Panther Eggs dying?

[Benton1576]

Hello,

Im having a bit of a problem with some panther chameleon eggs.

Ive been incubating them now for 9 months and recently ive lost a couple of eggs. They went yellow so i left them and then they turned brown and shriveled up. I dont understand whats going wrong with them, especially as its only happening now after 9 months. Unfortunatley i have no pics to show. the others from the clutch are a nice pearly white colour as were the others that recently died.

Im incubating in a poly box, with a heat mat and thermostat to control the temps and a digital themometer to monitor temps. The eggs are in vermiculite which i mixed to the ratio of 1 part verm, 1 part water. the eggs are also in a plastc box with a ventilation hole in the lid. the box is not laid directly on top of the heat mat as i have runners in the polybox to suspend the egg box above it. im incubating at a steady 24c at the moment, i started them at 22c. The one thing i didnt do with the eggs was allow them a cool off period before putting them into the incubator. Do you think this could be why im having problems?

Ive never had this happen before and always used the same method so if anyone has any clue as to what could be going on id love to hear from you. Im keen to know as i have some cap est Masoala that i will be breeding in the near future and in a few months ill be getting a pair of orange eye parsoni so i cant afford to make any mistakes with either of them.

The father of them is my avatar!

 

[Ekaj13]

Did you cut the bad ones open?

 

[Benton1576]

Did you cut the bad ones open?

Yeah but there was nothing inside, just yellow mush. Thats what i dont understand, surely if they were infertile they would have died and moulded over after a few weeks or so. The eggs are now at the 9 month point.

 

[Ekaj13]

At that length of time there should have been a partially formed (at least) neo. Either that egg was bad to begin with or something happened that made the embryo no longer viable.

 

[mwebb]

1 year

Yeah but there was nothing inside, just yellow mush. Thats what i dont understand, surely if they were infertile they would have died and moulded over after a few weeks or so. The eggs are now at the 9 month point.

I have had infertile eggs look good for 1 year before they went bad. They even gained size and were nice and white. all you can do is pin light them and wait it out.

 

[Benton1576]

pin light them? Do you mean shine a light through them and look for veins?

 

[mwebb]

pin light

pin light them? Do you mean shine a light through them and look for veins?

Yes, If you shine a small pin light from the top you can see in the side of the egg. You might not see any veins but if they are fertile you will see a mass and a little pinkesh color.

 

[Benton1576]

ive just done that mate and it seems only 8 of them are fertile. the others that are pearly white are completely see through. Cant wait for them to hatch, 8 gorgeous Ankaramy F3 babies! We call it candeling here in UK not pin lighting! lol

 

[pantherlover]

DOnt candle the eggs at this point. If they still look good just wait. Candling the eggs to late can cause the babies to push out of the eggs pre maturely. If theyy look good, be patient.

 

[Benton1576]

So it seems i have only 8 fertile eggs. ive never candles eggs before. I dont understand though why it is that the infertile eggs are still nice and plump and white. i lost 2 eggs within the first couple of weeks of them being laid, never heard of them going until the fertile ones hatch. theres definately no veins or mass in the bad eggs but they look great!

 

[Mario Vermunt]

Infertile eggs never stay good for long time, maximum a few weeks, not months.

If there is nothing inside after like in this case 9 months, this is due to a diapause that was missing, these eggs are fertile!
For the other pearly white eggs a thing you can do is keep the eggs colder again, 18 degrees for 6 weeks or so and then warmer again and hope they make it till the end.

Panthers normally don't need a diapause, but in some cases, continuously at 24 degrees, this sometimes happens.
Looking overall to the localities , i have the feeling i have seen it happening more with the localities to the south-east. ie where year round temperature cycle is larger then on for example nosy be. Expierienced it myself with tamatave multiple times.

What locality do you have?