no eggs in the x-ray?

Hi All,

I've had my bps for about 13 yrs now. I've breed them many times with alot of success. This year she started showing her usual signs of being gravid. Not eating, gaining weight and basking during the day. When July came (she usually lays in April or May) and no eggs, I started to worry. I was thinknig she may be egg bound. I took her to the vet and he gave her an x-ray. He said "no eggs in there and she looks great". So I gave her a gerbil, something I've done in the past when she doesn't show interest in rats. She ate the gerbil, so I thought all is well. Then 4 days later she lays 6 eggs. She has been sitting on them for about a week and they look as normal as all the eggs in the past. I've never incubated them myself she has always done a fine job herself. My questions are : will the x-ray damage the eggs? Why didn't the eggs show up on the x-ray. And because I believe she was gravid longer than normal will they hatch in a shorter timw than the usual 50-60 days? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks, J

I know that we will not x-ray any woman who is pregnant (unless completely neccessary) because of the risk of harming the fetus.

All you can do is wait and see how they turn out.

I wonder if the vet was trained well enough to spot the very thin outlining that the eggs would have left? They could have been hidden by ribs? I also wonder if he did 2 views rather than just one.

Just like baby rats are hard to see b/c there aren't actually HARD bone, the eggs probably weren't seen. Not solid enough to cause a shadowing or whiteness in the radiographs (x-rays). And maybe not enough calcium yet in the eggshells to make them appear white in the pictures. ?

I don't think there'd be enough rays to hurt the eggs, but I'm not a vet. If you can candle and see veining, they're probably okay. You won't know until closer to hatching........but Good Luck!