertile. Sometimes a healthy snake emerges from odd eggs, such as spherical shaped ones, small ones, extra large, etc. Healthy eggs are usually about the size of a Grade AA chicken egg, oval shaped, some more rounded than others.

Did your indigo present you with nice looking eggs?

good luck, Vic

Hi Vic here are the eggs at 8 days old what due you think Tinamarie

Dear tinamarie,

first congratulations on getting that far along, you must be doing something right to get breeding and egg laying. Those eggs are longer, more lozenge shaped than mine, which are more rounded/sperical by comparison. I think they can vary. They look sort of tannish/brown, is that from the substrate they were laid in, perhaps sphagnum/peat moss? Eggs are usually white to off-white cream colored, so they appear discolored in the photo. Do you know why? If just stained from substrate, not likely a problem, if changing colors as they incubate, it may be a bad sign.

I can not see the little spicules that healthy eggs usually have, the photo not detailed enough, are they present?

Those eggs if not fertile usually will go bad within about 2 weeks of incubation, so you will probably know their fate. IF any doubt, give life a chance and keep incubating, you may be surprised. If you see dramatic mold growth, not promising, suggest you take that one out and separate from others. Good eggs don't smell foul, so bad odor and heavy mold is usually sign of going bad. Mild mold is often not a killer, often they will hatch, ask us for help if you are faced with that.

I wish you the best of luck, it is really fun to take snakes full cycle. Let us know how it goes. As you will learn, hatching healthy eggs is a challenge, indigos should never be cheap, everyone I know has been humbled with failed breeding attempts. But Ah... those successful ones, How Sweet It Is! Good luck, Vic

PS If you care to share, where did you get the parents? Do you know the origin of the sire and dam?

Hi Vic the brown color is from sphagnum moss .The parent were captive bred buy Jeff Jones in Brimfield IL in 2007 Tinamarie

They become granular within a short period of time, maybe an hour at most. They should feel rough like sandpaper. Those do not appear to be fertile, but it cannot hurt to incubate them until you are certain.