Candleing the Eggs?

[Jackboydaddy]

Hi everyone,
thanks for your views on cleaning the eggs, but now I have thirteen eggs about 4 weeks into incubation. The question I am asking is can you candle Panther eggs to see if they are fertile and what exactly am I looking for under the light and when is it safe to do so I know that keeping the eggs in the same position is vital but what should be present when the light is put to the eggs.
Thanks Guy.

 

[ChromaChameleons]

Panther eggs will stay dormant for a period of time at the beginning of incubation. They require a diapause . This diapause can either be provided or the eggs will find it themselves. If you want to induce diapause , keep the eggs at room temps for 6 - 10 weeks, then raise the temps to 78 F for the duration of the incubation . If you do not provide this diapause , it will occur on its own , but may delay the triggered development , that is the result of eggs breaking diapause . So incubating eggs can take as short a time as 5 months or as long as 10 months to hatch.

If you are not providing a diapause , you will see nothing when candling your eggs , for quite a long time. If you have successfully induced , then broken diapause , you will first see red veins in the shell of the egg and possibly a dark shadow. The shadow will become more pronounced with time.

My personal experience is that candling will produce an image of the baby at about 4 month mark when diapause has been "textbook".

Also , my experience has been that candling near the end of developemnt , can actually wake or induce the baby to hatch sooner than it intended. So, I dont candle close to the end of incubation.

Also , an interesting note:

I have had 2 clutches recently , that were not diapaused. Several eggs hatched in around the 5 month mark , and the rest all went on to 10 months and hatched successfully.

 

[Jackboydaddy]

Excellent information thanks for that,its very hard to get this information in the United Kingdom as the books do not tell you all the other parts of breeding.
Only the basics are detailed so I think there is room for an author to do a book just on breeding the most common of reptiles or just Chams.