Fully developed babies dying in the egg??

I've had 4 fully developed panther babies die in the egg, after the egg had initially cracked/broken open I and was wondering what everyone's thoughts are as to why this might have happened.
I've hatched out 18 others from the same clutch (my very first clutch btw) and am still waiting on another 3 eggs to hatch out -fingers crossed .
Also- the babies have spanned out from starting to hatch out 12/23/11 through this morning (43 days and counting)- so I was also wondering if it's normal for them to have such a big time span between first to hatch and the last to hatch.
I have another 75 eggs from 3 other clutches incubating (in the same incubator) so I want to make sure there aren't issues I can be avoiding to get better hatch rates if possible.
Any input or advice is GREATLY appreciated.

so youre saying they slit the eggs but couldnt get out? im surprised no one else responded to this if you posted it 2 days ago.

if it took too long they could have dried up essentially trapping and suffocating them inside. to avoid this make sure the medium they are in is moist enough. i wouldnt risk spraying them directly though. also if they are taking too long and have already slit the egg, theyre obviously ready to get out of there. i have on a couple of occasions helped a few out, but you dont want to force them out..... just trust your gut and be careful if you run into this next time.

also personally, i have an incubator but i only ever used it once. they seem to come out sooner but smaller. and at higher risk, with that clutch i had a few die off for what seemed to be essentially no reason at all (but there were other variables like the fact that it was a WC pair i had never bred before)

just make sure your humidity levels are good.

*Edit in regards to such a huge span between beginning and end ive never had an issue like that. a week tops for me and that may be an exaggeration. what sort of medium are they in, what temperature do you have it set at? how does the humidity look? and how close are the eggs together?

off the top of my head i cant really think of a reason for it to be taking so awfully long.

oh and how long have they been in incubation?

when i see slits ("the lil stars") i give the medium some extra moisture just to help out with that drying up issue some have, ive only "helped" one before, i dont like to generally cut them out of the egg before they can soak up all of the egg for their first meal...

I have had this happen to an entire clutch before and don't know exactly what the issue was but I suspect it was the container I was keeping them in. I had 2 clutches from the same female, the first of which I put in a solid heavy guage plastic rubbermaid container with one small hole poked in the lid. The second I put in a glad container that was much thinner but had the same vermiculite medium as the first. The first had 100% hatch. 2nd clutch did not hatch at all. After the entire 2nd clutch of 22 failed to hatch after sweating and shrinking, I never used that type of container again. Not sure if there was too quick of a temp/humididty change with the thinner plastic or not but I have not had this happen again. I don't know if this has anything to do with your current problem but thought it was worth mentining. I also noticed that the end of the egg was not fully blown out on any of the eggs in the clutch that died. Just a slit and not fully pipped. Neonates were fully formed but never made it out.

Were the holes at the end of the eggs or on the side of the eggs?

DekuScrub said:

so youre saying they slit the eggs but couldnt get out? im surprised no one else responded to this if you posted it 2 days ago.

if it took too long they could have dried up essentially trapping and suffocating them inside. to avoid this make sure the medium they are in is moist enough. i wouldnt risk spraying them directly though. also if they are taking too long and have already slit the egg, theyre obviously ready to get out of there. i have on a couple of occasions helped a few out, but you dont want to force them out..... just trust your gut and be careful if you run into this next time.

also personally, i have an incubator but i only ever used it once. they seem to come out sooner but smaller. and at higher risk, with that clutch i had a few die off for what seemed to be essentially no reason at all (but there were other variables like the fact that it was a WC pair i had never bred before)

just make sure your humidity levels are good.

*Edit in regards to such a huge span between beginning and end ive never had an issue like that. a week tops for me and that may be an exaggeration. what sort of medium are they in, what temperature do you have it set at? how does the humidity look? and how close are the eggs together?

off the top of my head i cant really think of a reason for it to be taking so awfully long.

oh and how long have they been in incubation?

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The eggs were very pliable even 2 days after the slits (which have all been at the tops of the eggs) developed and other babies hatched out before and after it happened in 2 different containers - without the addition of further moisture. The humidity levels in the incubator are around 60% outside the containers, so I assume it to be slightly higher inside the containers, and there was plenty of space between the eggs.
Not using an incubator would most likely be certain death - as I live in Northeastern Ohio, and the average temps are pretty cold for chams in the basement -like mid to low 60's on average- outside of the enclosed room I have all of them in- and that rooms temps vary from 75-79, with dips down to about 72-73 at night. I keep the incubator temps around 78 or so.
The medium I used for this clutch was Hatchrite, and I have hatched out 18 so far, with another 3 to go, they have been incubating since late March of last year, so the first few babies hatched out almost exactly at the 9 month mark, but I've had 3 more hatch out in the last 3 days. This is my first clutch and I have been keeping records pretty well, so I'm gonna see how this clutch does versus the other 3 that I have incubating, 1 more in Hatchrite, the other 2 in the Repashy incubating medium, and I will keep a very close eye on the humidity levels - I think I probably should have helped them out within 24 hours of them slitting the eggs, but being new at this hatching thing I really didn't know what to expect.

Thank you for asking questions and giving me your input, I was pretty surprised it had taken so long on here to get a response, so I really appreciate your input!!

kinyonga said:

Were the holes at the end of the eggs or on the side of the eggs?

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All of them have been at the end of the eggs.

I always dote over my clutches and cut if things are taking too long. See this blog post for my method:

https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/seeco/386-how-cut-open-egg.html
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I find this subject VERY interesting and will be happily following along with the conversation but have nothing to add

You contradicted yourself unless your eggs are standing on end. ("the slits (which have all been at the tops of the eggs" and then "All of them have been at the end of the eggs").

Makes sense to me. Like how chicken eggs would be in a crate.

Update?

kinyonga said:

You contradicted yourself unless your eggs are standing on end. ("the slits (which have all been at the tops of the eggs" and then "All of them have been at the end of the eggs").

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Ok, for the sake of clarification- the slits have been at the ends of the eggs, meaning if they were standing on end, then they were at the top of the egg, if they were laying horizontally then they were at the end of the egg. I took the question that was asked to mean did any of the eggs have slits in the middle of the egg, and the answer is no, they were always at the end of or top of the egg - and if they were standing on end wouldn't the top of the egg be the end of the egg anyway??

Anyway, help them out next time. See my blog link a few posts above.

Seeco said:

I always dote over my clutches and cut if things are taking too long. See this blog post for my method:

https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/seeco/386-how-cut-open-egg.html
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Click to expand...

Thanks Louis, the page is bookmarked and ready to reference should I run into that problem again at anytime in the future, and with 75 more eggs from 2 other clutches to go, it may prove very handy.