A sad day

[TreelionsUK]

I have had 2 groups of eggs,from my quadricornis and was incubating at a constant 70deg( i fear this is too warm) the eggs grew really well and things were looking very good.....all of the eggs lost there shape a week ago and a few were "stared" i was sure they were going to emerge,check them today and nothing
So i opened one up,inside was a fully developed dead neonate,I am Gutted with the out come,
What did i do wrong?? i think my temps were too high(but why did they grow so well???)
i have another group of eggs that im incubating at 68 is this ok i have looked in a few books and the recommeded range is 68-70.

A bit more about the incubation:

The eggs were in a sealed container the lid was opened once a month for air exchange,spaced apart as normal,
I used vermiculite as Normal slighty damper than when i incubate my panthers.

The only other thing i can say that may help is when i opened the egg up there seemed to be an excessive amount of clear fluid in the egg(i would think that this points to too much humidity)

i dont want this to happen again with the next lot what can i do they have been incubating for around a month at 68.
What should i do, should i change anything??
Your Advice is needed!

This is a really big downer for me and i am really upset with the out come.

 

[SeanCJ]

I lost a full clutch of parsonii eggs after 18 months of incubation to excess humidity the last month or so of the incubation time. The eggs swelled a bit too much and the egg shell became too leathery and the babies could not 'break' through. Only 2 babies managed to hatch but they were so weak from the effort that they died a few hours later. The remaining 40 babies died inside the egg, full term. Talk about being devastated.
I wonder if you experienced the same issue with too much humidity near the end of the cycle.
Sorry to hear this, but you will have more.

 

[TreelionsUK]

Sean i really feel bad for you man! 40! What a great shame.
I think you are spot on with your feedback,the shell of the egg was very leathery and i found it hard to cut the egg open with a fresh blade,and another thing the eggs did not sweat like my panthers and yemens do i thought this was odd must be due to the leathery egg i guess
So should i make some holes in the container with the second lot??
Incubate with the lid off?

 

[ChromaChameleons]

This sounds familiar...
I have lost about half a dozen clutches of Fischer eggs over the past 2 years. Most instances the eggs collapsed and several weeks later, after I was sure the eggs were dead, I opened them to find perfectly formed babies inside. Most make it to 6 -7 months then the eggs breach from what appears to be too much moisture. This was confirmed by friends of mine that visited to scrutinize my incubation method. I have since reduced the moisture in the vermiculite substrate and hope to have better success.

 

[Karen]

Gutted for you Luke, hope the other batch do ok. Hugs

 

[Chamgirl]

Tragic news Luke. I hope someone with experience of Quads can help you save the next batch. Very sorry to hear this sad news...

 

[pohchunyee]

Sean and TreelionsUK...............same problem here.....i lost 15 bearded pygmies eggs due to over hydration. The inside of the eggs turn dark and everything was dead. Can I know what medium you used? I used vermiculite...(hate it so much..always water logged)... i have switched to perlite with 100% hatching rate. Perlite holds much more water and will not waterlogged and release humidity much better than vermiculite.

What i did was, place about 1 inch thick of perlite onto a plastic container with lid on. The lid was stabbed with tons of holes in it to help ventilation. Then, I soak the perlite in water for 5 minutes and drain them well try to squeeze them a little to release excess water. I try to do some indentation on the perlite before placing eggs on it and incubate them. Before incubating, i weight each container and keep an eye on them every month and check the eggs and weight. Try to fill in more water when the weigh went down drastically.

 

[kinyonga]

Never hatched quad eggs myself....but have seen and heard of this happening. I'm not sure, but I think high humidity plays a part.

http://www.chameleonnews.com/year2003/july2003/incubation/incubation.html
"higher temperatures and too high humidity as a sure way to kill the babies inside their eggs."

Here is a site that might help...
http://www.chameleonnews.com/year2002/march2002/pages/just_ask.html
"Four-Horned Chameleons are animals that come from cool, very humid mountains in West Africa. Taking this as your clue you should set your eggs up in a shallow plastic container with a tightly sealed lid and plenty of damp peatmoss mixed with fifty percent fine sand or, in my opinion, the best incubation medium is ground Coconut Husk that has been soaked in water and then squeezed so it's moderately damp. The temperature should be maintained in the higher 60's to low 70's Fahrenheit (20-21C) and should not go much above 72F (22C). Keep the container in a static air area such as a household closet where temperatures do not change much. You can poke some very tiny holes with a pin in the top for air exchange but don't get too carried away and always check to make sure the humidity is high inside the egg chamber but the medium should not be soggy. Incubation for Four-Horned Chameleons is usually around 4 to 6 months."

 

[Kent67]

Hey, sorry to hear about the clutch. As for temps, I've never had an air conditioner until about a month ago. I hatched a small clutch of quads after 4.5 months, with temps that got as high as 74-75 for a few consecutive days. I certainly wouldn't go that high if you can avoid it though....

 

[TreelionsUK]

Thanks for all your help guys,the next lot are looking fine and incubating at 68F,and i have made some changes to the lid of the container they are in.
So now i will wait and see what happens,

pohchunyee,I will change to perlite for sure,i have always used vermiculite in the past and had an ok experiance with it,but really should try something new Thanks for the info.