. . . besides being mature enough, what makes babies hatch out of the egg? Here's why I'm asking:
On January 31 my leopard factory manufactured 13 eggs. They cooked in the incubator for 5 and a half months before hatching in mid-July.
let me explain my set-up. I use the Zoo Med Hovabator and three plastic shoe boxes fit nicely, taking up all the space. About 20 to 25 eggs fit in each shoe box, so I put different clutches together, clutches that were laid at different times. It just so happens all three clutches I'm talking about here were manufactured by the same factory.
So I put 13 1/31/17 eggs in the shoebox, then on 3/11/17 I added six more and on 4/15/17 I added nine more. All 13 eggs in the first batch hatched in two days (five and a half months). Then a day later, some of the March eggs pipped (four months), and now, a couple days later, some of the April eggs are pipping (three months).
My question is, if the eggs are ready to hatch at 3 and 4 months, then why do they wait 5 months to hatch? I'm thinking the other eggs hatching triggers them to pip, but if they weren't fully developed, they certainly wouldn't pip. And most of the five month babies had large yolk sacs. So what gives?
On January 31 my leopard factory manufactured 13 eggs. They cooked in the incubator for 5 and a half months before hatching in mid-July.
let me explain my set-up. I use the Zoo Med Hovabator and three plastic shoe boxes fit nicely, taking up all the space. About 20 to 25 eggs fit in each shoe box, so I put different clutches together, clutches that were laid at different times. It just so happens all three clutches I'm talking about here were manufactured by the same factory.
So I put 13 1/31/17 eggs in the shoebox, then on 3/11/17 I added six more and on 4/15/17 I added nine more. All 13 eggs in the first batch hatched in two days (five and a half months). Then a day later, some of the March eggs pipped (four months), and now, a couple days later, some of the April eggs are pipping (three months).
My question is, if the eggs are ready to hatch at 3 and 4 months, then why do they wait 5 months to hatch? I'm thinking the other eggs hatching triggers them to pip, but if they weren't fully developed, they certainly wouldn't pip. And most of the five month babies had large yolk sacs. So what gives?