Egg turning, airsack, position, vibration, temperature and moisture changes ETC.

[TCMontium]

This can be too long or complicated of a treat, sorry. I am confused and not a native english speaker. :embressment:

Well… I could not find any DETAILED OR EXACT answer or explanation for many questions. Mostly people just generalise or say their "opinion" when they answer these questions or they just say what they heard from someone.
So, do anyone know the detailed/exact answers to my questions (preferably with an explanation or link to an article with the explanation)?

1- Do turning chameleon eggs harm the embrio/fetus in any period of incubation?
2- Do chameleon eggs have airsack? If yes, is it visible? When does it get build? Is it fixed in place?
3- Do chameleon egg need to be laid horizontal or can the fetus still perfectly develop when the egg is 90 degrees vertical?
4- Does the vibration of long time effect fetus? I mean, is a car trip for hours dangereus for the healt of fetus? (Maybe vibration can cause developemant of bubbles in its blood and bubbles will block veins?)
5- Does rare temperature changes of like 2-4 celcius degrees for just a couple hours cause fetuses/embrios metabolizm to fasten or slow down? Would such rare but big changes harm the fetus/embrio or cause it to hatch sooner or later than it was gonna be with perfectly fixed temperature?

Honestly, I just incubated one cluch of chameleons in my life and right now 2th clutch is in the incubator (6th month of incubation). Because of my lack of experience and knowledge I wanted to ask those questions, but even with so few experience I think people are wrong???
Every sinle egg of mine hatched without problem. I had 3-4 eggs turned and an egg fell wooden ground from 3-4 feet height (while eggs were 3-6 months incubated). My incubation temperatures dropped from 22 celcius to 18 celcius and went from 24 celcius to 27 celcius for 1-4 hours or maybe more for once.
With the 2th clutch I have egg which are positioned like 60 degrees vertically with fetus inside, but one of them (the biggest egg) is 90 degrees vertical and does not even have a single vein in it. It also has a big weird airsack-ish empty looking part on top. I don't know whats up with that one.
There were 2 eggs which were also veinless in first clutch until the 5-6th month though. So, I think that 90 degrees vertical one can still be alive or maybe it is doomed because of its vertical position?

Note: 2th clutch has 15 eggs, they are incubated for 6 months now. 9 of them has veins and fetuses visible and 6 of them are just yellowish empty looking (including 90 degrees vertical one).

 

[jajeanpierre]

I'm no expert--my first clutch is due to hatch any day but I do have a little bit of experience with hatching chicken eggs.

I don't know at what time eggs become vulnerable to vibration, but with chicken eggs, shipped fertile eggs have a much poorer hatch rate than non-shipped eggs. Chicken breeders refer to the post office "scrambling" their expensive fertile eggs. Rough handling right after laying affects hatch rate. I would expect reptile eggs would be similarly vulnerable.

I don't think the angle that the egg is lying affects the hatch rate, after all they are laid any which way in the wild.

I believe that turning them during incubation affects hatch rate but anecdotal evidence from other breeders who've accidentally dropped clutches of eggs suggests otherwise--there are countless threads from people (like me!) who've accidentally dropped a box of eggs and don't know which side of the egg is up or down and the experienced breeders have said not to worry, it would all work out just fine.

I think small temperature variations will not affect your hatch, but believe a drop in temperature is likely to do little harm while a rise in temperature could kill the embryo. I've read that incubating at the wrong temperatures can affect the survival rate of the babies that hatch. I don't think the temperature variations you gave will be a problem at all but I hope the experienced breeders (which is not me) will chime in and reassure you.

I have no clue about the air sacs but would think they do develop one--how else can they shut down the circulatory system that is around the inside of the eggs and still stay in the egg prior and during hatching and not suffocate? The circulatory system inside the shell is what supplies the oxygen. It has to be shut down or the baby will bleed to death during hatch. That's why you don't want to assist a baby hatching.

I don't want to bother my eggs during incubation. The more I bother them the more chance I have of an accident. I can't believe candling is good for a developing chameleon that in nature is incubated in total darkness under ground. There might be no impact on the chameleon but I can't think it is good.

 

[MissLissa]

I've assist-hatched several bird and reptile species, and have never had one bleed to death. By the time they are developed enough for someone to attempt assist-hatching (if there appears to be something preventing them from hatching normally) their circulatory system is already closed- or should be, otherwise you have no business attempting it, as they are not ready to hatch yet! Usually assist-hatched birds and reptiles, at least in my experience, are more prone to egg yolk absorption issues, infections, etc., not blood loss. While the original thought was that the act of assisting them caused these issues, since we always used/use surgically sterile equipment, what have you, I'm more of the opinion that the babies that require help to hatch are the ones with underlying problems already. However, I've never tried to assist-hatch a chameleon. Maybe their circulatory system is different.

 

[jajeanpierre]

I've assist-hatched several bird and reptile species, and have never had one bleed to death. By the time they are developed enough for someone to attempt assist-hatching (if there appears to be something preventing them from hatching normally) their circulatory system is already closed- or should be, otherwise you have no business attempting it, as they are not ready to hatch yet! Usually assist-hatched birds and reptiles, at least in my experience, are more prone to egg yolk absorption issues, infections, etc., not blood loss. While the original thought was that the act of assisting them caused these issues, since we always used/use surgically sterile equipment, what have you, I'm more of the opinion that the babies that require help to hatch are the ones with underlying problems already. However, I've never tried to assist-hatch a chameleon. Maybe their circulatory system is different.

I think the circulatory system around the inside of the egg shutting down is a process that happens during hatching. I tend to agree with you that those that require assistance have an underlying problem to begin with.