Incubation fiasco

[rainbowreptiles]

Its my first clutch ever and will be my only for this year, and things have gone horribly wrong. I am using vermiculite as my substrate, my temp is about 89 degrees and my humidity is on par. The issue came in when my female had some issues and her eggs didn't calcify properly. Then to make matters worse, at first my substrate dry/water ratio was off so the eggs were too wet for one day until I noticed an issue. I can see veins and an embryo but a few of the eggs look bad because of the water issue. I'm about one week in and is there anything I can do to try and salvage them? They are looking bad only on one side, the other side of the egg looks fine.

[aldebono]

The calcification thing happened to me last year. Very odd, but do yours look very windowed? Can you pretty much see inside them without even candling? That's how mine were.

If you are worried about how wet or dry your eggs are, try the substrateless method. Probably a google search of the forum can explain it better than I can.

https://www.google.com/search?q=ball...w=1680&bih=920

What do you mean "bad on one side"?

As far as what to do now, Probably just wipe any mold off as needed but generally try to leave them alone. I know its hard. I lost all but one egg last year when this happened. Nothing I could do. Not to say it will happen the same way with you, but it's just how things go sometimes.

[rainbowreptiles]

They are very windowed. I can see the veins without candling on two of the eggs. What I mean by bad on one side, is that the side facing down into the substrate doesn't look as bad as the side facing up, not sure why. The bottoms are still a bit windowed but the tops are worse and have discoloration on them. I can see an embryo still in all the eggs when I candle them. And there's really no discoloration around the veins but the rest of the egg is really looking bad to me. Almost like a gray color. But only in spots on the ends of the egg. I will check out incubation without substrate. Thank you so much

[Annarose15]

Pictures would help.

[aldebono]

Yep, that is exactly what happened to me. Like the snakes, I would just make sure specs are correct and then try not to open them or mess with them too much. Not a whole lot you can do.

If it helps, the female that did this to me last year laid perfectly good eggs this year.

[iCandiBallPythons]

lay a paper towel over the damp spots

[rainbowreptiles]

Thanks to everyone for the replies. I think I will just keep incubating them until I'm sure they're not viable... but as of the end of the day today, I think they're pretty much toast.

However, I've looked online and haven't found an answer for this other question. Can eggs that look fertile go bad? Assuming there's no temp or humidity issues. Can an egg just fail to thrive for no apparent reason?

[don15681]

[QUOTE=rainbowreptiles;1895008]Thanks to everyone for the replies. I think I will just keep incubating them until I'm sure they're not viable... but as of the end of the day today, I think they're pretty much toast.

However, I've looked online and haven't found an answer for this other question. Can eggs that look fertile go bad? Assuming there's no temp or humidity issues. Can an egg just fail to thrive for no apparent reason?[/QUOTE]

yes they can

[Homegrownscales]

Yep I had a whole clutch do that to me this year. Yes it sucks major to see watch a train wreck like that.


Check out what's new on my website... www.Homegrownscales.com