Two bad eggs in clutch being maternally incubated- remove or let alone?
Hi everyone. I have a clutch of Stimson's python eggs due to hatch March 4th. I have allowed the mother to maternally incubate and she's being a very protective, dilligent mother.
I have the cage temps at about 84, so she can warm the eggs a bit if needed. So far, most of the eggs look great, but there were two with spots of poor calcification on them when they were laid. I've been checking every day, and finally last night I noticed a dead egg smell. I nudged mom's head away and those two eggs are soggy and nasty and there were a few little maggots on them. I tried to pull the one egg off gently, but mom was ticked about it and the eggs are quite well stuck together.
My question is, should I glove up and take the bites to get those two eggs out of the clutch? If I leave them be, will they kill the other eggs around them? It's about a week and a half- 2 weeks to go yet until hatching, and they just started smelling yesterday. The little maggots have me worried though...I have no idea how they got in there....blech!
What do you guys who have more breeding experience think? Leave them alone, or pull those two off the pile?
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Dr. Viper
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