Surprize, surprize

[Jahbeard]

Long story short, I pick up two females (Mary and Xena) from my brother-in-law at the beginning of April on a trip to Florida as he has a new baby and didn't have time for them. He kept the male that he has had for several years. I get them settled in. Mary has always been a little sensitive (you know how girls are) and a picky eater, but Xena is slamming my home grown ratties every week, no problem. All of a sudden, she stops eating for the last few weeks, and I haven't seen much of her. So tonight I pop off the hide and find this:







She wan't nearly as pleased to see me as I was to see this, so I left her alone. I know who the baby daddy is (her father, which is still kind of icky). I have no idea when they were layed, and she didn't even look particularly big. Now the watching and waiting begins. I count five eggs and the all appear to be intact.

[aaajohnson]

Any idea how long those have been there?


I would get the humidity way up asap without getting the eggs wet.

Neil

[Jahbeard]

Any idea how long those have been there?


I would get the humidity way up asap without getting the eggs wet.

Neil

No idea. I am going to whip up some fresh Bed-a-Beast tonight and get it in there. That should hopefully help.

[Rapture]

If you don't have a thermometer or hygrometer, you may want to invest in one. Give her a good basking spot and keep the humidity above 50%. Eggs start denting either because there isn't enough moisture in the environment or they are about to hatch. If it hasn't been at least 50 days since you saw her last, the denting is most likely from low humidity.

[Jahbeard]

If you don't have a thermometer or hygrometer, you may want to invest in one. Give her a good basking spot and keep the humidity above 50%. Eggs start denting either because there isn't enough moisture in the environment or they are about to hatch. If it hasn't been at least 50 days since you saw her last, the denting is most likely from low humidity.

I don't think its been quite that long, and I just recently had to move my Accurites around. I'll put one back tonight and get a new one tomorrow to replace it. I know the Bed-a-Beast will get the humidity back up where it needs to be.

[Ginevive]

The denting is probably from low humidity. It kinda bites that you don't know how long they have been in there. It looks like she's in a tank? One way to retain humidity good in tanks is covering most of the screen lid with saran wrap.
I would be careful about abruptly changing the humidity levels though. I would try to do it gradually. I am sure that someone that is more experienced with maternal incubation can chime in though.
But never spray or douse the eggs themselves with water!

[J.Vandegrift]

I would definitely add a buch of moist bedding to the cage and cover the top with only a few small holes for air exchange. Just make sure you don't put any of the moist bedding directly on the eggs.

[Jahbeard]

I would definitely add a buch of moist bedding to the cage and cover the top with only a few small holes for air exchange. Just make sure you don't put any of the moist bedding directly on the eggs.

The lid is covered with only enough space to allow the heat lamp to raise the ambient temp to 80, I have added enough Bed-a-Beast to get the humidity up to about 60%, and since she is camped out in a Repti-cave I was able to do it without making contact with the eggs. The Accu-rite says the spot with the eggs is at 89 deg. I figure at this point all I can do is all I can do. Both her and her brother and sister, who I also have, were maternally incubated, so I am hoping for the best. Thanks to all for the input. Does anyone know if a female can tell if the eggs are viable? Will she sit on unfertilized eggs as readily as fertilized ones? You would think that she would know and not devote a lot of energy to it if they weren't viable. If anyone has a though on that, please let me know. Thanks again.

[Rapture]

You're probably going to want the humidity higher than 60... with that heat lamp on, the air will dry out quickly. When I left eggs in with my female last year, I kept the humidity at at least 70 percent the majority of the time. The cage would dry out a bit during the day, but I'd mist again as soon as I got home, then again in the morning. I kept temps about 80-90, and sometimes a bit higher. Best of luck to you.

[python.princess]

i've heard of them still incubating slugs...