Egg incubation Advice Needed

Dom · 03-13-04, 06:03 PM

Alright so I am gonna show lots of pics to explain what is going on..

My coastal laid 48 eggs.. 7 were defenite duds and were thrown out..

These are the eggs when they were laid .. As u can tell VERY WEIRD - can anyone explain these marks? The nipples?

Day 1

After about 5 days of incubation i oppenned the incubator for the first time .. this is what it looked like ..

Day 5

After day 9 I oppenned it again and there was mold on more then half the eggs.. (my pics are too big too upload those) .. All the brown spots and nipless were growing lots of mold green and brown .. I applied antifugal foot powder and hoped for the best although at that point .. I was sure.. 90% were all going bad or were not fertile to begin with .. theres very few with no mold..

At day 12 I opened again and took a look again .. same scenario .. Mold is not being controlled.. Any suggestion? anyway to clean it or stop em ..

Here is a pic

Day 12

Of course this is really depresing me so I decide to candle em in case..

Good news is .. At least 50% have veins and are red.. many are just yellow though .. I kinda moved the fertiles on one side and the not red on the ether..

Is it possible its still too early for it too be showing red on some of them? The really weird thing is some with the niples and mildew have huge veins in em ...

Alright Now I am really not certain as to what to do .. I have a good 20 fertile eggs in that incubator.. mold or mildew growing everywhere and it makes me feel like pulling all my hair off lol (that is if I was not bald)

Any advise .. any oppinions .. any thoughts on what happenned or what is happenning .. If u need any other info .. let me know ..

Anything .. To those who breed lots of python eggs - please share any experience that could help

Tx in advance everyone

Dom

As much as this sucks i think we can all learn from this .. I learn more everytime .. and I know this is gonna be a stressfull incubation .. I am opening it again in 48 hours so Let me know what I should do ..

Jeff_Favelle · 03-13-04, 06:34 PM

Yikes man. I don't know. I was going to say that infertile eggs can get mold pretty quickly and living eggs don't, but if you see red veins, then they are definitely fertile.

As for when they get red veins, well that is immediate. You can candle an egg a HOUR after it is laid and tell if its fertile.

Why the mold? I can't explain it. The female is supposed to give a bacterial coating to the eggs as they are laid to prevent molding. Maybe she didn't do that.

Best of luck man. Maybe decrease the humidity a tad to see if that gets control of the mold. Do it slow. Eggs don't like drastic changes.

Jeff_Favelle · 03-13-04, 06:36 PM

Actually, know what I would do? I woudl quickly construct another incubator or another incubating box. Completely sterilized. Use perlite in the bottom, egg crate, and put the GOOD eggs (wipe off any mildew) in it. Seperating the eggs may give the good ones a chance to overcome the excessive mildew. Eggs can combat mold, but they are not invincible.

I say constructing TWO incubators and separating the eggs is your ONLY option.

Dom · 03-14-04, 06:24 PM

Thansk Jeff..

I apreciate the input.. great advice.. actually funny you are to say that .. this was my plan tonight..

I have two seperate incubator boxes.. i plan on seperating all god eggs in one and all bad in an other.. cleaning them and seing from there..

I will jack my room temp to the same as the incubator cause it will take me a good 5 minutes to do all the change.

I was also told to just leave it alone but with the amount of mildew in there.. i think it will affect even the good eggs..

Thanks man .. man this is stressfull!

Jeff_Favelle · 03-14-04, 06:49 PM

Good eggs can battle mold and mildew, but only to a certain limit. If it saturates the incubator, then even the best eggs can't do anything about it.

Good move brother. Keep us updated on how it goes.

Dom · 03-14-04, 07:06 PM

Again Tx Jeff .. Your oppinions and experiences are always apreciated..

Illlet u know how it goes..

Dom · 03-15-04, 09:56 PM

Alright .. well they were seperated and cleaned and the antifungal powder was aplied.. temps were raised to 83-84 degrees in the room ..

Took a little while to do it .. a bit worried but now they look pretty good.. two seperate incubators.. 23 eggs emit red or have veins.. (I saw veins in 90% of all of these red eggs .. but 3 of the 23 seemed badly rotten- teh seprate ones in the pic)

Here is a pic of the fertile eggs at the present moment .. Many look perfect.. It better news then b4 at least .. I though I was gonna loose the whole clutch .. now I have some hope...

Here are all the eggs that emitted yellow and no red.. no veins.. Some look almost perfect .. weird.. still incubating in case but pretty sure these are all plain dead..

Let me know what u think at this point ..

I plan on not interfering at all anymore.. unless they take a radical turn again... man my rule was don't FU(K with the eggs.. i broke it grrr

One last question .. ventillation .. some ppl tell me I should open the container at least once a day to let fresh air in as it will reduce the mold growth ..

Personally I would like to open the container only once ever 3 days no more..

Whats ure oppinion considering my situation

Tx
Dom