Veiled eggs starting to get mold.

[patrickfraser]

I dug up my veiled eggs on the 3rd and there were 62 of them! Where was she hiding them? I placed them in a storage container with moist vermiculite (when squeezed only a couple drops of water) and a couple of pinholes around the lid.
I noticed a few eggs getting moldy. Only about 6-7 out of the 62 (so far). What do I do? Should the moldy eggs be removed. I'm thinking it is possibly a good sign that most have NOT developed mold, but I could be wrong. Do I just take out the moldy ones or move the NON-moldy to a new bin?

 

[mcleodschams]

I remove the moldy eggs from my container as long as its not just the substrate on the egg that molded usually the egg will deflate when moldy that's when I toss them

 

[BocaJan]

If the eggs are indeed moldy, then they are infertile. Sometimes a female will lay fertile and non-fertile eggs. I always remove the moldy ones. The fertile ones should be fine even if the vermiculite is a bit wet. If you are sure it is too wet for your preference you could leave the cover off for a day, just keep the eggs in the closet or where you keep them and be sure to put the cover back on.

 

[Mmcbain1]

I would put a humidity gauge in there. I always do this before eggs are layed. humidity should be high but not 100%. possibley they are just not fertile I would wait a bit before removing

 

[camimom]

Take a pic but it sounds like the eggs were infertile.
How much are you feeding her?
My female laid 38 eggs her first time and 30 her second

 

[patrickfraser]

I guess I feed her too much. She isn't fat, but always wants to eat. I just can't help myself.
I will take pics when I get home. The moldy ones are just here and there, but the majority have not shown any mold. Do fertile eggs some how fend off the production of mold? Why will infertile mold over and fertile not.

 

[patrickfraser]

These are the eggs. I put a red dot under the molding eggs in the first pic and the second pic is a closer shot of the "moldiest" eggs. As you can see the moldy eggs are interspersed among what appear to be "good" eggs, hopefully.

 

[patrickfraser]

Anybody? I removed the moldy eggs and there is no mold on any of the other remaining eggs.

 

[reefercheefer]

they all look bad to me. Give it 2 weeks just to be sure.

 

[camimom]

i just had a egg start to mold over that has been fine since it was laid beginning of april. so i think i had too much moisture.

and yes, you were over feeding her.

females would eat all the food if we let them, which is why you have to manage their food intake.

my female gets 4-6 bugs every other day. with one feeding day she is allowed to get up to 10 bugs

by keeping food intake down, and basking temps lower, they wont produce as many eggs, if any eggs at all.

 

[mcleodschams]

your vermiculite is too wet and i would either add dry vermic or transfer what is not molded yet but it might be too late they could also be infertile but they fairly big to be infertile i always start my substrate a littlre on the dry side and if they start to dimple a little i add water but this has only happenned once i also have had my vermiculite too wet one time and it looked like what you have going on there the eggs got darker as the took in water and just molded over i was able too save a couple but not many by the time i figured out what i did.

 

[patrickfraser]

Thanks for the replies. Tomorrow will be 2 weeks since I started them in the vermicuite. Will all eggs mold over if they are not viable? What prevents mold formation on the (possibly) "good" eggs? There is no new mold on any of the other eggs as of this morning. The eggs also seem to have been "stained" from the topsoil they were laid in. They were laid on the 1st, but I didn't dig them up until the 3rd. Wait and see, I guess.
I'll cut her food back. She won't be happy.

 

[patrickfraser]

Mold progression

Out of the 10 eggs removed, 6 have completely molded over with one caving in and 4 seem to have not grown any since transferred.

All the other eggs seem to be "holding their own".

 

[camimom]

Those molded ones look very much not fertile.

 

[patrickfraser]

Things are looking good. THEY'RE ALIVE! I don't see veins in all of them, but no more mold.

 

[Eltortu]

Not sure if this would help, but I have sprayed a mix of peroxide and water over mold on some of the eggs and have not seen anymore mold growing. But if an egg is not fertile they will shrivel and mold. Good luck.

 

[jaredg87]

veins!! Great sign, the embryos are forming!

 

[sarahlynne]

those eggs don't look very good but i've read in quite a few places that people have left bad looking eggs in and some of them hatched into healthy chameleons.