Eggs changing color and now wet

[Troubledluna80]

I have carpet Chameleon eggs that were laid in March. They’ve looked great up until this last week. I haven’t added water in 2 weeks so I don’t understand what is going on. The egg in the middle that is now yellow and wet was significantly bigger just a couple days ago. The first thing that happened is the white eggshell started to become more transparent on the top, but was still firm and without mold. When I got home today and checked on them, it is yellowish, feels soft to the touch and significantly smaller or is it dead? There’s still no mold on it. A couple of the other eggs are starting to get those transparent windows and I’m worried I’m going to lose them all. Does anybody have any idea what’s going on?

 

[kinyonga]

Hatching soon?

 

[Troubledluna80]

Thes are my first eggs so I have never saw the hatching process m. After I panicked posted I looked through similar threads and it seems like that maybe happening. Just in case I am going to prepare and hope for the best.

 

[Morpheo's Mom]

Keep us updated...

 

[kinyonga]

Chamaeleo chamaeleonidae egg nearing hatching...
http://www.adcham.com/images/images-species/Ch.chameleon/cchatchingandegg.JPG

 

[Troubledluna80]

Chamaeleo chamaeleonidae egg nearing hatching...
http://www.adcham.com/images/images-species/Ch.chameleon/cchatchingandegg.JPG

Thank you!

 

[scags]

I have carpet Chameleon eggs that were laid in March. They’ve looked great up until this last week. I haven’t added water in 2 weeks so I don’t understand what is going on. The egg in the middle that is now yellow and wet was significantly bigger just a couple days ago. The first thing that happened is the white eggshell started to become more transparent on the top, but was still firm and without mold. When I got home today and checked on them, it is yellowish, feels soft to the touch and significantly smaller or is it dead? There’s still no mold on it. A couple of the other eggs are starting to get those transparent windows and I’m worried I’m going to lose them all. Does anybody have any idea what’s going on?

I recently had this happen with some of my furcifer verrucosus eggs. They were 8 months old, 1 had already successfully hatched- so I thought 3 more were getting ready to hatch when they were wet, shrinking and turning yellow. Turns out they were bad. Either the embryo died inside a while back, or they were never fertile.
That doesn’t mean yours aren’t about to hatch. Just letting you know if my anecdotal experience recently.

 

[Beman]

@javadi

 

[javadi]

I'd bet money that that embryo died-what you describe is classic for a would-be hatchling getting close to hatching but having some defect or problem that prevents it from emerging, leading to death and shrinking of the egg after the egg windowing (the lighter somewhat transparent patch). I have seen this in some small furcifer species that had insufficient amounts of vitamin A in their diet in the mother. This is of course anecdotal, but others have had a similar experience and there's some logic to this. If one of them had problems hatching, I would expect a few more to as well. I would bet at the end of the incubation a fair number of them will hatch out (since they made it this far) but probably there will be some more losses too. Also, hatching now if they were laid in March is kind of a long incubation for lateralis-did you diapause them? If not that could also decrease hatch rates.

 

[Troubledluna80]

I recently had this happen with some of my furcifer verrucosus eggs. They were 8 months old, 1 had already successfully hatched- so I thought 3 more were getting ready to hatch when they were wet, shrinking and turning yellow. Turns out they were bad. Either the embryo died inside a while back, or they were never fertile.
That doesn’t mean yours aren’t about to hatch. Just letting you know if my anecdotal experience recently.

I do think that egg just died unfortunately.

 

[Troubledluna80]

I'd bet money that that embryo died-what you describe is classic for a would-be hatchling getting close to hatching but having some defect or problem that prevents it from emerging, leading to death and shrinking of the egg after the egg windowing (the lighter somewhat transparent patch). I have seen this in some small furcifer species that had insufficient amounts of vitamin A in their diet in the mother. This is of course anecdotal, but others have had a similar experience and there's some logic to this. If one of them had problems hatching, I would expect a few more to as well. I would bet at the end of the incubation a fair number of them will hatch out (since they made it this far) but probably there will be some more losses too. Also, hatching now if they were laid in March is kind of a long incubation for lateralis-did you diapause them? If not that could also decrease hatch rates.

I did not diapause them. I had intended too but unfortunately had some family stuff come up that took all of my attention. That’s a good tip about vitamin A and although I do not intend to have any more fertile eggs at this point if that changes in the future I will remember this. Thank you for sharing your experience.

 

[Troubledluna80]

Unfortunately all the eggs from that lay went bad and died. I think I figured out what happened. I had recently added more water bc our house is super dry in the winter and I must have overdid it. This first egg was in the middle and after another egg, one closest to this one, I realized how much condensation was on the lid. The middle is the lowest point and I think that after the condensation built up it would drop on these eggs in the middle. I tried taking the lid off for a couple days but then they looked like they were starting to dry out so I put the lid back. The next day several more wet wet looking and now are so shriveled. I just could get the level right and they all died. I also didn’t have them in an incubator or diapause them, which I know is a huge mistake. I have one more set of 9 eggs from a separate lay, May, in a separate container that still look good. They have always looked better than the other eggs and are continuing to plump up so hopefully I get a couple that hatch but we shall see what happens. I appreciate the feedback everyone gave me and for now I’m focusing on preparing just in case I do get babies.

 

[redhorse]

Just curious- did you examine the eggs and look inside? If yes, you should see embryo- if no embryo, they might not have been fertile. Eggs can look good for a very long time even if they are not fertilized.

 

[MissSkittles]

@redhorse You’re back! Yay! You’ve been missed my friend.

 

[Troubledluna80]

Just curious- did you examine the eggs and look inside? If yes, you should see embryo- if no embryo, they might not have been fertile. Eggs can look good for a very long time even if they are not fertilized.

I did not bc I didn’t think of it but now I wished I did. If these other eggs “die” I will definitely check out what’s inside. That is interesting I didn’t know infertile eggs could look good for so long. Thank you for the suggestion.