Looking for advice!!

[cutebutevil]

Serenity my female veiled is laying her 3rd clutch of eggs as I write this. Her first 2 were infertile as she was to young to mate, but this one hopefully is!!! I mated her twice with our male veiled Chaos! Both seemed happy about it at the time lol!!! First two clutches were 78 and 80 eggs unbelievably, but she is strong and healthy, had her to the vet, eyes barely sunken and no wrinkly skin after laying. I ordered a hova bator to make things easier, I think, problem is the eggs came before the incubator did. It should be here in the next 3-4 days. I have read that once the eggs settle you can kill the embryo if it's turned and to mark the tops of eggs with a pencil mark to insure correct placement? I'd like some opinions on how to get the eggs from her laying box to the incubator safely. Also if anyone has used a hova bator any tips on that, it comes with vermiculite and deli cups for the eggs.
Also does mating insure fertility of the eggs? How will I know if they are fertile?
Sorry for the length and amount of questions but I'd rather ask than guess and there is quite a bit of conflicting info out there.
Thanks again
Lisa

 

[Kent67]

Eggs can be rotated safely for a while after laying. What you don't want to do is flip them upside down once they've been incubating for more than a few weeks, give or take depending on the species. Go ahead and mark an "up" side now. They don't necessarily need to stay in the same orientation you dig them up in, very little development will have occured at that point.

 

[kinyonga]

You may want to watch her diet since she is laying clutches that are so big. Large clutches are said to shorten the life and its said that females who lay large clutches are more likely to have eggbinding problems.

How old was she when she laid the other two clutches?
How did you incubate the first two batches of eggs?
What did they look like (size, color, etc.)?

 

[cutebutevil]

Thanks for the replies! She was 9month and 1 year on the other clutches and I did not attempt to incubate either because she had not been mated, I have had her since she was about 2 months old, she was bought from a pet shop so we're not sure of exact age. The eggs looked like perfect white jelly beans! I have pics.but don't know how to post in a thread yet. I have them in the gallery in the members area though. Her diet consists of a variety of worms, phoenix,silk, horn,super and the occasional dark green leaf. We were using crickets but have found much more success with worms. I'm not using supplements at this time because I believe the uvb and diet to be optimal.

 

[kinyonga]

By watching her diet I meant...cut it down a bit...don't overfeed her.

 

[Vibrant Chameleons]

Yeah, over feeding will lead to very large clutchs. This isn't good for your females long term health. She may look fine now, but those large clutches will catch up to her over a little time.
Sounds to me that your eggs are nice and calcified and fertile. Good luck with the incubation process!

 

[cutebutevil]

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Here's the clutch Serenity laid last night, I've covered them back up with the sand until the incubator gets here. She was nonstop for about 26 hours! When she was done I gave her a silkworm and a nice warm misting. I'll be cutting down her diet to try to lessen the amount of eggs and lengthen her life! Should I be giving her liquid calcium and if so how much?

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Here she shortly after laying.

 

[kinyonga]

The eggs may dry out if you leave them in the sand....and you need to make sure that you don't wet the sand too much either.

 

[boothy]

Hey lisa , how are yea ? lol i talk to you over on repticzone.com , but like chameleontario said you neeed to give her a deit of about 8-10 feeders a day with the exception of say saturday or sundays off , even when feeding silkies only igve her 2 or three good sized ones cause they do punch a wack of calcium into there bodies and thats good for making eggs so you wana only feed her alil bit or she will be an egg making machine like last time , iv noticed a big difference in my female veild , she started off with 69 ,70plus eggs and now i goter down into the 40s so its working good for her , and as for the eggs make sure the sand doesnt dry out , and you shoulda waited until you got the incubator befor you dug them up , you might of already screwed them cause of air being able to dry them out so dont be disheartend if there caved in yea just gota try making the sand moist enough to keep them from drying up and if so all yea gota do is try again cause she will lay a clutch every 80-100 days now since shes been bred and she can retain sperm to so she can fertilize this next clutch with out breeding , all eggs are diff to some are more developed then other and some take longer to attach there embryo to the top of the egg so it all depends but some ppl will argue that it happens in the first 24 hrs but i personally think it takes sometimes up to 72 hrs for the embryo to attach , just depending on how well its formed inside , but my expierence of leaving them in the sand was good i left them in there for 2 days but i also misted the top of the sand so it took moisture from there instead of the eggs and they hatched for me about a month ago so hopefully yours are still ok they look like they are fertile , but when moving them i try not to move them at all and place one by one into the tupperwear containers until its full then i pop them into the incubator or you can try the washable marker and mark the tops so you know where there tops are but i hope they are ok for you Lisa and good luck ill be talkin to you later

 

[kinyonga]

You can feed her well for a couple of days to get her strength back up and then start to cut back her feedings. I feed mine every second day about 10 crickets or the equivalent amount in other insects. I have never had to give mine liquid calcium after one laid eggs....I just make sure I dust the insects and gutload them well.

Do you have a human heating pad? You can put the eggs in the containers that you intend to incubate them in and put the containers on a human heating pad until the incubator comes. Just make sure to TEST it first by putting a container with the substrate in it on the pad and measuring the temperature and raising the container up on bits of wood or something until you get the temperature right inside the incubation container. (Hope you get what I mean!)

Good luck with them!