Egg tragedgy

[Katt]

Today Vanan noticed something white in my female russian rat cage. We found six bright white eggs, dried up. I'm in tears right now. One looks alright. The others are shriveled, but I can feel fluid in them. We put them into the incubator and now we can only hope. We were away to the TARAS show this weekend and arrived last night totally beat. This morning we were up early before 6 am and we just found them this afternoon after work.

I'm in tears right now. Just spend the last ten minutes bawling my eyes out in the bedroom. I didn't expect her to lay soon, as she's still in shed. Serves me right.

If the eggs don't make it. At least I know I did it right. All the eggs looked beautiful and big. The female looks good and we may try for a second batch.

I feel utterly stupid. I should have checked, but I was so tired, I totally forgot about checking all my gravid snakes. I am totally bummed out.

[nicola_boulton]

dont be upsett with urself! i remember this 1 time that happend 2 my leo eggs and the crickets got 2 them 1st! :'( dont be sad im sure if they'll be put in the incubator they'll fill out soon. Good luck, and please dont be sad. We all make mistakes!!

[Invictus]

I'm so sorry Katt... :( Just remember, you did do everything right. You had no reason whatsoever to believe she'd lay so quickly. I know for sure next time it will be a different story. Live and learn.

[Tim_Cranwill]

That's too bad. :( I hope they all survive...

[BoidKeeper]

Sorry to hear about your luck. Try not to feel bad, things things happen to everyone eventually if they do this long enough. I read in the Corn manual that they have a line that always lays during the pre-egg laying shed. Since then I put the nest box in right away after matting.
I'm sure clutch two will work out for ya.
Best of luck,
Trevor

[Katt]

The thing that really gets me, is that I was thinking of putting egg boxes in with all the female before we left to TARAS b/c naturally one would have to lay while we were gone. But things were so crazee before we left that it slipped my mind. Now I have egg boxes in all the females.
I keep hoping the eggs will fill out. I will let everyone know. I'm so bummed right now. I feel like going out to the Big 10-4 to splurge on ice cream. The li'l female is a good snake. I got the two of them from SCALES Zoo. I guess I should be happy that the female laid with no problem and has good body mass. She doesn't look all scrawny or anything.

[Ron]

Very sorry to hear that Katt, good luck with the next batch.

[Vanan]

A healthy snake is worth 10 dead eggs.

[lakeridgekennel]

I am so sorry.
Stuff happends and it is out of our control. It happends to the best of us it has happened to me 3 times but there is always next time.

[gonesnakee]

Murphy's Law in full effect. Sorry to hear Katt, but what can ya do. Whats done is done, DOH! I think you've inspired me to get on nesting boxes for all my Colubrids as well ASAP I try to hold off until close to the end too as my snakes love to crap in them when they are put in early, but its just one of those things. Mother Nature loves to mess with us that mess with her. Mark

[Katt]

Well Mark now you owe me a li'l baby, since I have inspired you so! <snicker>

I still haven't gone out to get any ice cream, just sort of meandering around the house. Feeding tegu, feeding the new arrivals. Snakes can really affect you.

[chamitch]

thats to bad, but it will make teh next clutch that much better.

[Janiman]

Very sorry to hear that. I was looking forward to getting some Russians but it looks like it'll be a little longer now. Good luck with the next clutch (if these ones don't fill out)... and be sure to keep us posted.

[Stockwell]

Sorry to hear about that Oats!!
You poor thing.. If it weren't for bad luck you'd have no luck at all.
You know they rarely lay while in the blue. Maybe they were no good anyway.
You should completely bury them in moist vermiculite for a couple days and see if they come back.
So sorry!!

[TheRedDragon]

I'm very sorry to hear about your tragedy Katt. :( Hopefully the eggs that you put into the incubator make it. Don't be so hard on yourself either, people make mistakes, and you were really bagged from the trip to Calgary, plus, had no idea that she'd lay them so soon. I'm sure that you will succeed with your next chance.

[crimsonking]

Katt, I've been there. Sorry you have to live it too. Every year my Miami female will lay her 2nd clutch UNDER the nest box. Sometimes I find it right away sometimes not. Anyway, I think if you would have put them directly into some very moist sphagnum moss they would have filled in and been fine. I have done that to countless eggs with some amazing results. Last year a yellow rat (wc someone brought me) layed without any warning on newspaper substrate. It was easily 3 days before I noticed there were eggs in the corner of her box. I put the dried, shriveled, hard eggs in some wet sphagnum and in 2-3 days--voila! All but 2 hatched.
:Mark

[vanderkm]

So sorry to hear this Katt - with any luck they will rehydrate and you will be able to hatch some. Certainly many people have had good luck getting other colubrid eggs to rehydrate - and you may be able to salvage some. At least your girl is in good shape and there were no problems with her,

keep us posted on how the eggs do,

mary v.

[Vanan]

It's nice to see all this support. Hopefully the eggs will pull through. It's difficult to kill a good egg.

[Leviathan]

How are the eggs looking now? Real sorry to hear about that Katt. Ya never know, they might all turn out and if not there's next time :D I think everyone was pretty exhausted after the show! I went from Calgary, 11 hours driving and then straight to flyball and then home to put everyone in there new cages! Long weekend but I hope you week is better! If ya know what I mean.

Alecia

[Classic]

It can happen to anyone. I hope you can revive them. Sounds like there's a good chance.

Brian

[Katt]

Checked on them today. They're still soft, still caved in, but still nice and white. I've add more moss and more water. Vanan thinks they may have filled out a bit more. We will see.

Thanks everyone for your support. I'm feeling a lot better and hopeful today. If babies do come out of those eggs, it'll be a success for us all! All these good feelings from everyone should help.

"You've got good vibrations..."

hehehe