| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| kdlang |
Posted - 13/06/2011 : 16:19:52
A few weeks ago, Connie decided to drop some eggs. Due to the fact it was highly unlikely that they could be fertile, I put most of them into the freezer (just in case one that looked infertile turned out to be otherwise). I did have one that looked like it could be fertile so I decided to put it into an incubator along with 3 others that were white on one side but slightly yellow on the other. I didn't really expect them to do anything but it was more out of curiosity and I thought it would be good practise at getting my incubation correct and finding out any problems before I decide to breed my butters next year. 1 of the not so good eggs went mouldy and smelly after a couple of weeks so that got binned.
Anyway, last week I finally decided to take the eggs out of the freezer and before I binned them I thought I would take a look at what was inside. A couple of them were quite solid inside and yellow, quite like hard boiled egg yolk. The others were full of white goo (sorry if your eating your dinner) like a load of puss. I didn't cut them all because after a few I was starting to feel pretty sick.
This afternoon, after 62 days incubation, I decided to cut open the eggs in the incubator. I didn't really expect to find any baby snakes inside. The one really good looking one had started to sink in and turn mouldy about 4 weeks in but it didn't smell so I kept it in the incubator and just careful wiped off the mould with a cotton bud. The other 2 were never really good, looked more thick shelled and in the last week or so also started getting mould on them but I kept them in out of curiosity. So I cut open what had been the one good egg first, it was solid inside and I could peel the shell away from it. I sliced open the solid mass inside and it looked just like cooked chicken. I cut open the other 2 eggs and they were like most of the ones I hadn't incubated, just full of gooey mess.
So my question for any of the more experienced breeders or scientists, why the difference in the egg contents? I would have expected them all to be the same if they were all infertile.
Here is a pic of the eggs I cut open today. I know they look really bad and should have been thrown away ages ago but, since they didnt smell, I was just interested to see what would happen if they were left to the end of incubation time
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| 7 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| kdlang |
Posted - 15/06/2011 : 21:28:06
It was interesting. And at least I know there were def no babies and I didnt kill them. Had some problems with temps during incubating time so I wasn't sure how they would come out if they had hatched so all turned out well in the end. |
| Newbie |
Posted - 15/06/2011 : 19:24:03
It's definately a good thing to do if you can, just for the knowledge gaining! |
| tarotpodge |
Posted - 14/06/2011 : 12:19:48
Great experiment. |
| Mort13 |
Posted - 14/06/2011 : 11:15:14
I haven't a clue. Its really interesting though,although I can understand why it turned your stomach a bit!  |
| gingerpony |
Posted - 14/06/2011 : 06:34:57
if it's a clump/pile of eggs in the bator then there's a definite difference (albeit a small one) in temps
the tiny difference shouldn't make much of a difference but i see it in the day gecko eggs too - the one nearest the centre of the bator always hatches first but only by 24-48hrs
and if an egg has been stuck and remained inside the female for longer it might have been subjected to different temps/humidity........just speculation though! |
| kdlang |
Posted - 13/06/2011 : 21:26:02
They were laid over a period of 11days and I'm not quite sure the exact time scale of these ones. I do know the one that has gone solid was laid before the gooey ones. They were kept in the same tub in the incubator so at the same temperature as much as possible. |
| gingerpony |
Posted - 13/06/2011 : 20:29:49
i'd put the differences down to difference in temperatures that they've been kept at, though were they all laid at the same time or over a week or so? (i can't remember lol)
the differences could be down to the relative freshness too? |
