Incubation Question

Can anyone tell me if this is normal or what might be the problem? This is my first clutch of eggs and nothing I have read has seemed to address this issue. The clutch looked good and all candled good. After about day 5 in the incubator the shells looked like they were decalcifying; kind of like translucent areas developing and the shells seem to be a bit softer than when they were laid. My incubator temperature is at 89 degrees and I am using moistened vermiculite/perlite mixture for medium….Thanks

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Originally Posted by astaley

Can anyone tell me if this is normal or what might be the problem? This is my first clutch of eggs and nothing I have read has seemed to address this issue. The clutch looked good and all candled good. After about day 5 in the incubator the shells looked like they were decalcifying; kind of like translucent areas developing and the shells seem to be a bit softer than when they were laid. My incubator temperature is at 89 degrees and I am using moistened vermiculite/perlite mixture for medium….Thanks

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First off how moist is your vermiculite? It should not have puddles of water that the eggs are setting on.How often do you feed this female? What size rodent does she eat? It sound like to me she did not have enough calcium(spelling) built up for making the egg shells.

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Originally Posted by astaley

Can anyone tell me if this is normal or what might be the problem? This is my first clutch of eggs and nothing I have read has seemed to address this issue. The clutch looked good and all candled good. After about day 5 in the incubator the shells looked like they were decalcifying; kind of like translucent areas developing and the shells seem to be a bit softer than when they were laid. My incubator temperature is at 89 degrees and I am using moistened vermiculite/perlite mixture for medium….Thanks

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Egg "windows" are a perfectly normal thing that every ball python breeder sees.

-adam

Try putting some liquid band-aid on the windows, it seems to keep the windows from spreading, and could quite possibly save the egg. I've used it on quite a few eggs already this season, and so far all of them have hatched. I do still have some that are band-aided and waiting to hatch, but they appear to be doing great.

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Originally Posted by muddoc

Try putting some liquid band-aid on the windows, it seems to keep the windows from spreading, and could quite possibly save the egg. I've used it on quite a few eggs already this season, and so far all of them have hatched. I do still have some that are band-aided and waiting to hatch, but they appear to be doing great.

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Not to take anything away from Tim's advice because I know a lot of breeders that swear by the liquid band-aid thing, but for whatever it's worth, every year my "window" eggs all hatch fine without it?? ... Maybe it's something in the Maryland water. ;) :P

Just goes to show you that there are many ways to successfully keep, breed, and hatch these very cool animals. ;)

ROCK ON!

-adam

We have to do what we can down here, because there's no telling what goes into that Mississippi River water that we get out of our tap.

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Originally Posted by muddoc

We have to do what we can down here, because there's no telling what goes into that Mississippi River water that we get out of our tap.

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LOL ... well, from what I see it can't be all that bad ... you guys sure are making some pretty babies!! ;)

-adam

Thanks Bro. I must admit, that Maryland water also produces some fine looking offspring.

The eggs were calcified when they were laid, but now it looks like there is just kind of a membrane around them; on almost the whole egg. The female was around 1600g when breeding started and once she started breeding she stopped feeding. She was on small to med sized rats though. It sounds like they might be fine, but I can almost see the veins now in normal light. I guess I will let them cook and see what happens. I'll let everyone know how it turns out. If all goes well, I'm expecting at the end of August... Thanks to everyone, and if anyone has any more info/suggestions I'd appreciate it.




Adam