Bad Eggs and Embryos (Warning: Graphic Content)

[Mehelya]

Well, as the title says. I had a first time female lay eggs for me, and they went bad, one by one, and seeing as I had never really bothered before in checking the eggs on the inside (colubrid eggs are so small), I decided to open them up, and see if I could see anything that caused their deaths. I made very sure that the embryos were well and truly dead before opening them up. A complete loss of veins (often showing as a red hue when candled, was not present), no movement from the embryos from the torch light (Never more than a few seconds of shining in, to avoid the embryo moving and tangling the umbilical chord), and most importantly, mold taking over the eggs (wiped off for the purpose of the pictures), with a "bad" smell emanating from the still closed egg. Even with all those cues, I still made small incisions first, and gently prodded the embryos to make sure there was no movement at all.

Well, I couldn't see anything that pinpointed a cause of death, but I managed to grab some interesting photos which I don't think too many people get to see, or particularly want to. So, if you're squeamish, rather click on the morphs section, look at all the pretty colors, and rather have happy thoughts.


The mother, with her freshly laid clutch. 5 seemingly good eggs, which ended up candling with good veins, and 3 duds. not bad for a first time mom. A long awaited project coming to fruition.


Pretty early, the one egg went off quickly, so I tossed it asap, and the remaining 4 started to show weird shell abnormalities (humidity and temps were perfect all the way through). They seemed to develop "windows", and a very "wrinkly skin" effect, with thickened sections, and then the mold started as a fine white fuzzy mist.


The remaining eggs went off at various stages, and the first of them was a few weeks through the incubation process.


The next one died near the halfway point.


Just over the middle of incubation, the next one went for a loop. Can see the lack of blood in the now empty veins, and the cloudy amniotic fluid.


Same snake, but with the amniotic sac removed somewhat. Can see the yolk underneath it. and can see the pattern faintly starting to form.


This was the last egg of the clutch. It died about 2 weeks before it was due to hatch. I noticed it was dead because of a lack of veins showing up on the shell when being candled, and no movement from the embryo shadow over a few days. Note the thickened amniotic sac.


With the embryo removed, you can see the thickened amniotic sac better, and the yolk at the base, covered in veins.


Some pics of the removed embryo. it was really sad to see this, because the baby looks so nice, and I've been waiting to see what this particular pairing would produce, but I guess I'll be waiting another season.




Close up of the head. Not sure if it was still forming, or if is that shape from an abnormality.


Pic showing genitals everted, and the umbilical chord going into the belly, and if you look carefully, you can see some fat cells inside the opening.


Again, I made absolutely sure the embryos inside the eggs were well and truly dead before I attempted to open any of them. I do not suggest anyone do this unless the egg is 1000% guaranteed not viable. Opening an egg too early with a living embryo has a whole host of it's own problems to tend with, although I'm sure I've seen a post somewhere about something along the lines of an open egg with a living embryo that made it full term.

For those that looked, thank you for your time.