Pygmy died in my hands :( i may have eggs!

VeiledOwner87

New Member
today was the worst friggen day of my life. i got home and notice my one female brev laying in her cup, i thought she was dead. but after a few moments, she opened her mouth wide gasping for air. as i paniced, i took her out of the cup quick as there were crickets in there, i didnt want her getting bitten on. she continued to do this for quite sometime. i gently sprayed her with water to perhaps cool her down, but that was just wishfull thinking. she has been getting bigger, and the past few days, have only averaged maybe 1 cricket, today she ate none. and her eyes have been sunken. almost closed. my other female brev is doing fine however. she is a wild caught pygmy, so i dont know the age. but it looked full grown to me, also i figured it might have been gravid since it is 1) wild caught 2) was getting larger and not eating as much. so she pretty much passed away in my hands :( worst thing ever.

i just got home not too long ago, and wanted to at least see if, and maybe save the eggs. i opened her up (mind you this was the hardest thing ive ever had to do!)
after some time carefull disecting her, i noticed a bunch of yellow balls abover her stomach near the back part of the body. im taking it their eggs. but i thought pygmies only laid say 2-3 eggs at a time. how come i took out 6?! if these are eggs, the poor thing was deffinatly egg bound. but i dont know if these eggs are good. the internal of her was still very nice and wet,


IMG_0507.jpg

IMG_0508.jpg

im appologize the pics arent better, all i had right now is my camera phone. and i couldnt find batteries for my other digi. but like i said, the are are a school bus yellow colour and perfect spheres. they were encased in a clear sack (again abover her stomach). i pray to God they are good and not premature. but i have done the best thing i can at the moment. i know nothing about incubating at this point. but i have placed them in a deli cup, laying on top of wet plantation soil surrounded by damp moss. they are placed at the bottome of my veiled enclosure since it is nice and humid, and maybe 65 at night 70something during the day.

what should i doo?!!:(:(:(:(
 
Hey Veiled,
Sorry for your loss I know exactly what you must be going through. I think it is you that sent me a message thru the other website that Im a Mod of?

Indeed they do look like eggs! although I cant be sure what condition they are in, from the pics, colouration doesnt look too bad but better pics may help.

My eggs that I harvested are nice and round, not your average shape at all and they havnt sunken in so im still hopeful that they may hatch! all you can do is hope now. I would transfer them very gently into some damp vermiculite as it seems to have some antimould/fungal properties.

I left my eggs in some soil to start with and then noticed that some mould started to grow on the soil above where I had buried the eggs so decided it was best to change the substrate. they seem to be ok now and its been 5 weeks since I harvested them. they seem to be getting bigger although I cant see anything inside if I candle them, but not sure if I should be seeing anything at this point as its only been just over 30 days. time will tell I guess!

hope this helps a little, I know that you need something good to come out of the situation and i hope the eggs will do fine!
 
Hey Veiled,
Sorry for your loss I know exactly what you must be going through. I think it is you that sent me a message thru the other website that Im a Mod of?

Indeed they do look like eggs! although I cant be sure what condition they are in, from the pics, colouration doesnt look too bad but better pics may help.

My eggs that I harvested are nice and round, not your average shape at all and they havnt sunken in so im still hopeful that they may hatch! all you can do is hope now. I would transfer them very gently into some damp vermiculite as it seems to have some antimould/fungal properties.
I left my eggs in some soil to start with and then noticed that some mould started to grow on the soil above where I had buried the eggs so decided it was best to change the substrate. they seem to be ok now and its been 5 weeks since I harvested them. they seem to be getting bigger although I cant see anything inside if I candle them, but not sure if I should be seeing anything at this point as its only been just over 30 days. time will tell I guess!

hope this helps a little, I know that you need something good to come out of the situation and i hope the eggs will do fine!


I was just about to say don't the eggs seem like spheres instead of the oval they normally are. Sorry for your loss Veiled, I just lost two last week and know what your going through. One problem with brevs is they can die off pretty fast. I had a whole breeding group (1.3) die within a week from
each other. I don't know if it was an infection or they all had a parasite, but it was quite sad. Like Taz said, put them on some vermiculite, or any incubation medium really, an start with the tormenting wait (not to bad for brevs :D). Good luck with the eggs and the remaining lizards.
 
I am so sorry you lost her. It is devastating to have a precious chameleon die in your hands. I know exactly how that feels. I hope the eggs do well for you. That was very brave to open her up - don't think I would be able to do that.:(
 
alright guys thank you so much. i will be going to get a bag of vermiculite in a few hours. when my girlfriend gets on lunch. a few questions though please

1) you can somewhat see in the pictures, 2 pairs of the eggs are touching eachother from the sack, they are not fused together which is good, but rather just touching eachother, will this disrupt incubation.

2) does any body know the conditions (ie. temperature, humidity).

please let me know if anyone does, i realy feel called to save the lifes inside and oh..

3) i have another brev in my tank. do they know and sence emptiness in the tank? is there a chance she would become depressed and die? because i will give her to my girlfriend, she will have a 1.2 ratio if i do that. i dont want this other one to go on me either.
 
1) It shouldnt effect them i'd imagine. When they are laid in soil they are vertually on top or beside each other.

2) Brev eggs hatch perfectly fine in the enclosure, so keep the conditions similar. Warmer temps reduce the waiting time for them to hatch. Someone will be along with better replies.

3) I'd wait a bit before you give your remaining female to your g/f just incase it is carrying an infection or something. You dont want to pass it on.

Ermmm, i wish you all the luck in the world with the eggs but the description you gave and the images has me worried. The eggs may not have been fully formed yet. The yellow colour you described suggests to me that the calcium shell hadnt completed formation and you are still seeing the yolk.
Get some clearer pics up :D it'll give the more experienced memebers a better idea :D
 
i hope this helps more guys. gary, thats my concern, as i dont know if they are ready. but its not like they were fused together. wouldnt that somewhat be the case if they were not fully formed or bound? i dont know at all lol. im new to this whole part. but if they dont have enough calcium, i actually have some syringes and liquid calcium gluconate that i wouldnt mind experimenting with and injecting the eggs with a small amount.. lol

also, so you say the warm the better? cause i had them downstairs in a room for a few hourse. a cool and dark uninteriupted room and got to 70 degress fahrenheight. my closet should be better? right now its 75 and reaching up. brevegg1.jpg

brevegg2.jpg
 
Im not an expert at all but i dont think the liquid calcium being injected into the egg would help.

The calcium is absorbed from the mothers body and 'sticks' to the outside of the egg forming the hard shell (saw a documentary a while back)

TBH what you harvested (which you are very brave doing, not sure i could do that) dont look finished. Dont give up on them, but you will soon be able to tell if you will have any luck with them.
 
thanks gary, for the encouragement and the commendment. lol yes it wasnt the easiest thing to. but i may add that the anatomy of these creatures is so cool. it was actually very neat doing it how i ended up doing it. i hope its their alright, even if theyre premature ill still be happy with pygmy pygmies lol. ill give it at least 20 days to see if any growth or lightness comes into play, then if not :( nothing i can do.

does anybody else have any thoughts or suggestions? thanks again Gary.
 
your best bet at the minute is literally just wait. I know its difficult and frustrating but time is the only way to be sure. i'l keep my fingers crossed for as I keep them crossed for my own harvested eggs. they wernt fully formed either but they are looking good so there is still hope! 5 weeks and getting bigger! Gary is right though, dont rush and put other in with your girlfriends pygs just yet, wait and check to make sure she is not ill etc.
good luck!
 
Not to discourage you, but eggs should look more like a Tic-Tac, in shape. Pictures posted look more like ball shape. Are they hard? dis-colored, yellow?
Could of been re-absorption of the eggs going on inside.
 
Not to discourage you, but eggs should look more like a Tic-Tac, in shape. Pictures posted look more like ball shape. Are they hard? dis-colored, yellow?
Could of been re-absorption of the eggs going on inside.

they were somewhat hard, not super squishy or anything but yes yellow.
 
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