Possibly fatal?

[NateDogg13]

Ok so my crestie laid her eggs friday night and I found them the next morning and put them in a plastic container and put them in the coolest part of my reptile room and turned the heat down just a bit. Well it dropped the temps in my room just a bit too much so I decided to move everything around and put the heater on the far side of the room. I got everything moved and readjusted my temps. worked great, Im at around 75-78 for them. It took me a while to move everything around and my timers turned off all the lights so I turned them back on for about 30 extra mins while I finished. When I went to turn the switch back off for the timers I accidentally turned off the surge protector instead of the timer, it was off for a full 12 hours. When I checked on everyone the next day I FREAKED out. 60 degrees. I took the eggs into my bedroom and brought the temps back up to 75 and let them stay there for a while while I cranked up the temps in the reptile room.

Im worried about my eggs now. Is this temp drop going to kill them or can they stand that low of a drop for some time. How can I tell if theyll be ok?

[mlededee]

usually they can deal with some temperature fluctuation and some people even incubate in the 60s for the longest possible incubation time. i would be much more concerned if the heat had jumped up too high rather than having it go a little low. you should be okay but do keep in mind that the first eggs a female lays are often infertile, so if they turn out to be duds that is likely the reason why.

you can try candling them to see if they are fertile. soon after they are laid you should be able to see a pink "cheerio" in the egg. after about a week the entire egg should look pinkish on the inside. if it looks all yellow instead the egg is most likely not fertile, but you should incubate it anyhow just in case.

[NateDogg13]

As far as I know this is her 3rd clutch. When I got her the people I got them from had 2 of her eggs incubating, and she laid a clutch shortly after I got her too but I didnt know because I had kept them seperated the whole time and found out after they had completely dried up, so hopefully they are fertile. I used just a regular mini flashlight and it just looked yellow, but that was also the day i found them. Can you candle with a regular flashlight or with an LED flashlight or do you need a specific kind of light?

[mlededee]

I just use a mini maglite flashlight to candle and it works really well. Wait about a week from the time they were laid and then candle them again and see how they look. Sometimes they start off yellow looking but the pink starts coming in after a week or so.