eggs

[amcclain1092]

Alright, I have my first two eggs that I believe are about to hatch.
It's been over 90 days and they are still a solid white so I assume they are fertile.
But here's the question,
I have them in that superhatch material and when they hatch I'm scared they will go to eat their shed and ingest the super hatch!

[zuk450]

while I wont say it cant happen, I never had any problems with hatchlings injesting superhatch. I would usually have them out of the incubator and all cleaned up by the time they were shedding though. I did have 2 hatch this season that had shed while in the incubator still and i havent had any issues with either one of them so far

[amcclain1092]

Well that is VERY VERY comforting!!
I've serisouly been so stressed and anxious about it for days now and check them like a million times a day!

[zuk450]

I was checking mine about every 4 hours for about a week (they were my first eggs, so i was excited lol), I took a look at them one day and all appeared normal.I ran to the store to get something to drink (was gone maybe 15 min) and when i came back both of them had hatched.... i was kinda pissed that i missed it by such a small window haha

[inkling13]

lol thats the way it always happens.  I knew a horse once who waited until her human walked away to change the laundry- 15 min later baby on the ground, they don't even think she laid down to have it  .

[amcclain1092]

are there any signs to look for that indicate hatching soon?

[zuk450]

some people have said their eggs will "sweat" a bit right about the time they are going to hatch but none of my girl's eggs did that. they just hatched without any warning signs that i could see.

I have had eggs deflate right about the time they were supposed to hatch but the hatchlings never made it out of the egg. i would normally recomend against cutting eggs open yourself, but I am pretty sure if I would have opened these 2 on my own that they may have survived. I waited about 2 weeks before i finally opened the eggs up and it was too late... if it happens again this season i am opening them up the day after they deflate if they dont hatch on their own.

if you see an egg deflate or start leaking for a day or 2  and it is past 90 days (incubation period) you might want to try and open it up yourself. the hatchling will be fully formed in most cases and you may be able to save it if it cant hatch on its own. (this is pretty much a last, LAST resort though, never open an egg yourself unless you know something is going wrong with it )

[amcclain1092]

Thanks for the advice,
But what does a deflated egg look like...what if only a little bit is deflated...haha wow i sound like a worried mother.
And btw how do you cut open an egg if it comes to that?

[zuk450]

if its only slightly deflated i would leave it alone, sometimes a slight drop in humidity will cause eggs to get a small "dent "in them, but upping the humidity a very little bit has always fixed them for me. 

when the 2 eggs deflated on me, i woke up and they were about 2/3 the size they were the night before, and you could see a large amount of "egg fluid" (not sure what the technical term would be) on the incubation medium around the 2 eggs.

when i opend the eggs up i used a brand new xacto blade (so i knew it was really sharp) and just slightly pressed it into the egg at a VERY shallow angle (you dont want to poke whats under the shell). dont press too hard, let the blade do the work, take your time, and be careful. thats about all the advice i can think of.  once you have a small opening cut you can usually use tweezers to tear the shell open more if need be (a bit safer than a sharp blade)

hopefully it doesnt have to come to this, have patience(the hardest part), good luck

[amcclain1092]

Thanks so much =]
Definitely still waiting just want to know what to do before it may be too late.
Always better to be prepared for the worst.

PS. I did up the humidity...just figured that might have been a reason so we'll see what happens.
It looks more like one side is a little dented in and kinda has a very very small fold...but the rest of the egg seems hard and white and in good shape.
The side of the egg that is a little abnormal was the underneath side...don't know if that has anything to do with it...?

[amcclain1092]

Day 104

If they weren't fertile do you think they would have shriveled by now?

And btw the increase in humidity made that small dent and fold in egg completely go away.

[zuk450]

I have had eggs this past season that went about 100 days before getting discolored and starting to mold a bit. as long as they still look good, just give them time. it is pretty apparent when an egg goes bad. I would just keep waiting for now (easier said than done, right?)

glad to hear upping the humidity fixed that small dent too!

[amcclain1092]

Day 111

They seem to be bigger, maybe even a little rounder looking like not as pointy on the smaller end of the egg...if that makes sense..?
I've noticed a lot of condensation on the lid of the cont. right above each egg...this has been happening ever since I increased the humidity.
It's so hard to be patient!! =/

[zuk450]

you may want to ventalate the container abit more now lol, ive always been told that with rhac eggs if you can see condensation on the inside of the incubator your humidity might be getting too high. the swelling might be from the eggs taking on extra moisture, but im not positive.

[samanthajane13]

Another thing to look for is "stretch marks" on the eggs.

These are thin, less opaque, longitudinal lines running from one "tip" of the egg to the other.

As the baby grows and gets ready to hatch, these lines form, and I think it's to allow the baby to break out easier.The shell actually thins from the inside, and they look striped.

It doesn't ALWAYS, happen, but if it does, it usually means the egg will hatch within the next week or so.