Egg rotation

[miguel camacho!]

I'm just curious how many people have experience with eggs rotating at some point in the incubation period after being laid. Back when I had a decent collection, I would occasionally drop an egg while trying to gently pick it up, losing track of the orientation before I have a chance to mark it. Regardless, I always maintained a very high hatch rate for several species, even eggs where I was unsure whether or not I had rotated.

Recently, I had two clutches of eggs I brought home to my parents to care for over the holidays while I was away. These eggs were due to hatch possibly while there (though they did not). Anyhow, when I returned from my trip, I noticed 3 of the 4 eggs had been moved so the top was no longer the original orientation. 2 eggs were roughly 30 degrees or more off their original orientation. I freaked out a bit, re-oriented them, then candled them. They seemed alright, and over the next few days I noticed changes in the orientation of the developing geckos inside each egg...after all, they are due to hatch anytime soon (incubating 5 months over the next few days!).

We tend to suggest avoiding rotation of the eggs, if at all possible. I do not believe the eggs are "designed" to be rotated (I think it's coincidence they're spheres, which is just about the easiest thing there is to roll), nor do I believe they experience any rolling after being deposited in the wild. But I find it interesting that they [at least sometimes] appear to be resilient even after being rotated.

So if anyone else has any experiences with rotating eggs accidentally (or purposely!) during incubation, I'd like to hear about it. I swear I recall reading over the years of other peoples' experiences that basically reflect my own.

 

[Riverside Reptiles]

Mike, I don't have any experiences rotating Uroplatus eggs. However, I had a couple of tokay eggs that I didn't think were any good as they had become unstuck from their original lay spot and fallen to the floor of the enclosure. I took them out of the enclosure, set them in an empty gladware container (no hatch medium what so ever) and let them sit on my dresser assuming that they were no good. Over the next several months, the container was moved around several times and the eggs positions were compromised a little each time. Again, I didn't think they were any good, so I wasn't too worried about being overly gentle with them. At one point, I pulled one of the eggs out just to candle it and see if there was per chance anything happening. To my amazement, it looked as if the egg was good. In that moment, the egg slipped out of my hand and fell to the floor after which it rolled around a bit. At that point I thought for SURE it was dead. But, it didn't crack, so I stuck it back in the gladware container with the other egg and pretty much just forgot about them. Several weeks later I had two very healthy, happy tokay babies cruising around in the container. No incubation media, no incubator or regulated temps, and rotated on multiple occasions. So, it does go to show ya, they're more resilient than we tend to give them credit for.

 

[David]

like Ethan I had similar case with guentheri eggs: an escaped female laid in my room and didnt noticied it, some days after I catched her I "threw" the eggs while I was cleaning the room, they made an over 1m fall, then rolled to over 2m more (approx., happened several years ago)
was really angry but as they didn't show cracks or so, I incubated them and had the pleasure to hatch 2 strong baby 3 months after

but it is just an example (the worst I had, got many egg-rolling since, some did hatch some not, there're always many other factors to care of)
generally it is admitted that the eggs can be moved during the first week of incubation, but soon before hatching it becomes more dangerous as the full developed embryo may suffocate(?) if the eggs got damages (or 180° roll)