Is my clutch dead?

Hi guys. As you may be able to tell by the title of this thread, I've been having some problems. Back on the 2nd my spider het pied girl laid a clutch of 8 beautiful eggs. I was really excited! I had a small homemade incubator all ready for them and put them in as soon as I found them, but now I'm having issues.


The day before yesterday, sometime between my morning check on the eggs and my night time check, the thermostat I use for my incubator (a herpstat 2 redline) had an error (I think it said "Invaid Temp" or something) and cut off power to the incubator. By the time I got to it the temp was down to 74 degrees F.


I couldn't figure out a way to get the herpstat to stop making the error, so I unpugged it and plugged the heat source in directly to an outlet to let it warm up. It took a good 12 hours to rise above 80 degrees, probably another 12 to get to proper temperatures. I have it on a different thermostat now, but the eggs are dimpled and not looking so great.


Is there any chance that they're still alive? I'd like to save them, if at all possible. My girl was paired with a leopard het pied male and I was hoping for some really nice combos, but after a temp drop so low and for so long I'm afraid there's not much hope for them. I've been wondering if I should just put them in the freezer and then throw them out.

Pictures:
Before
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...com/o04eae.jpg
This was taken the day they were laid, shortly after putting them in the incubator.

After
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...com/wsr6uq.jpg
This was taken today. I didn't want to disturb them while I was waiting for the incubator to warm up.

To be clear, I'm not incubating them at 84 or 86 degrees, that's just what the thermometer reads while the incubator is open. The thermostat is set to 89.

So what do you think? Dead?

All you can do is wait and see what happens......

You can candle the eggs to see if they still have veins. However as mentioned above it’s a waiting game. However I wouldn’t get rid of the eggs just yet. If you have a problem like that again. Get two soda bottles and fill them with hot or warm water. Put it in the incubator to get the temp up. Just be careful not to raise the temp too fast. So you will have to monitor the temp until it stabilizes.

You can't tell from the picture they just look like healthy eggs just a bit deflated which happens.

First thing to do do is to candle them first before doing anything drastic then see how it goes over the next few days, if they are dead it will not take long before they start to mold and you no longer see healthy veins.

Thanks guys. I'll candle them in a bit.


@Tigerhawk: The temp is stabilized now. I don't have room for water bottles in the bottom, but I have ice packs down there (they're not frozen obviously, just full of water). I think they're why it took so long for the incubator to warm up again. Unfortunately, they helped stabilize the wrong temperature as well as they help stabilize the right one.


@Deborah: Thanks, will do. I figured they would likely go downhill quick if they are dead. The tub has started to smell a bit like mold, unfortunately.


I'll take my flashlight to them tonight and let everyone know the results.

Hope dies last !!

No reason not to leave them in until they either go bad (you will know) or hatch !

I wonder, though, why did it take so long for the temp to go up with the heat source plugged in directly to the power? Mine went up rather quickly. But my incubator isn't really big.

Also, are the eggs buried in substrate or just laying on the tub floor? I can't tell. It almost like they lost some humidity, but the reading shows high humidity...

Either way, you have nothing to loose by letting them incubate for now.

On the bright side, eggs tend to handle lower temps a lot better than higher. You can moisten a paper towel with tepid water, wring it out, then drape it over the eggs. If they plump back up after a day or two, that'd be a pretty good sign they're still chugging along. Don't lose heart if they don't though. Some eggs dimple early and hatch just fine. There's no harm in continuing incubation until you're 100% certain. Unless the smell is overbearing and they're molded and I can't candle veins, I give eggs a chance.

So far so good! I candled the eggs and saw veins in all of them. I know they may still die later, but for now the veins look strong.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/2na0684.jpg

Sorry for the quality of the photo, my camera doesn't do well in low light.

@zina: Mine's not big either, so I'm not sure why it took so long to heat up. Possibly because the water underneath the floor had already cooled by the time I got to it.

The eggs are on top of a spare bit of plastic. I know some people put them directly on the vermiculite, but a lot also use egg crates to keep them from coming into direct contact with it. I wanted to do that, but I couldn't find an egg crate anywhere. So I used what I had lying around the house.

Humidity has been consistently high. The top of the tub is always dripping when I open it. I think that may have been responsible for the herpstat error. The probe was wet when I took it out.

@John: If I drape a moist paper towel over the eggs will they still be able to breathe? I might give it a try, as long as I know it's not going to smother them.

Yeah, I used the diffuser on top of substrate method.

Here is what I did...I had the probe for the thermostat in the middle of the incubator. NOT in the egg box. In the egg box, I had a probe for a regular thermometer. Then I adjusted the thermostat until the thermometer read the correct temp for inside the egg box.

Perhaps that may help you out?

They shouldn't look that deflated after 13 days. I know everyone does that mix until clumpy but not dripping but if you are that dimpled, humidity can be raised. I get 100% humidity in my setup. I put vermiculite, fill with water until the water is just below the vermiculite surface and use a light diffuser. My eggs don't dimple until around day 48-50.