Sad Day at the Auten Household

danauten · 08-24-02, 10:23 PM

Went and checked on the bearded eggs and they had all turned bad on me. Not sure what happened, I knew there were some tha would not make it, but did not expect all of them to go bad. They must have all been slugs to begin with. This was her first clutch and she is only about a year old so I will fatten her back up and hope we have better results next time. I was so excited that we had eggs for the first time. I guess **** happens.

snakedude_03 · 08-24-02, 10:32 PM

awww.. sorry to hear about that... hope u'll have better luck next time!

SilverTongue · 08-24-02, 11:13 PM

Sorry about that

Uffern · 08-25-02, 02:27 AM

Could have been one of two things. Tell us how your incubation was set up. A lot of dragons have a very high infertility rate with their first clutches. Assuming you are doing everything right with the incubation, you will have better luck next time.

Please do post about your incubation set up just to make sure everything is straight.

08-25-02, 08:28 AM

too bad, hope your luck is better next time

danauten · 08-25-02, 12:01 PM

Thanks for all the replys.
Here was my setup for incubation, had them in a Hovabator incubator with a small amount of water in the bottom for humidity, had the temprature at a constant 83 degrees, had the eggs in a small tupperware with a lid and had one small hole in the top of the lid. I had the eggs lieing in moist vermecultie (sp?)
Please someone check this out and let me know if I did something wrong so next time I am better prepared.
Thanks in advance for all reply's

Uffern · 08-25-02, 12:32 PM

I don't think it was a problem with your set up. That all seems right on the money to me. I use completely airtight, clear containers, but I do know people who have success with containers with holes. Temp is perfect.

Did all the eggs turn yellow or grow mold? Did they all just deflate? Did they all seemingly go bad at the same time? What I'm trying to determine is if the eggs were actually infertile or if they were not hydrated enough.

danauten · 08-25-02, 05:10 PM

Uffern,
there were a couple that were yellow and deflated, but there were also some after a few days that had what looked like maggots in them, so I am assuming that they were bad to begin with. The ones with maggots looked fine everyday, white and full looking. So I am not sure.
Thanks for the help.

Uffern · 08-25-02, 11:50 PM

Maggots... How did that happen? Your crickets have flies? Every now and then my crix devolop a fly problem. Geez. In that case, I would say get rid of your current incubating containers (not the hovabator) and get new ones. Airtight ones. make sure they are airtight. When you have eggs in them, check them frequently. If the eggs have condensation on them, then the humidity is too high inside. Give them a couple of hours to air out. If the start to colapse, then the humidty is too low, add water to the vermiculite. It's ok if there is codemsation of the inside of the container, so long as it isn't drops of water on the eggs.

Maggots. That seems very odd. Can't think of how flies would lay eggs through the eggshell.

Think I may have it. When you say it looked like they had maggots in them, is it that there were samll white lines that you could see on the egg shell? Sort of like snowflakes? I think what you are seeing is a mineral build up inside the egg. I can't be certian without seeing them. Is it possible for you to post a picture on here?

This happens as a result of mineral imbalanc in the mother. If this is the case, then the eggs were not bad. They would still be viable.

If you have a pic, feel free to email it to me if that is more convenient than posting.

Jotun · 08-28-02, 08:02 AM

sorry for your loss man