Are these fertile? Beardie eggs

[AReptile]

It's that time of the year again! My adult female Jericho laid her first clutch of the season, only around 12 this time.. However since I have limited experience with how large the eggs should actually be I need help in figuring out if they are fertile or not... If they are how do they need to be kept? Right now I have them in soil in a tub. I just put a cover on it because the temperature was only 78 degrees. Any help would be appreciated as I look up what I should do in the meantime.

 

[Kevy Baby]

They look like they are. The size is fine. I would get some vermiculite and keep them in an 80 degree or so high humidity incubator. While I don't read their forums (despite having five beardies), Bearded Dragon.org looks like they will have more Beardie info than what you might find here (this is an excellent forum for Chamaeleonidae, but not so much for Pogona vitticeps)

 

[allencg101]

It's that time of the year again! My adult female Jericho laid her first clutch of the season, only around 12 this time.. However since I have limited experience with how large the eggs should actually be I need help in figuring out if they are fertile or not... If they are how do they need to be kept? Right now I have them in soil in a tub. I just put a cover on it because the temperature was only 78 degrees. Any help would be appreciated as I look up what I should do in the meantime.

how much do you want when they hatch and are ready for new homes the stores here ask for way to much for them. and what type are they i like the fire or red beardies. I really want to get an ornate uromax too i think those guys are awesome also i like how curious both species are.

 

[ataraxia]

take a flashlight and see if you can see any veins or pink blotch. i personally use vermiculite as incubation media. 1/1 ratio. dont bury the eggs. make indentations so that half the egg is in the media. take a sterilite container or tupperware container and drill a hole (apprx the diameter of a pencil) on one side of it near the top. incubate 84* for males. incubation times will depend on temps.

*note: i dont know when your dragon laid these but you will want to mark the top of the egg. from what i understand is you have four days and if the eggs has been rolled what actually happens is that the vessels that form along the egg membrane will detatch if the egg is rolled or moved... So the embryos oxygen supply is cut off.

 

[fluxlizard]

I've got a *lot* of bearded dragons and have been breeding them since 1994.

That looks like a very good egg to me. Good job on your husbandry.

Infertile eggs by the way appear small and somewhat deflated and soft usually.

Incubate like chameleon egg (substrate, etc) but keep at around 84 degrees.

*note: i dont know when your dragon laid these but you will want to mark the top of the egg. from what i understand is you have four days and if the eggs has been rolled what actually happens is that the vessels that form along the egg membrane will detatch if the egg is rolled or moved... So the embryos oxygen supply is cut off.

This is the second one of these today here on the forums. Myths spread in cycles I guess. This just isn't true. Was there a program recently on TV or a magazine article spreading this stuff or what?

I've dropped and rolled entire clutches of lizard eggs as a result of being clumsy- including numerous bearded dragon clutches simply because I've produced so many of them over the years. Some were rolled well into incubation and they hatched out fine.

It's isn't a great idea to do it on purpose, and a terrible idea to do it often, but if it happens it isn't the end of the world for the eggs.

how much do you want when they hatch and are ready for new homes the stores here ask for way to much for them.

Sadly, this is not my experience at all.

Too many bed-room breeders charging not enough to cover their expenses (food electricity time (dragons are fairly messy and have big appetites and require quite a bit of maintenance time compared to many other lizards like chameleons) enclosures light fixtures, etc) has ruined the market. I can go to any petshop in my area and buy a colorful dragon for 1/3 the price I bought my first plain truely normal beige dragons (nowadays "normal dragons are just mixed or less colorful from the colored lines, not true normals like back then which only had grey or beige skin with maybe a little orange at the ears or eyes) from the breeder for in the early 90s.

So, most breeders get around $10-$15 this time of year for a dragon. Wholesalers turn around and sell for $20-$30 and pet shops then turn around and sell for $40-$60.

$40-$60 is a good price for a true "pet" quality animal that can be your pal for a decade or more. I brought in from my lizard building and gave a 2 year old male to my 9 year old and it is his best pal- sits on him while he watches tv and he gives it a daily bath and even puts him to bed in an old doll bed next to his at night. LOL. I'd say that's a good price for that kind of pet...

 

[AReptile]

I'm not sure if they were infertile or the conditions were wrong but I wasn't completely ready for them yesterday. I ordered an incubator and vermiculite last week and it hasn't gotten here yet and I was very surprised to find Jericho's head sticking out of the cave I KNEW that meant one thing because she never goes in that cave unless she's digging to lay or actually laying the eggs. Within a few hours of when I made this thread they started to cave in =(. I think the humidity was too low, because apart from when I was getting them into the container at the start, I had the temperature constantly in the mid 80s.

 

[ataraxia]

fluxlizard: im full of non sense BUT i just have to ask....If it is no big deal then why make a statement like "It's isn't a great idea to do it on purpose, and a terrible idea to do it often, but if it happens it isn't the end of the world for the eggs." IF it is a myth. WHAT harm can be done if it is by your logic? Why is it a terrible idea?

I also breed dragons. I have also mistakenly rolled eggs and have lost them. For 100% was it the cause????Im no expert to say so but i will go with a "MYTH" since the rest of my clutch hatched.

ANOTHER story from my useless archive of myths and stories. I have a clutch from a friend sitting in the incubator as we speak. she brought these to me 4 weeks ago. Somewhere between her house and my shop the eggs rolled in the container to one side. these eggs were in container with verm. out of 12 eggs we have 2 looking hopeful....two of my girls laid just days behind hers. one laid 23 eggs and one laid 17. all look healthy. top side was marked from the laying bin as they laid. its been my practice from day one. IN MY UNEDUCATED OPINION. DONT TURN THE EGGS! here is just a few links to other myth followers.O'man id be here all night pasting links.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080629164917AAZVybw
http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/breeding-incubation/59381-how-use-hova-bator-incubator.html
http://www.atomiclizardranch.net/c-24-bearded-dragon-breeder-breeding.aspx

Also, why not just use a bird incubator then?

 

[ataraxia]

I'm not sure if they were infertile or the conditions were wrong but I wasn't completely ready for them yesterday. I ordered an incubator and vermiculite last week and it hasn't gotten here yet and I was very surprised to find Jericho's head sticking out of the cave I KNEW that meant one thing because she never goes in that cave unless she's digging to lay or actually laying the eggs. Within a few hours of when I made this thread they started to cave in =(. I think the humidity was too low, because apart from when I was getting them into the container at the start, I had the temperature constantly in the mid 80s.

that sucks! well atleast you will be ready for next time! many many techniques can be used. hopefully you will find one that works for you.

 

[fluxlizard]

sorry- didn't mean to ruffle any feathers. Was being an arrogant SOB this morning. I should have been more diplomatic and sensitive about other's experiences which may differ from my own. My apologies for that.

I say don't roll them on purpose because any time you disturb the eggs you are taking a risk. Period. My experience has been that replacing them exactly the same as they were before the disturbance made little or no difference in hatch rate. That's a far cry from saying disturb them on purpose and/or disturb them often (as in your "why don't you use a chicken incubator then?" most of us by the way started with havobators which *are* chicken incubators back when I got started).

I can also state with great confidence that I rarely pay much attention at all to which way is up with my eggs when I'm digging them up to set them in the incubation containers, and the resulting randomness of which side is placed up in the incubation medium never has an effect on my hatch rate. I do admit to placing embryonic disc side up in species or individual eggs where it is visible.

Or maybe I'm just lucky and out of habit happen to place the right side up.

Believe what you want, that's cool but be aware that I'm not speaking from what I've read on the internet from some web site where the author read something that was quoted by another author who read something and passed it along in a chain for the past 30 years (although I've done plenty of reading too, and am aware of the thought you are expressing). I'm speaking from experience- I've been producing dragons since 94. I've clumsily dropped containers of eggs or knocked them and disturbed them and rolled the eggs accidentally more times than I can admit without being embarrassed about my clumsiness and had no problems with the hatch rate of those clutches later on, and some were well into incubation prior to being disturbed.

Others here on the forums have shared similar stories with accidentally rolling their chameleon eggs yet the babies hatched out just fine.

Your anecdote about your customer not marking her eggs and taking them on a car ride and loosing them vs your marking yours, not subjecting them to a car ride and not loosing them may or may not be relevant. Consider the car ride which comes with vibrations and possible high temperatures, the different care and diet of the mothers, the different cycling prior to breeding, the virility of the male, temperature of the nest site, length of time after being laid prior to incubation, cleanliness of the nest site etc. There are a lot of variables at play that can effect the viability of the eggs.

 

[djfishygillz]

thats a LOOTTTT of beardies to pop out... i also breed beardies and make a few hundred here and there off craigslist lol.

i dont breed for profit though just to make the hobby pay for itself lol

 

[ataraxia]

Fluxlizard: no biggie. we definitely all have our views

 

[AReptile]

how much do you want when they hatch and are ready for new homes the stores here ask for way to much for them. and what type are they i like the fire or red beardies. I really want to get an ornate uromax too i think those guys are awesome also i like how curious both species are.

The male is a sandfire hypo morph, the female i think is just regular colored. She is rusty colored but the verdict on here was that her scales were dyed from living on the substrate after I showed pictures of her on here. Idk what I would sell them for yet, or who I would sell them to. I didn't get that far yet. I need a clutch to hatch first lol. I got my incubator today and i'm working on getting it to work perfectly for the next clutch Jericho lays.