Egg incubation Advice need - pics

Dom · 03-13-04, 06:11 PM

Alright so I am gonna show lots of pics to explain what is going on..

My coastal laid 48 eggs.. 7 were defenite duds and were thrown out..

These are the eggs when they were laid .. As u can tell VERY WEIRD - can anyone explain these marks? The nipples?

Day 1

After about 5 days of incubation i oppenned the incubator for the first time .. this is what it looked like ..

Day 5

After day 9 I oppenned it again and there was mold on more then half the eggs.. (my pics are too big too upload those) .. All the brown spots and nipless were growing lots of mold green and brown .. I applied antifugal foot powder and hoped for the best although at that point .. I was sure.. 90% were all going bad or were not fertile to begin with .. theres very few with no mold..

At day 12 I opened again and took a look again .. same scenario .. Mold is not being controlled.. Any suggestion? anyway to clean it or stop em ..

Here is a pic

Day 12

Of course this is really depresing me so I decide to candle em in case..

Good news is .. At least 50% have veins and are red.. many are just yellow though .. I kinda moved the fertiles on one side and the not red on the ether..

Is it possible its still too early for it too be showing red on some of them? The really weird thing is some with the niples and mildew have huge veins in em ...

Alright Now I am really not certain as to what to do .. I have a good 20 fertile eggs in that incubator.. mold or mildew growing everywhere and it makes me feel like pulling all my hair off lol (that is if I was not bald)

Any advise .. any oppinions .. any thoughts on what happenned or what is happenning .. If u need any other info .. let me know ..

Anything .. To those who breed lots of python eggs - please share any experience that could help

Tx in advance everyone

Dom

As much as this sucks i think we can all learn from this .. I learn more everytime .. and I know this is gonna be a stressfull incubation .. I am opening it again in 48 hours so Let me know what I should do ..

Corey Woods · 03-13-04, 07:05 PM

The clutch looks like it was screwed up from the beginning. In my experience green mold grows on eggs that were killed from being too wet. White mold grows on eggs that the baby died inside from complications or temperature fluctuations.

Corey

Stockwell · 03-13-04, 07:54 PM

Many of those eggs appear to be poorly calcified, and that is contributing to the mould problem.
Healthy eggs have some special ingredient in the shell that prohibits mould. When the shell doesn't have the correct constitution, the mold inhibiting properties appear to be compromised.
This happens occasionally with colubrids, but rarely with pythons.

In some case fertile eggs, don't make it simply because the shell breaks down eventually killing the developing embryo. Of course this can be indicative of weak eggs, and poor internal or external chemistry to start with.
In my experience, bad eggs don't negatively effect good ones, so my advice would be to simply leave them and any that fall apart or become dead balls of mould, remove. Some will likely go full term and hatch. If this was from a young female, perhaps future clutches will be better.
I've seen this condition alot in hognose snakes that benefit from calcium supplements, but such is unheard of for boids.

Scales Zoo · 03-13-04, 08:04 PM

I know zip about python eggs, but....

On mushroom farms, they use hydrogen peroxide, mixed with a lot of water, to inhibit molds from growing with the mushrooms.

I don't know if it could be harmful to the eggs, but I've considered trying it if I ever had a mold problem - which I really haven't so far.

Ryan

Dom · 03-14-04, 06:19 PM

Really interesting input Corey and Stockwell..

Ryan .. I wonder hoow safe that is..

I think on dead roten eggs i will try it and see if it works..

Stockwell · 03-14-04, 07:37 PM

I personally wouldn't put something like peroxide on the shell. The shell is directly connected to the internal blood vessels.
You probably wont find it very comforting but my philosophy on this type of thing is to not try too hard, as it's generally futile anyway.
Providing your incubation setup, is not at fault, I think working overtime to foster hatchlings from weak clutches, only brings snakes into the world that would be better off, out of the captive gene pool.
Sounds a bit rough, but as breeders it's only us that will be responsible for the hardiness of the CB stock of future generations.
Providing husbandry isn't at fault, my feeling is they either make it or they don't.
Most of use lose a certain percentage of eggs or offspring every season.
It goes with the territory.
Is she a young female Dom??

Dom · 03-14-04, 09:04 PM

Really good point Roy .. makes u think a lot..

Well i seperated them and clean them and now .. its all up to them to hatch or not .. that is the only intervention i will do ..

The coastal is beetween 5-6 years old ..

This is her second clutch (36 eggs last year - 34 were fertile) .. all perfect when laid.. thisis her second year breeding..

Let me knwo what u think
Dom

Scales Zoo · 03-14-04, 09:05 PM

I wouldn't use the peroxide right on the eggs, rather mix it with the water in the incubation medium - that is, if I were to ever try this.

Actually, I might seperate some colubrid eggs this spring - and try some peroxide in the water with 1/2 of them, see what happens.

Ryan

Dom · 03-14-04, 09:09 PM

the whole idea seems interesting but risky .. Let me know if u test anything at all...

Dom · 03-15-04, 10:03 PM

http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/showt...threadid=39546

Check this thread out for the outcome .. tahnsk again for all the advice

Corey Woods · 03-16-04, 07:39 AM

The first year I bred pythons I had a clutch of burmese python eggs (Double het Albino Granite x Double het Albino Granite) back in 2000 when they were very highly priced ($5000 us/Granite). Anyways, I started out with in around 36 eggs and by the time I was done I got 8 to hatch. I kept messing around with the eggs too much. My incubator was very dry so I was adding water to the eggs to keep them hydrated. Well, I ended up adding too much water and I started killing my eggs. I started to get frustrated with the eggs and I went out and bought Gold Bond powder for athlete's foot. I started to sprink a little on the eggs but without seeing results I pretty much sprinkled the whole can onto the eggs. The eggs looked like crap..............they were all covered in white/yellow powder, however, it stopped the mould.

But, in my experience if the egg is totally moldy it's usually dead.

Good luck,
Corey

gonesnakee · 03-18-04, 02:42 PM

I have used Absorbine Jr. & swabbed down "bad" eggs with it to kill the mold etc. in hopes of keeping the chances of it spreading to good ones. All the rotten ones can't always be discarded due to being attached to good ones etc. I found that the A. Jr killed/controlled the mold. I wouldn't use it on any that you want/expect to hatch out though. Remember too that sometimes baby snakes come out of nasty looking eggs so make sure they are dead before "writing them off" as babies can still come from moldy eggs on occassion. Mark

Classic · 03-23-04, 12:46 PM

Would you think using an alcohol swab on them would work. Anyone?
Dom: Good Luck. I'm stressed over my 8 pueblan eggs and their looking good "knock Knock".

Brian

crocdoc · 03-24-04, 06:05 PM

Dom, I am curious as to how the eggs are going that were treated with the antifungal powder. Has the fungus returned? Are the eggs looking viable?

WingedWolf · 03-24-04, 10:59 PM

Yes, I've heard that athlete's foot powder has been used to save molded eggs, and healthy babies have hatched from treated eggs.