Eggs too big?

[JoeG]

I have a clutch of panther eggs laid on 5-9-11 so about 7 &1/2 months. The problem I am having is that they seem to have grown much bigger than other clutches I have hatched out. Recently a few have sweat & shrunk but continue to wrinkle & then mold over. Knowing they went bad, I cut them open to find a fully formed fetus but surrounded by a semi-hardened egg white looking substance. In trying to avoid this, the next egg that sweat & shrunk , I cut open before it molded over. In this case the fetus was surrounded by fluid & had a large yolk sac attached which tells me it wasn't ready to emerge just yet. So I have one egg in this same situation right now to the right of the quarter in the pics & the rest of the rather large eggs shrinking & eventually getting to this point(to the left of the quarter). So my question is, Has anyone experienced this type of problem at the end of an incubation period & is there a solution to save the rest of the eggs? They have been incubated at 70 degrees & recently to 74 degrees

 

[jannb]

I had this problem with some veiled eggs. The babies were not coming out in time and were dying in the eggs at around 7 to 8 months. You could try cutting open the eggs (I know it's not recommended) but you might be able to save a few before they suffocate in the eggs.

 

[reptoman]

I have had an entire clutch do the same thing and only got 1 sucessful hatch out of 23. Very frustrating and I cannot tell you why this happens. Same incubation technique and containers have yeilded nearly 100% hatch rates with healthy babies from the same female. Several breeders I have talked to have had the same thing happen to them. I can only guess that it has something to do with the females state at the time of laying but there was nothing apparent. I hope the rest of the eggs do better for you.

 

[JoeG]

I have had an entire clutch do the same thing and only got 1 sucessful hatch out of 23. Very frustrating and I cannot tell you why this happens. Same incubation technique and containers have yeilded nearly 100% hatch rates with healthy babies from the same female. Several breeders I have talked to have had the same thing happen to them. I can only guess that it has something to do with the females state at the time of laying but there was nothing apparent. I hope the rest of the eggs do better for you.

Very strange. If I wait too long,the fluid hardens around the fetus & molds so I have to time it , to try & cut them out right before this happens. This is a first clutch for this female & she was a big girl at 13 months too. I had high hopes.

 

[Gazzatino]

i have just had the same thing happen to a cluch.
mine are around 9 months old and two out the last ten big white eggs have shrunk and molded.i cut it iopen and it was just a load of mush.
the remaining ones look big and good still but how long can they take?
i have had them around 72/74 for the whole period.
thanks gaz

 

[Dean Pulcini]

Did you add water to the substrate recently or mist.

 

[kinyonga]

It could be hat your substrate is too moist.

 

[Texas Ranger]

I have took a few eggs and incubated them in different ways the only time I have ever seen this happen and when I have not got a 100% hatch rate is when I used vermiculite and did the closet method and used tap water to keep the hatching media at the right weight . All my others have never done this and I keep them in a incubator at 75 degrees and use hatchrite and ozarka spring water because it as natural minerals in it..... The clutch that I lost some hatched fine but died soon after I cut them out maybe 3 days was the most I got them to live.

 

[sandrachameleon]

overly swollen eggs that the hatchlings cannot get out of was once explained to me as a problem with too much water/moisture in the medium / vermiculite or whatever.

 

[breakinglass]

Too much moisture.

 

[gooofycivic]

This happen to me this year but only to the first few that started shrinking but never made it out. When I finally gave up, the rest started hatching like normal. I'm not sure Wat caused it but I'm assuming it happens.