OK...what in the world did I do wrong????

[KCcham]

Hello all, i have had this clutch of Panther eggs in cubating since november 20th. They have been in my closet at a temp of 72 degrees. Over a month ago i had the first one hatch, and they have been slowly creping out since then. Maybe two a week. Of the ones that have hatched, i have lost all but two so far. They seem very weak, and when I watched them try to eat, none of them could catch any of the FF or pinheads! I saw a couple of them drink a few times and thats about it. Several of them never opened their eyes. They are in a screen cage and i water them 3 times a day and feed them twice. the cage temp is in the mid 70s. i have attached a pic of what some of the eggs are doing. Almost all of them looked great most of the way thru the incubation period, but just when i think they are starting to get ready to hatch, they shrivel up and look like these in the pic.

Any ideas what i could be doing wrong? This is the females first clutch if that matters at all. Maybe I didnt do a good enough job of dusting her food during gestation?

Thanksin advance for the help,

Jeffrey

 

[Montium]

eh....I don't want to jump on this landmine but I'd say they are too cold. There should be a basking spot that's at 80 F. Just a thought, maybe some of the other breeders here will chime in.

 

[reptoman]

When the eggs start sweating and shrink, is there a single slit or an x on the end of the egg? Maybe your female was not getting enough cal during the time between copulation and layng. Its really hard to tell. Sorry you are having such a hard time with this. I have had 3 of the 1st 9 eggs shrink but the babies never got out. The 6 that did hatch seemed strong although they did not start eating until around the 4th or 5th day after hatching. I kept them as close to 80F and misted the cage with a fine mist not allowing large drops to get into their bin. I was told babies can drown very easily on very little water. They made it fine with these temps. Hope the next clutch or the rest of this one does better. You might try keeping the babies in a plastic tub with some twigs and a plant. Seems easier to keep the humididty in than in a screen cage. Also, how do you keep fruit flies from getting out of a screen cage? The ones I started with were way to small to be stopped by a screen.

 

[sandrachameleon]

Its not the temp - I keep my babies (less than 2 months old) in the mid to upper 70s F and rarely would it be as high as 80F and they do fine.

 

[KCcham]

When the eggs start sweating and shrink, is there a single slit or an x on the end of the egg? Maybe your female was not getting enough cal during the time between copulation and layng. Its really hard to tell. Sorry you are having such a hard time with this. I have had 3 of the 1st 9 eggs shrink but the babies never got out. The 6 that did hatch seemed strong although they did not start eating until around the 4th or 5th day after hatching. I kept them as close to 80F and misted the cage with a fine mist not allowing large drops to get into their bin. I was told babies can drown very easily on very little water. They made it fine with these temps. Hope the next clutch or the rest of this one does better. You might try keeping the babies in a plastic tub with some twigs and a plant. Seems easier to keep the humididty in than in a screen cage. Also, how do you keep fruit flies from getting out of a screen cage? The ones I started with were way to small to be stopped by a screen.

When the eggs started to sweat and shrink, there was no slit in the end. They just started to shrivel up. I opened up one of them after a few days when I knew nothing was going to hatch, and there was what looked like a fully formed baby inside. To me, it seems like they are all very weak, with some not even able to make it out of their shell. Then the ones that do hatch, just dont have the stamina to make it. I do have ONE right now that looks like it is going to be ok, but out of the 12 or so that have hatched thats not so great.

What kind of bin did you keep your babies in? With what kind of lid on top? I am sure there are a lot of FF that escape thru the screen in ours.

Thanks again, Jeffrey

 

[reptoman]

I have some pictures of the early and later bins that I used for the 6 hatchlings I have at the link. next time I am getting a real ivy for the neonates as oposed to the plastic plants. They hold water on the leaves longer. Let me know what happens with the rest of the eggs. Good luck!

https://www.chameleonforums.com/baby-cage-upgrade-opinions-please-43037/

 

[kinyonga]

Maybe you should have let nature take its course and let the eggs hatch on their own instead of opening them?