Vixen
Very Well-Known Member
Well some of you know my bredli girl layed her first clutch of 16 eggs on the 17 January. There was one obvious slug which we threw out after she layed. Over the next few days, we noticed some were already growing mold, so they were candled and the inside had an obvious green tinge and no veins, so they were thrown out aswell, and the vermiculite underneath was removed and replaced with a fresh mix.
After that, everything was going as planned. They were candled every week and were very healthy looking with red veins, but then another few weeks later, the same thing happened to another handful of eggs. Eggs started developing mold with a green tinge inside, and the veins had disappeared.We decided to cut these open and they did have a developing embryo inside.
By then we were pretty disappointed as it was a small clutch and we were down to 8 eggs, but the remaining still appeared to still be going strong so we stopped worrying about them. They were white, no signs of mold and bright red veins.
They were due to hatch on the 18th March. I candled them last night and again, another 6 of the eggs were found dead, with a developed embryo inside. We now have 2 eggs remaining that are still alive, we are devastated and hoping these last two can hold on for another week.
My question is, what could have caused this? It's not as if they were infertile in the first place, they all had a developing seemingly healthy embryo inside, and its not as if only a few have died, the whole clutch has gone downhill. They were incubated over large grade vermiculite, 60/40 ratio (verm to water), and between 31.4 - 31.7 degrees. Same conditions as my port mac clutch last year which went well.
We are quite sure the eggs only developed mold because the embryo had died, and not the other way around. We are just wondering if there could be any reason for this, or if it might have just been very bad luck and it was bound to happen anyway. Has anyone else experienced a loss of a whole clutch of eggs while conditions were perfect?
After that, everything was going as planned. They were candled every week and were very healthy looking with red veins, but then another few weeks later, the same thing happened to another handful of eggs. Eggs started developing mold with a green tinge inside, and the veins had disappeared.We decided to cut these open and they did have a developing embryo inside.
By then we were pretty disappointed as it was a small clutch and we were down to 8 eggs, but the remaining still appeared to still be going strong so we stopped worrying about them. They were white, no signs of mold and bright red veins.
They were due to hatch on the 18th March. I candled them last night and again, another 6 of the eggs were found dead, with a developed embryo inside. We now have 2 eggs remaining that are still alive, we are devastated and hoping these last two can hold on for another week.
My question is, what could have caused this? It's not as if they were infertile in the first place, they all had a developing seemingly healthy embryo inside, and its not as if only a few have died, the whole clutch has gone downhill. They were incubated over large grade vermiculite, 60/40 ratio (verm to water), and between 31.4 - 31.7 degrees. Same conditions as my port mac clutch last year which went well.
We are quite sure the eggs only developed mold because the embryo had died, and not the other way around. We are just wondering if there could be any reason for this, or if it might have just been very bad luck and it was bound to happen anyway. Has anyone else experienced a loss of a whole clutch of eggs while conditions were perfect?
