Hatchling burst through the side of the egg??

[Jerm]

Just curious if anyone know what might have caused one of my pardalis eggs to almost burst the neonate throught the side of the egg. All that was sticking out was a tail and back legs. I have never witnessed this before, and the rest of the clutch still look normal. They are very close to hatching, and he was fully developed, but I pulled him out and he didn't survive long. I don't want this to continue with other eggs, hopefully it was just a defect.

 

[Dave Weldon]

Howdy,

One possibility is excessive moisture in the egg container. While I was out of town, I had one burst at about 7-8 months. All of the others made it though to hatching months later. The one that burst had a baby panther with an enlarged head. May have been a birth defect .

Note that the egg shell looked that way after it burst.

 

[Dean Pulcini]

Hatching panthers is not easy your going to have your casualties. Helping them out of the egg can cause more harm then good. Let mother nature take care of it, if it dosn't happen it wasn't meant to be.

 

[Jerm]

I've been hatching panthers for a few years now, this is just the first occurrance of this happening. I don't normally help them out but they come out head first most of the time, and this one's head was stuck in the egg. I think that he would have survived if I would have made it sooner.

 

[Dean Pulcini]

I've been hatching out Mafana panthers and been havening problems with them getting out of the egg , very frustrating situation.

 

[TreelionsUK]

Sounds and looks like it was too damp in your incubation box,causing the egg shell to become like rubber.
All i can say is i have very dry and cool incubations and have had great results.
The vermiculite right at the start is almost dry.only just damp and you cannot squeeze any water from it,i add a tiny amount of water at 6 months.

i have had 100% hatch rate so far with my current clucth,but have 4 eggs remaining but these look good and i will continue to incubate these.

Hope the rest are ok