Infertile eggs

[herpchick]

Alright, so I have a female who was on day 49 after her pre-lay shed. Well, she just laid a clutch of 8 PERFECT looking eggs yesterday. I took them out and candled them only to find that they are ALL infertile. There are no veins in any of them, however there is what looks to be almost a blood pocket inside all but 1 of them.
So I have 2 questions here. First, what do you think is the main reason for perfectly good, healthy looking eggs to be infertile? Second, what are you're opinions on the "blood pockets" in the eggs?
This same female gave me 7 good FERTILE eggs last year, so I'm just confused about what may have caused this to happen.
Thanks guys

[LadyOhh]

Post a picture of the eggs being candled.

[Foschi Exotic Serpents]

Yes post pictures and I hope you put them in the incubator anyway.

One of our moderators had some tricky looking eggs last season. They didnt look fertile when candled but they hatched. Sometimes you cant see the veins.

Sometimes even the eggs that look bad - brown or boob eggs - turn out to be good.

[herpchick]

Alright I took some pics of a few of them, you can't see quite as clearly as you can in person, but you get the idea of what it is I'm seeing. I did throw them in the incubator just in case..... I still have a glimmer of hope until they're shriveled and obviously gone.
In the first I can almost see what might be teeny tiny veins branching out from the "blood pocket"

[Foschi Exotic Serpents]

Try to candle from underneath the egg or use a light with a different color bulb. Like daylight bulb or a blue bulb. That top one looks good to me. Sometimes its just the position/color of the light in relation to where the sack is inside the egg. I wouldnt give up on them.

[Russ Lawson]

If they're not slugs, I incubate them. I don't even bother candling. Don't really see a point to be honest. If it goes bad in the incubator that's that. I have a pretty good hatch rate though so far.

[angllady2]

Can you candle snake eggs that early?

I only ask because I used to breed birds, and it always took three or four days after being laid before you could candle them reliably.

Gale

[briz]

Candle them from the side and look at the top and opposite side. From the pics it looks like a) the light is too big or b) it is not pushed against the egg hard enough. I can see some veins on the sides where it turns darker in the pics.

Also could you post some pics of the eggs in regular light. Your first pic I can see a vein and what looks to be a wet spot on the egg in the bottom right corner.

[muddoc]

They don't look like they will make it to me. However, as many have stated, put them in the bator anyway, as it is always better to be safe than sorry.

In regards to your last question in the original post about what happened. My guess would be that the male either didn't transfer sperm to the dame, he is infertile or the sperm never made it to the ova to fertilize them. I don't think it had anything to do with the female.

[herpchick]

They don't look like they will make it to me. However, as many have stated, put them in the bator anyway, as it is always better to be safe than sorry.

In regards to your last question in the original post about what happened. My guess would be that the male either didn't transfer sperm to the dame, he is infertile or the sperm never made it to the ova to fertilize them. I don't think it had anything to do with the female.

Well, you were right, they didn't make it even a week before they were all starting to rot. I've got another female who just had her pre-lay shed, so I'm hoping those are fertile!
The pairing from the infertile eggs was the same as last year so I know that male is fertile. I'm still perplexed by the "blood pockets" inside the eggs. It almost looked like they were fertile at one point and then died before being laid...... I don't know...... I guess that's what makes this hobby interesting, there are ups and downs, hopefully the rest of the season will be more on the up side..... c'mon het clown X het clown eggs