Deflated Eggs

[missinasworld]

I have 5 eggs in the incubator right now, all from the same female and male and each set of eggs are separated in deli cups by when they were laid. 2 eggs that were laid on 04/24/09 have become deflated. The aggravating thing is that none of the other eggs are suffering from this problem and when I candle them I can SEE the heart beats of the embryos still beating. Yesterday before I went to work (about 1pm) I changed the hatch right and added a very small amount of water. The eggs are a little bit inflated but still caved in on the underside and the little hearts are still beating. I raised the temp in the incubator from 79 to 80F this morning in hopes that this might help a little as well.
How long does it normally take for a deflated egg to return to normal and will this hurt the developing embryos greatly? I marked these eggs with a pencil, I normally use a gel pen but I have not heard anyone complaining about pencils causing problems. I have had So many problems with eggs produced by this female, from infertility to embryos just dyeing within the first month. I had 1 egg of hers hatch a few weeks ago and 2 more that should hatch within the next 5 to 10 days that are doing great and swelling the way they should.

Thanks,
Missina

 

[acpart]

Some people lay a moist paper towel over the eggs to see if they'll inflate that way. I really don't know what else to suggest. I have no experience with hatchright and use Albey's method with perlite myself. One suggestion I have that I have done this year is to turn the incubator (gradually) up to 81 or 82. I prefer to hatch all females and have had the incubator at 80 in the past but became concerned that with the fluctuation (even though I have a proportional thermostat) the lows were going to get too low. With the temp now ranging from about 81+ to 82+, my hatch time is about 7 1/2 weeks (instead of 8-9) and so far all the leopard geckos have been female (the jury's still out on one of my banded geckos).

Aliza

 

[missinasworld]

Thank you Alize that suggestion about the moist paper towel worked! I came home from work last night and found the larger of the 2 eggs had hatched:

Then woke up this morning and found the 2nd egg had hatched-the 2nd egg was the one that worried me the most because it started to get very dark and didn't have nearly as much movement inside as the 1st egg.

Now I just need to think of names for them:lol:

Missina
thegeckoroom

 

[acpart]

I have also had a seriously deflated egg that I'd given up on. The clutchmate hatched at 49 days, which is a bit early at 82 degrees, but is fat and healthy. The egg I'd given up on suddenly didn't look so deflated on Monday and hatched to my surprise. The baby still had a huge yolk sac attached and is tiny. She looks like a little old man and is probably 1 gram or less, though I'm not going to stress her out by weighing her. She is actually doing well --tottering around her tub and licking water drops. I think she's even grown a bit. So you never know . . .

Aliza

 

[missinasworld]

true, you never do know. as you can see in the 1st pic the 2nd egg had reinflated. both had. but it took almost 2 weeks for them to get to a "normal" looking stage. Well one more egg in the incubator to go and then no more eggs for a few months unless my one female who hasn't laid any eggs yet this year desides to lay some..she is pretty fat and healthy but just doesn't seem like she wants to produce right now-and she is a proven breeder to..so we will see.

Missina
Missina.cjb.net

 

[lemonjello]

I have eggs deflated too, I added more water to the vermeculite and that made em nice and fat again