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Can I save these eggs??

heatwave

heatwave

Certified Herp-a-holic
Oh dear. I didnt think I was going to get any eggs this go around- every single one of my girls went over their due dates and no one laid. No one plumped substantially up, I had two gain weight but I was feeding them extra meals so I thought maybe that was the case.

Today I went in to remove egg boxes. When I took Popcorn's out, I saw a little white speck sticking out from under her dry hide. I had left her dry hide in because she was using the moist laying box without issue, so I figured she would lay in there no issue. Nope! She laid in her dry hide. WORSE... I dont think I checked in the dry hide for the last 2 days to see if there were eggs. I think I have just been lifting the lid of the laying box to see if she laid.

When I lifted the dry hide there were 10 pretty sparkly white eggs- but badly sunken from dehydration. I temp gunned them and the hide was at about 82. But the hummidity was of course way too low for them. I took them out and set them up in moist substrate (not wet enough to squeeze water) put them in a closed container with no air holes and put them in the incubator at 82 degrees. (the pic was taken before I "burried" them)


Any chance I can save these eggs?? I am heartbroken :( I think these will be my only eggs of the season unless I try re-breeding my girls.
 

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I hope so, I thought they were slit at first! They look perfectly fine to me. Put them in some Hatchrite, and you should be GTG.
 
Almost everyone I have advised has used too much water, so I always say just use Hatchrite, in a sealed tupperware with just a half dozen or so very small air holes. This will allow enough O2 but not enough to let the media dry too much. When you open it briefly to check them, that's enough airflow for the week!
 
I dont have any hatchrite handy- I had actually ordered a batch of it but gave it to a friend for his beardie eggs when my gals went over and I was just *sure* they reobsorbed. Right now they are in something that I cant remember... I use it for egg laying hides. I want to say its jungle something. It works sort of like vermiculite- mix until wet but you cant squeeze a drop out and it stays moist for, like, ever. I couldnt find any vermiculite without extra stuff like fertalizer in it so I bought this at the petstore.

If I ordered some more hatchrite would it be ok to move the eggs when it gets here?
 
I had a gecko egg last year that was as dented as that top right one you have pictured. Plumped back up with the humidity and hatched out the prettiest baby I had that season too. :)
 
I usually put a wringed out paper towel over eggs that dent until they plump back up.... but thats what we do. I am sure there are quite a few different ways to plump eggs back up. They are save-able for sure.

Buzz
 
DragonsDenSerpents said:
I had a gecko egg last year that was as dented as that top right one you have pictured. Plumped back up with the humidity and hatched out the prettiest baby I had that season too. :)
Click to expand...

Phew. Thanks for all the hope guys! I was in tears driving to work after setting them up thinking I had lost them for sure.

Buzzard- I was thinking of putting a wet paper towel maybe in the corner of the container but not over the actual eggs. Think that would work?
 
I am sure it would increase the moisture in the container. Which should help. But why not cover them? It doesn't hurt them, and they bounce back quicker. The longer the eggs stay "dehydrated" the less chance you will have at saving them. Right now I have 3 clutches in the incubator and all three have damp paper towels over them. Having a balled up wet paper towel will add some humidiy dont get me wrong, but spreading the towel out will actually add more moisture(humidity) than the same towel all balled up in the corner of the container. Its not the volume of water but the amount of surface area exposed to the air that you want ;).
 
Buzzard said:
I am sure it would increase the moisture in the container. Which should help. But why not cover them? It doesn't hurt them, and they bounce back quicker. The longer the eggs stay "dehydrated" the less chance you will have at saving them. Right now I have 3 clutches in the incubator and all three have damp paper towels over them. Having a balled up wet paper towel will add some humidiy dont get me wrong, but spreading the towel out will actually add more moisture(humidity) than the same towel all balled up in the corner of the container. Its not the volume of water but the amount of surface area exposed to the air that you want ;).
Click to expand...

So its ok if the towel is actually touching the eggs? I was afraid that might cause some mildew. I will definitely try it though- anything to plump them back up!
 
In my egg boxes I sit the eggs in damp vermiculite and cover them with a sheet of damp paper towel - it's touching them. No harm so far.

I've had worse examples plump back up and hatch.Good luck!
 
You can always cover them with damp wrung out as much as possible sphagnum moss/orchid moss.
 
Well I put a wet (but not dripping) paper towel over them and they have been in the incubator for 24 hours, but theres no change :( How quickly should they plump back up?
 
It will probably take at least a week for them to plump back out, they may not even fully plump back out, but they don't look too bad!

I think they should be fine. If they haven't improved at all in the next few days, shoot me a PM and I can tell you about substrateless incubation. I'm doing it with all my clutches this year, corns and ball pythons.
 
Well it's been a couple of weeks and I wondered if you had a update on the eggs, I'm dealing with the same problem right now and just wondering if you've been able to notice a difference yet
 
Yup! They are all plump and after candeling them last week every single one is developing!
 
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