Bad or good eggs?

[kitn42]

Hi I was wondering if anyone could tell me what to look for in good sulcata eggs? My largest female laid her first clutch 60 days ago totally unexpectedly so I threw together a makeshift incubator just to see what happened. I never planned on them breeding so it doesn't really matter if they hatch or not it would just be REALLY cool if they did! There are 13 eggs and every one looks different inside when I hold a flashlight to them which makes me assume they are just infertile.

Some look like this with a huge air bubble:


Some have nasty looking black spots in them:


And some have nothing at all:


So could the ones with the big air bubbles be ok?

 

[Tom]

I'm no expert, but I'd say the first ones, with the "air bubble" are probably fertile. I candled mine for the first two months and thought I had nothing. Its funny. You can make it look different depending on how and where you hold the light and what kind of light you use. I'd just incubate them all and see what happens after 4 or 5 months. They usually hatch in 90-120 days at 86 degrees, but sometimes they just take longer or pop up sooner. If that "air bubble get smaller in the next couple of weeks, you can be pretty sure there is a baby tortoise growing in that egg.

Hopefully someone with much more breeding experience will come on and give us some more insight.

BTW, have we seen pics of the parents, yet?

 

[kbaker]

The first one is probably good/fertile/developing. You should try to shine the light through the mass and not the air bubble. You are looking for a orangish red color, but if the tortoise is large it may not show any color. You should be able to see blood vessels by now.

The other two are yellow which means infertile.

Check out my folder in the photo gallery. There are plenty of pictures of good and bad eggs. Also do a search in the forum. I have posted many times on this, too.

 

[egyptiandan]

The last eggs are infertile The second eggs were fertile, but didn't seem to develop Not sure on the first eggs. Can you shine the light down into the egg from the top on the first ones and take a picture from the side? That would give us a better idea of what was going on in the egg.

Danny

 

[kitn42]

My computer is being a royal pain in the butt so it wont let me upload the pics I just took from the top of the eggs along with the picture of the mom. They are uploading right now to my photobucket account. Just copy http://s607.photobucket.com/home/kitn42 and it's the egg album. I have the picture of the mom on there too. She is the biggest out of the 4.

Thanks for the help everyone!

 

[Tom]

Have you tried http://tinypic.com/ . Its really easy. No account, no info, no hassle. Just upload your photo and then copy and paste the IMG code into your post.

 

[egyptiandan]

To me at 60 days none of those eggs you took pictures of look good. It can't hurt to keep them incubating for another 60 days just to make sure. What temperature are you incubating at?

Danny

 

[kitn42]

Thanks I'll try that website. And yeah I figured they wouldn't be good because it's her first clutch. I've had them at upper 80s at night and 91 during the day because that's the natural tempature in the stand under my snakes cage. I'll just leave them there untill they possibly hatch or start stinking XD