Help!!! Eggs came early, no incubator!!

[herpchick]

OK, so I thought I had another month to go but apparently I missed the REAL ovulation because Here I am just getting off work and I have eggs!!! I was actually going to order an incubator next week, but I guess that won't work. What should I do? Is there a way to make a quick, safe incubator?? This is my first season so I'm kind of bugging out now! Please help!!!

edit- I just wanted to add that she dug down in the substrate and laid them right on top of the UTH, do you think the eggs on the bottom will be ok?

[frankykeno]

Adjust your temps accordingly so those eggs aren't overly exposed to excessive, direct heat. If you have to leave them with their mother for a day or so while you slap together an incubator, as long as you maintain the right temps and humidity in her enclosure it should be fine.

Is this your only expected clutch this year or do you have more females bred? Knowing how many clutches you have to manage will help us suggest homemade incubators to you.

If you go into the DIY forum, use the search function and type in "incubator" it comes up with a lot of threads on all sizes of homemade incubators.

[herpchick]

I've just got this one and one more female who is still kind of iffy.

[herpchick]

Ok well I threw something together for a temporary incubator, but I have a question about the eggs themselves now. I didn't have any perlite or vermiculite and the store that would have them is closed so I ended up using some Eco-Earth loose coconut fiber substrate I have (I just ordered some hatch-rite today), I just got it moist enough to clump and not drip water when squeezed. They've been in there since last night and the temp in the egg box is 89.8. I checked the eggs a little bit ago and looked on the bottoms and there seems to be some mold on the underside of each egg, what should I do? Is this normal?
Also I have a pic of the eggs and they look different from what I see in other peoples pics. There are seven of them and the average 120g each, the two one the side are 108g and 126g but these ones are lumpy. I looked quick with a small flashlight last night and they all have veins so they're fertile, does this mean anything??
Sorry about the long post, I just don't want anything else to go wrong.

[WingedWolfPsion]

That wouldn't be my choice for an incubation medium, as it tends to mold and decay all by itself. They should be ok there for a few days, but I would switch them to vermiculite or perlite asap.

Never get water directly on them, and they should be fine. Some very ugly eggs hatch out just fine--if you can see veins and they aren't collapsing, they're alive.

[herpchick]

I figured it wouldn't be right so I went somewhere else and got some perlite/vermiculite last night and put them in that instead. I definitely saw veins in all of them when I candled them and the eggs aren't collapsing, they're actually starting to get fuller, the bumps aren't as bad and they're not as "squishy" I guess you would say. This is what I'm worried about, it's on the bottoms of the eggs, is it normal for them to be like that? If not then what should I do?

[PythonWallace]

I would gently wipe the moldy areas off with a diluted chlorihexadine solution, and put a few layers of vinyl or aluminum screen, or plastic egg crate between the eggs and the substrate. That blue doesn't look very good, being that the eggs have so long to go.

[herpchick]

I would gently wipe the moldy areas off with a diluted chlorihexadine solution, and put a few layers of vinyl or aluminum screen, or plastic egg crate between the eggs and the substrate. That blue doesn't look very good, being that the eggs have so long to go.

Thanks, that's a good idea, I'll do that right now!! I just hope they'll be okay

[PythonWallace]

I just took this picture of the bottom of a clutch of eggs that are on day 51. A little mold usually isn't a big deal, but I'd be a little worried this early on.