Eggs okay?

First clutch of eggs ever... First post ever... Glad to be on board with y'all; I've learned so much from all of you.

Bred our family pet normals and she laid 6 nice eggs and a slug. Incubating at 88.5F/90%+ humidity and today is day 7.

The eggs are starting to develop lines on them which makes some of each egg look kind of wet and translucent, and the rest of it opague(sp) - as they were when laid . Not sure if this is normal, so I candled them and they are full of veins and appear fine.

I've not been able to find posts about this change, and haven't seen other pics where others looked like this.

Question; Is there any cause for concern about the changing appearance of the eggs?

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i had this happen recently and my whole clutch went bad. not saying yours will. but i would keep a close eye on them i think it may be from to much moisture. least that's what i was told

They're too wet, and that one on the left looks like it may go bad. I would go ahead and throw away the slug too, it's not fertilized.

Either redo the vermiculite and make it drier or put some grating of some sort like the fluorescent light diffusor you can get at Home Depot/Lowe's. You put the vermic or perlite underneath, add enough water so it's moist/soppy, put the light diffusor on top(cut to fit the inside of the tub), and put the eggs on top of the light diffusor. Works very well.

If they stay too wet too long, they will die or you'll get deformed babies.

Looks like I got carried away with the original peri/vermic mixture... thought there was no such thing as too humid.

Thanks to your advice - I remixed a new substrate much drier and put them in there. We'll go on from here and try to keep humidity 75-80% I suppose.

Hopefully they will dry just a bit and be okay. The whole project is for my kids to learn about reptiles and biology - so really hope for my kids' sake that these eggs make it to the finish line.

Again, thanks.

A couple days have passed now, and I got the eggs up off the surface of the substrate like many of you have suggested. The eggs now look "normal" again - so I'd say your advice saved 'em before they went bad. Many thanks.

Post new pictures!

id have to say egg 7 is a slug...just a warning if it doesnt hatch.

Nice to hear.

I had that last season as well, a few that got very thin walls in the beginning, but bounced back and had a 100% hatch rate in the end.

Sounds like a great project for your kids to be part of. :)

Bruce

you can have the vermic too wet if you have the eggs on a light disfuser. I never was good at mixing stuff like that . once I place them on the light disfuser they wet stain faded a little and the eggs all hatched and seven a slug toss it. if can't find a disfuser try some styrofoam plate wit hjust a little of the mix dry to keep eggs from rolling .

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Originally Posted by rev c

Looks like I got carried away with the original peri/vermic mixture... thought there was no such thing as too humid.

Thanks to your advice - I remixed a new substrate much drier and put them in there. We'll go on from here and try to keep humidity 75-80% I suppose.

Hopefully they will dry just a bit and be okay. The whole project is for my kids to learn about reptiles and biology - so really hope for my kids' sake that these eggs make it to the finish line.

Again, thanks.

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You definitely don't want the humidity that low, as it will dehydrate the eggs. It is a fine line we walk when incubating eggs. You don't want the eggs to rest on a wet surface, as they will get moldy and die, but you also want the humidity to be as high as possible. Make sure that the top of your incubating box is sealed (air tight if possible), and keep the substarte relatively dry. This combination should reult in high humidity, without the eggs getting too wet.

Hope that helps,

So the problem is not excessive humidity; rather, eggs touching wet substrate and "wicking" & saturating with water? Makes sense.

I now have the eggs on a plastic layer, as many of you have shown, so humidity can be high and they won't touch the substrate. It looks the the majority of folks here keep the eggs right on the vermiculite - so I've got to ask, how do you and keep them from getting too wet? Just a little less water in the substrate?

I'll post a couple pics of the "new and improved" eggs tomorrow. ;)

Thanks for the sound advice.

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Originally Posted by rev c

so I've got to ask, how do you and keep them from getting too wet? Just a little less water in the substrate?

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That is what I do. I keep the substrate as dry as possible. I learned from Sean at EbN, a little trick about mixing substrate. It's called the squeeze test. Mix your perlite and vermiculite (I use 2:3 mixture), and add a small amount of water. Mix the water in well, and grab a handful of substrate. Squeeze the substrate as tight as you can. No water should come out when you squeeze it, however, the substrate should form a solid mass in your hand. The solid mass should break apart very easily if tapped with your finger. If your substrate acts like I wrote above, then it is perfect for incubating.

With all of that said, if you notice your eggs dessicating later on in incubation, you can always add a bit of water to the corner of the egg box, and it will sink under the substrae, and help to raise the humidity in the box, and you will see your eggs plump back up.

I hope that helps,

number 7 is a slug for sure :(