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.

[amcclain1092]

Yeah I figured the swelling might be from the higher humidity.
And whenever I notice this condensation I open the lid for about a minutes.
It's weird people saying how hard it is to keeo humidity levels up because i have a large (but not very deep) cont. with multiple holes along the sides and i almost never need to add more water.

[zuk450]

yeah, i was using 16 oz. containers with about 2 inches of super hatch, and about 10-15 small holes in the lid this past year and i never had to add water or anything for the whole season.
I am in central coast CA though, our climate is damn near perfect for cresties year round already 

( I always keep my eggs a bit on the dry side of the spectrum, I figured that if an egg is too dry it will get a small dent in it letting you know your humidity is too low, and giving you a chance to correct it, if your incubator is too moist then alot of times the egg will just go bad and thats that, no chance to save it usually.)
 

[amcclain1092]

Yeah that's pretty smart, and kinda how i was thinking =]

Ok so I just checked my eggs...and i think maybe I see small "stretch marks" but they don't run from one end to the other...they are kinda just on each end...really short...im guessing if they are what i hope they are they will continue to lengthen across the whole egg...?

[amcclain1092]

Day 117

So I've decided my eggs want to be the record of the longest incubation time hahah....I've never heard of eggs going for longer than 120 days...so hopefully that means they'll hatch very VERY soon...either that or I'm ganna be calling the guiness book of world records 

And I candled them yesterday with my jewelers loupe...not a very big light but strong enough to reveal baby geckos 
I could see the head (even make out the eyes) the spine, tail, everything!
Both the eggs had what seemed to be almost fully formed geckos, the veins were still red and healthy looking so all my doubts about them being fertile or not are now behind me.

Can't wait to see what these guys are, not even sure if they're from my male or which female they're from.
One female is my white and with light yellow flame the other is grayish/white with LOTS of dal spots.

[zuk450]

wow, they're still cookin ? I was actually wondering if these 2 eggs had hatched yet just the other day,  thanks for the update! keep us posted. definetly one of the longest ciliatus incubation periods ive heard of!

[amcclain1092]

The smaller egg hatched!!!
But he seems really lethargic, not really moving, barely looks alive =[
I wonder if he's just tired or if something is really wrong. Idk how long ago he hatched cause I worked for 6 hours then came home and found him!
HELP!?!

[samanthajane13]

If you don't have baby in a tank by now, put him in one (kritter keeper  or shoe box) and give him a light misting, and leave him rest until morning.

Lots of hatchings need some R & R after hatching!

Congrats on your first!!

 

[amcclain1092]

Alright he kind of, literally jumped awake! Ran a bit, then i settled him into a Kritter Keeper that was already all set up for them with one small fake plant and a tiny tiny food dish (although i doubt they'll eat for a while!
I'm convinced he'll be ok now that I saw how fast he can move haha
He got his misting too =]

Btw he's nothing at all what i thought he would look like!!!
I took a lot of pictures!!!
I'll put it up soon!

[architeuthis]

Congrats! Best thing in the world watching those little guys come out like that.

[zuk450]

glad to hear that one of them has hatched for you! looking forward to the pics.

[samanthajane13]

Alright he kind of, literally jumped awake! Ran a bit, then i settled him into a Kritter Keeper that was already all set up for them with one small fake plant and a tiny tiny food dish (although i doubt they'll eat for a while!
I'm convinced he'll be ok now that I saw how fast he can move haha
He got his misting too =]

Btw he's nothing at all what i thought he would look like!!!
I took a lot of pictures!!!
I'll put it up soon!

LOL-a quick misting has brought more around to active than anything else I know of!!

Glad he's doing well!!

I usually give them a quick taste of CGD off my finger tip their first day...that way, they know what dinner tastes like and where to find it!

[amcclain1092]

Thank you everyone!!   

And guess what?!?! So excited I couldn't sleep, just caught my favorite white female being mated with!!!!
MORE BABIES HERE WE COME!!!! 

[amcclain1092]

Day 121 (for the other egg and biggest of the clutch)

Wow what a long wait ... So excited to see what this one turns out to be, the other has orange tipped crests!
And the pictures will be put up as soon as this one hatches too so I can just put em all up at the same time 

[amcclain1092]

Later on, on Day 121 my second egg finally hatched....and let me tell you...i didnt know they could be that bright and high contrasting with such a big fleshy head and crests at that young of an age!!!

I swear I'lll have picture up soon of both under the eye candy area!

(just need to find the cable to my phone...sadly that probably the best camera I have currently...)

[crazytanak]

have you put the pictures up yet? id love to see them

[samanthajane13]

Yeah-me, too!!

The rule is-"If you don't post pictures, it didn't happen!"

[amcclain1092]

First Baby right after hatching


Second Baby right after hatching


Randoms of the Little ones

[samanthajane13]

Adorable!!

Congrats!!

[crazytanak]

So cute! I love them

[amcclain1092]

Thanks!!
 

They're definitely little cuties!!