Anyone using an Egg Monitor ?

[Alexl]

Hi everybody,

I have been using the Egg Monitor Buddy Mk2 by Avitronics for a long time to measure the pulse rate in eggs, most recently on two Calumma parsonii parsonii clutches. I've only found two, three breeders who have experience with it or have used the Egg Monitor before. It's a UK product, so I thought it might be more spread in Europe. It's obviously not, unfortunately. Does anyone use the Buddy Mk2 regularly for their chameleon clutches? If so, for what species?

I'm trying to write an article about using the Egg Monitor with chameleon clutches. Average pulse frequencies of species other than those mentioned above would be great. Otherwise, I'm also happy about experiences in handling, because there are some problems with the Parson's eggs regarding the reliability of the measurement, "moving" embryos and physiological vs. stressed pulse frequencies.

 

[Alexl]

For those of you who are interested: I have since written a short article on the Egg Monitor. I would still be happy about the experiences of other chameleon keepers!

https://www.madcham.de/en/nutzung-eines-egg-monitor/

 

[Angeld1ck]

Very interesting, has anyone done a molecular Cytogenetic research for Parsonii?

 

[kinyonga]

Does candling the eggs cause a change in the pulse while it's being done?

I've read articles on heartbeats in bird eggs that say there is a definite number of heartbeats from the date of laying until the hatch date as well...It would be interesting to know if it's true for chameleons too.

Also...does the increase/decrease in pulse rate near the hatching date for various reptiles have to do with switching over from breathing through the egg to breathing through the lungs?

 

[Alexl]

Does candling the eggs cause a change in the pulse while it's being done?

I have so far only tried it with LED light and only on about 20 eggs. With these, I have not noticed any change in the pulse rate, but the number of samples seems to me to be clearly too small to draw any conclusions.

I've read articles on heartbeats in bird eggs that say there is a definite number of heartbeats from the date of laying until the hatch date as well...It would be interesting to know if it's true for chameleons too.

I've read that paper, too. For reptiles, no study of a limited number of heartbeats has yet been done. The few publications to date on the use of an egg monitor have focused more on when the heart rate in reptile embryos rises and when it falls (exciting: in some cases exactly opposite to the heart rate in birds). Might also depend on the individual species, so studies on chameleon species would certainly be interesting. I am currently working on a basic study with the Egg Monitor and Calumma parsonii parsonii. But it will probably take a long time until I have enough data.

 

[Alexl]

Very interesting, has anyone done a molecular Cytogenetic research for Parsonii?

Not that I know of.

 

[kinyonga]

@Alexl said..."l I have so far only tried it with LED light and only on about 20 eggs. With these, I have not noticed any change in the pulse rate, but the number of samples seems to me to be clearly too small to draw any conclusions"... I was curious to know if shining the light on them affected them...so maybe it doesn't!

Interesting about the opposite rates happening in some reptiles.
Time will tell as more studies are done.