Hello everyone, this is my first post and I have to warn you it is not a happy one. On May 7th my normal female, which was bred by a lesser, laid five healthy eggs. Everything seemed to be going fine for my first clutch, although the eggs did dimple a little early. Well, yesterday, day 52, a normal pipped. I didn't expect the eggs to pip so early, so I left the other eggs alone. This morning, a lesser had pipped as well. The problem starts here. The lesser had pipped maybe an hour before it started to come out of the egg. About a third of his body was out of the egg. I gently pushed it into the egg again, and had to do so a few more times before it would stay put. However, I noticed that the lesser lacked energy and would not really move when I touched him. I knew this was not normal behavior because the other baby that pipped the day before did not act like this.

Since the lesser had pipped, I figured all of the other babies were about ready to hatch, too, so I cut the other three eggs. There were two normals and one lesser. One normal had a, well, normal looking egg on the inside. The other normal had a lot of darkish film on the inside of the egg and a whitish film on the baby. The lesser was a little dry on the inside of the egg. None of the babies moved. As the day progressed I noticed that the lesser who pipped on its own had not moved at all, unlike the normal that was first to pip. I took the lesser's egg out of the incubator and peeked inside its egg, only to discover a huge yolk sac and what I believed was the umbilical cord wrapped around the lesser's midsection very tightly. I knew it was pretty much doomed anyway but I had to try something.

I cut away most of the egg and carefully slid the baby and the yolk into a bowl with wet paper towels. After about 15 minutes of fumbling around, my mom finally got the umbilical cord unwrapped, but the lesser appears to be dead regardless. I waited about two hours for something to happen, but I believe the baby is dead because it has started to become stiff.

Because of this, I started to look over the other three eggs that had yet to move at all, and it had been about ten hours since I slit them. The normal looking egg appeared okay, but was slightly cloudy so I set it aside. The second egg that had the blackish film looked very gross and had a slight smell, so I cut more of the egg away only to discover a small dead baby. By this point, I was very upset. I quickly cut away at the last egg, which contained the lesser. This lesser, too, had its umbilical cord wrapped and twisted around its body, even more so than the first lesser. It, too, was dead.

Feeling hopeless for the last egg which I had set aside before, I cut into it as well. At first, the baby did appear to be dead, although it was larger than the other dead normal and lesser. I was convinced the baby was dead, so I removed it from the egg. The fluid around the baby was extremely sticky and coated the baby. I don't know if this is normal or not, because based on pictures I had seen on the internet of healthy hatching babies it did not appear to be. When the baby was out of the egg, I gently poked it and noticed slight movement. I realized it was barely alive so I found a small bowl, put some very moist paper towels in it, put the baby and the yolk sac in the bowl, and put some more moist paper towels over it and left a small hole so it could peek its head out. I know I have most likely doomed this baby, but I really did believe it was dead like the others. At the moment, he is nestled in his bowl in the incubator, not really moving at all. He was breathing when I took him out of the egg though.

Sooooo, to recap: I have two live normal babies at the moment, two dead lessers, and one dead normal. The second lesser and normal were both smaller than the first baby to pip, which leads me to believe that they must have died before the first one even pipped. Also, both lessers had their umbilical cords wrapped around them.

This was my very first clutch and I am so upset by what has happened. I don't know what could have caused this, especially since there were no temperature spikes, as my incubator is hooked up to a herpstat. I would greatly appreciate any input you all have as to why this has occurred. Also, sorry for such a long and confusing post...

Rachel