URGENT: Egg Disaster

[jajeanpierre]

I can't believe it. I tipped my box of eggs.

What do I do to try to save them?

They were laid 3 weeks ago and looked good.

 

[bobcochran]

Put them back in the substrate. At that young of age they'll probably be fine. After you get them resettled, put an orientation mark on the top of each egg with a ball point pen or a vegetable oil magic marker. If you tip them again in the future you will know which side goes up.

 

[GCash]

Sorry to hear it. All you can do is put them back and hope for the best. Good luck.

 

[jajeanpierre]

I just candled all the eggs.

There seems to be a clear circle surrounded by something denser.

Is that the embryo and the top????

I can't believe I was so clumsy!!!!

 

[bobcochran]

At 3 weeks I'm not sure what you should see. I still think they're young enough to not be affected by tipping or reorienting them.

 

[jajeanpierre]

At 3 weeks I'm not sure what you should see.

Is the embryo to go up or down? Thanks

 

[bobcochran]

Not sure, are the eggs completely full of liquid? If I were to guess, I would put the embryo up- just a guess though.

 

[jajeanpierre]

This is what my eggs look like.

http://www.jbscresties.com/incubatedeggslarge.jpg

That clear area is on the top, correct?

I've put all with the clear circle at the top so I either have them all right or all wrong. I have marked them now. I didn't mark them when they were laid because my hand wasn't very steady and thought I would damage them. I am sooooooo mad at myself.

 

[pamnsam94]

This is what my eggs look like.

http://www.jbscresties.com/incubatedeggslarge.jpg

That clear area is on the top, correct?

I've put all with the clear circle at the top so I either have them all right or all wrong. I have marked them now. I didn't mark them when they were laid because my hand wasn't very steady and thought I would damage them. I am sooooooo mad at myself.

Don't beat yourself up too much Janet. A lot of keepers have had unfortunate accidents like that. I'm glad you were able to seen signs of vascularization when you candled them. Now that you re-positioned them with the embryo area on top, all you can do is wait and see. Let's hope for the best.

Perry

 

[fluxlizard]

Hey I've bumped, dropped, totally mixed eggs and substrate many times over the years at many stages of incubation. It always ended up fine even if I had no clue which side was supposed to be up- didn't effect my hatch rate at all. The shock was always worse on me than on the eggs.I'd say just reset them as best you can and hope for the best. Probably they will be fine.

I can be a little clumsy sometimes!

 

[jajeanpierre]

Hey I've bumped, dropped, totally mixed eggs and substrate many times over the years at many stages of incubation. It always ended up fine even if I had no clue which side was supposed to be up- didn't effect my hatch rate at all. The shock was always worse on me than on the eggs.I'd say just reset them as best you can and hope for the best. Probably they will be fine.

I can be a little clumsy sometimes!

Thanks everyone for their reassuring words.

I was so upset. Poor Perry had to deal with me on the phone. I did a Google search on candled reptile eggs and was a little surprised there weren't more pictures and information. I did find some pictures of candled gecko eggs with that same ring that I saw, so I figured out that had to be the top. They are either all wrong or all right.

I had been so careful with them, too. I didn't even look at them for the last two weeks. My incubator came today and my room was cold, so I thought today was the time to have a peek. I had them all covered by a duvet to keep them cool against the floor and the duvet caught the edge of the box.

They are now in an incubator. I may just not look for the next three months after today's disaster.

 

[Miss Lily]

I haven't bred chameleons, but I have bred crested geckos. With those you are supposed to mark the top when you dig them up and keep the mark uppermost. Some people say taht the 'cheerio' (red ring) should be on top, but I always leave mine in the orientation in which they were laid and when I candle not all the cheerios are on top. They all seem to do fine though! Good luck!

 

[jajeanpierre]

I haven't bred chameleons, but I have bred crested geckos. With those you are supposed to mark the top when you dig them up and keep the mark uppermost. Some people say taht the 'cheerio' (red ring) should be on top, but I always leave mine in the orientation in which they were laid and when I candle not all the cheerios are on top. They all seem to do fine though! Good luck!

I tried to mark them when they were first laid, but they weren't hard and I couldn't easily get a pencil mark on them, plus my hands were a bit shaky. I was afraid of damaging them and just assumed, silly me, that I would never bump them. They are marked now.

 

[Miss Lily]

I mark my eggs with a fine tipped permanent marker. Don't trust myself with anything else that I need to press a bit harder with!

 

[OldChamKeeper]

I can't believe I was so clumsy!!!!

Try moving from an apartment to a house just 15 miles away in the middle of summer and having your car break down on a hot California freeway with your incubator containing eggs in it. There were no cellphones back then, at least not one in my hand. What should have been a 25 min drive in an air conditioned car turned into a 3 hour nightmare that has haunted me for twenty years. Nowhere to walk to get ice, not a darn thing I could do. I wish feeling clumsy would have been what I felt.

Did I mention it had a clutch of Parson's eggs that had been doing beautifully for just over 12 months?

Your eggs should be fine, put them somewhere where they can survive an earthquake and you'll never feel clumsy again.

 

[jajeanpierre]

Try moving from an apartment to a house just 15 miles away in the middle of summer and having your car break down on a hot California freeway with your incubator containing eggs in it. There were no cellphones back then, at least not one in my hand. What should have been a 25 min drive in an air conditioned car turned into a 3 hour nightmare that has haunted me for twenty years. Nowhere to walk to get ice, not a darn thing I could do. I wish feeling clumsy would have been what I felt.

Did I mention it had a clutch of Parson's eggs that had been doing beautifully for just over 12 months?

Your eggs should be fine, put them somewhere where they can survive an earthquake and you'll never feel clumsy again.

Thanks. I think I have them all oriented the same way. I hope they are okay and if not, it's a very hard lesson learned. They are now in an incubator with a clear door, and two thermometers. I shouldn't even have to take the box out to check.

That is an awful story. You must have been just sick. I'm cringing now just thinking of how you would have felt.

 

[laurie]

Try moving from an apartment to a house just 15 miles away in the middle of summer and having your car break down on a hot California freeway with your incubator containing eggs in it. There were no cellphones back then, at least not one in my hand. What should have been a 25 min drive in an air conditioned car turned into a 3 hour nightmare that has haunted me for twenty years. Nowhere to walk to get ice, not a darn thing I could do. I wish feeling clumsy would have been what I felt.

Did I mention it had a clutch of Parson's eggs that had been doing beautifully for just over 12 months?

Your eggs should be fine, put them somewhere where they can survive an earthquake and you'll never feel clumsy again.

Wow, you never told me this. That is awful. Hopefully someday you will have parsons eggs again and this time they will hatch.