Could a spike in temperatures cause eggs to hatch early?

[Chase]

Hello all,

As some of you may know, I have a clutch of quadricornis eggs incubating. My AC broke mid day yesterday, and the temperatures inside of my house have slowly been rising. It got to 79 degrees inside of my house today, and has been that high since sometime last night. Currently inside of the vermiculite, it is 77.1 Degrees. The eggs have been incubating for 3 months and 4 days, so they are not quiet finished with their incubation time, but I was wondering if these high temperatures can trigger them to hatch early. Also- What could be the effects of them hatching a few weeks early?

Thanks,
LPR08

 

[madchameleon]

Generally higher temps lead to a longer incubation time.

 

[KatiLemons]

I believe its called diapause. An extreme change in temp, delays the incubation process. BUT depending in what your temp usually is I would think a period of less than 24 hours shouldnt make a difference but I am no expert.

 

[Chase]

Generally higher temps lead to a longer incubation time.

Where did you hear/read that, never encountered that before.

LPR08

 

[Hoj]

hope all is ok i cant offer any help here.. just support for the lil quads that i love soo much

 

[Chase]

I believe its called diapause. An extreme change in temp, delays the incubation process. BUT depending in what your temp usually is I would think a period of less than 24 hours shouldnt make a difference but I am no expert.

I've only heard of diapause going on with cooler temperatures, not warmer.

LPR08

 

[Thompson]

Generally higher temps lead to a longer incubation time.

From what I've read, lower temps causes incubation period to be longer and higher temps make a faster period.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

Yeah sustained higher temps during incubation almost always causes shorter incubation times in reptiles. At least in many species this is true. I don't know that a sudden increase will cause a change in hatch date...but don't have enough experience incubating eggs to say that with much certainty.

 

[Chase]

Yeah sustained higher temps during incubation almost always causes shorter incubation times in reptiles. At least in many species this is true. I don't know that a sudden increase will cause a change in hatch date...but don't have enough experience incubating eggs to say that with much certainty.

Well the thing is it will be up in temperature for about 48+ hours, so I didn't know if that could do it. Hopefully not, because I would like them to be as healthy/developed as possible

LPR08

 

[KatiLemons]

I've only heard of diapause going on with cooler temperatures, not warmer.

LPR08

If you have the Chameleons: The Herpetoculture Library book (panther on the cover) pg. 74 & 75 talks about the incubation process and diapause. It states, "In some Malagasy chameleons, diapause can be prolonged for up to a year if kept in improper tempratures (too high). The duration of diapause in the panther chameleon can be influenced by high and low temperatures."
I remembered reading this a couple weeks ago and found it interesting cause I woulda thought it would have been the higher the faster aswell! Hope this helps!

 

[Chase]

If you have the Chameleons: The Herpetoculture Library book (panther on the cover) pg. 74 & 75 talks about the incubation process and diapause. It states, "In some Malagasy chameleons, diapause can be prolonged for up to a year if kept in improper tempratures (too high). The duration of diapause in the panther chameleon can be influenced by high and low temperatures."
I remembered reading this a couple weeks ago and found it interesting cause I woulda thought it would have been the higher the faster aswell! Hope this helps!

These aren't from that region. They also are not going through a diapause right now, as I see the eggs growing, as well as embryotic development. Having too high of temperatures causing a diapause doesn't make sense to me, it really does have me stumped as to how that is possible.

LPR08


LPR08

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

I think that is referring more to higher tempertures, as in higher than the normal range and unsuitable for healthy embryo development. The eggs may not start developing until temperatures are back in the suitable range. Of course this is only temporary so of temps dont drop the eggs will die. And it is realy only applicable at the beginning pf incubation before significant development has occured. I know bird eggs can do this, not real sure about reptile eggs, but it sounds like it may be what that excerpt is describing.

 

[Kent67]

In my experience incubating quad eggs too high resulted in a 4.5 month incubation and half of the hatchlings having physical deformities. I don't believe any of the West African species have an incubation diapause.

Also, what I think that reference meant was that keeping eggs at constant high temperatures can either not trigger the beginning of diapause by having a significant temperature drop or, vice versa, not having a significant temperature rise to trigger development and an end to diapause. For example, as people were recommending when I first got into panther chameleons....82F constant through the whole duration of incubation.

 

[Chase]

In my experience incubating quad eggs too high resulted in a 4.5 month incubation and half of the hatchlings having physical deformities. I don't believe any of the West African species have an incubation diapause.

Really? Did you find that was too short of an incubation? I have read and heard that 4 months is the normal incubation range.

LPR08

 

[sdheli420]

Really? Did you find that was too short of an incubation? I have read and heard that 4 months is the normal incubation range.

LPR08

ive heard that 4-6 months is normal..

the only thing i could say, but havent really seen it happen to 100 percent

is that the longer they take to hatch the hardier they are as babies, and when they hatch out faster they tend to be a lil weaker to things like temp and humidity..

but ive yet to hatch out 1000's of eggs to make an positive label if thats true or false..

also still havent found a perfect way to slow, or speed up incubation times by say starting low then raising the temps slowly, or starting high, then lowering, then back to high....still yet to see much of a difference in any of it...im starting to wonder if its clutch size and supplementations from the mother that may determine it...

food for thought..

 

[Kent67]

Really? Did you find that was too short of an incubation? I have read and heard that 4 months is the normal incubation range.

LPR08

No, I don't think it was too short. I had a couple other clutches go the same amount of time and the babies from all hatched the same size.

 

[Chase]

No, I don't think it was too short. I had a couple other clutches go the same amount of time and the babies from all hatched the same size.

So are you saying the higher temps caused the deformities?