Eggs on the Ground! =)

Freckles, my het burgundy ball (? jury is still out), is laying her clutch as I type. I had a feeling I should go check on her and found her with three eggs already laid and a fourth well on its way out. She likely has at least another one or two eggs in there after the fourth comes out. I didn't want to stress her too much so I only got a few pics and then left her alone to finish.









Unless one of you guys is being hush hush about your girls, I think I may be the first with eggs this year. Woot! Is there a prize for that?

Yeay! We put our 4th clutch of gecko eggs in the incubator tonight!

I should clarify. First with SNAKE eggs. lol

Congrats, Hannah!



She's still not quite finished.

Those eggs are so HUGE compared to our gecko eggs, lol! Good luck with that clutch! We're excited to get into this, and we'll have snake eggs of our own one day!

I think there are 7 or 8 eggs under there. I won't know without taking her off and I don't want to bother her. I'll find out in time.

Nice! Huge congrats!

And yep, I do believe you are the first with snake eggs this year. None of my girls have even ovulated yet, much less laid any eggs. LOL

Awesome! I love to see a big clutch. Do you have pics of your incubator? I'm curious about your setup.

DaganGecko wrote:

Awesome! I love to see a big clutch. Do you have pics of your incubator? I'm curious about your setup.

You're looking at her. Freckles will do all the incubating. If, for some reason, she decides to abandon the clutch or if the eggs don't seem to be doing well I'll move them into a mini fridge incubator I made last year.

Oh, well then that's what I'd like to see--the mini fridge.

Here ya go:
https://kark.forumotion.com/t247-mini-fridge-to-incubator

It's nothing special, but it does hold temps really well if I need it.



Oh and I got to see how many eggs were beneath Freckles when I was adding more cypress and some sphagnum to her tub. There are 8.

That's a great looking incubator. I will need to make one some day. Not sure where to find a cheap mini fridge though...especially one that I can butcher. I need a REAL mini fridge for my FOOD!

A clutch of 8! Wow, that's quite a few. Was your het pied clutch just four?

DaganGecko wrote:

That's a great looking incubator. I will need to make one some day. Not sure where to find a cheap mini fridge though...especially one that I can butcher. I need a REAL mini fridge for my FOOD!

A clutch of 8! Wow, that's quite a few. Was your het pied clutch just four?

I would check Craigslist or call around to area hotels asking if they have any busted fridges they'd like taken off their hands. You could easily turn one of those into an incubator.


Yeah, my het pied only gave me 4 eggs last year but it was her first time. She may produce more this year but who knows. I've been having really bad luck trying to palpate any of my females this time around. I don't know what my problem is. lol The average ball clutch is about 6 eggs so I was thrilled to see 8 from Freckles. I'm hoping for at least 5 egg clutches from the other girls.

I pulled Freckles out of her coil just long enough to candle each of the eggs tonight. All eight are definitely fertile with strong veins. I tried to get a shot of candling the eggs but between trying to figure out how to set up my new camera to get a good shot and trying to avoid provoking a bite from the mother, it just wasn't happening. I did get a pic of her with all of her eggs, though.

That's a really nice pic, Sandy. I love it. I am so excited about these eggs.

Good mommy-on-big-clutch shot!

I got a few new pics of Freckles and her clutch. The uppermost egg has wrinkled a bit, most likely because it often isn't completely covered by her coils. She usually just rests her head on this egg so doesn't have the same benefits of its siblings beneath. I'm sure it will be fine regardless, but it's not as pretty as the rest. *sigh*

Day 19













Freckles isn't hissing and threatening to strike every time I check in on her now which is the reason why I was finally able to get some new pics of her eggs. The quality isn't great and I'm still figuring out how best to capture candling pics with this new camera. Hopefully I'll have it figured out before the next clutch drops.

She's so possessive looking. x3

The photo quality is lousy, I know, but I can see my babies to be fluttering around in there now.









I got a video clip of one of the eggs being candled as well. There would have been more but the rest of them came out way too dark to make anything out. I don't know what the intermittent buzzing is but it's really annoying. Might want to turn the volume down if you watch this.

The other link was being weird so I uploaded to youtube.

That's really cool, Sandy. The candled egg looks like a beating heart. I can't wait to one day have some bp eggs incubating at my house.

Nice!!!

Awesome I can't wait to see what the outcome is

Sandy's growing aliens.

hehehe

More pics of Freckles' clutch while I wait for Dewshine to lay the next...

The past few videos are all of the same egg. It's been fun watching the pattern develop over time.

Go little eggs, go go, make me a new snake baby for my collection.

Just updating...


Day 43







The uppermost egg had been sitting on top of the pile for a while. I moved it down so it could sit next to its sibling eggs and share the same benefits of being completely covered by mom's coils. It had been getting rather wrinkly and oddly shaped sitting on the top and acting as a chin rest for mom. I moved the egg about a week ago and it looks like it has filled out really well. It's still dented on one side but it's very pliable and I believe that the baby inside is fine. All eight of the eggs look like they're starting to dimple a bit and they all feel softer now. I think these guys have another two weeks or so before I can expect some pipping.

Awesome, and glad to know the denting isn't a bad thing as long as everything is right. I am still sitting at 99% humidity and 89 degrees and one is denting a bit. Oh any showing for your jcp? or is she not going to pop any out this year?

Yeah, eggs usually start to dent a bit about 2-3 weeks before they're due to hatch.

I don't think either of my JCP females are gravid this time around. I did try pairing the smaller female with my normal ball male, Mitch, and he flipped out. Literally. He thrashed around, inverted himself, and tried to force the lid off the bin. lol Oh well. Maybe another time.

We're on Day 46 now. Not much longer.

I can't believe how you guys complain about the "long wait" for ball python eggs. Crested gecko eggs take between 60 and 120 days. 60 is the VERY LOW end. The medium seems to be about 80 days or so. Crazy snakes!

I'm not complaining too much this time around. It seems like my girls are going to be giving me staggered clutches instead of all laying at once. It means I can enjoy candling the eggs already on the ground or working with brand new hatchlings while waiting on clutches. I certainly didn't plan it this way but it works for me. lol

How many babies are we looking at so far? I don't mean literally I mean...how many chickens before they hatch? Hehe.

DaganGecko wrote:

How many babies are we looking at so far? I don't mean literally I mean...how many chickens before they hatch? Hehe.

Well, of eggs actually on the ground:

Freckles - 8 eggs
Dewshine - 6 eggs


Clutches I'm still waiting on:

Henna - (haven't been able to count follicles on her)
Ailynn - (haven't been able to count follicles on her)
Kyriel - I believe I feel 4 or 5 follicles so there are 4 or 5 potential eggs due from her

She finally decided she was hungry. Sixth try is the charm, I guess.

Aww how cute. I hate when my big female Domino refuses to eat.

I believe today makes Day 50

I've noticed the temp has gone up by a degree or two and I'm wondering if that has to do with the eggs getting ready to pip or if there is some other cause behind it? Up until this point, the temps in her tub have read 86-89 when I've checked in on her and the eggs. This morning, it's at 90.

That dark spot is the eye if I'm not mistaken.




And you can make out some of the pattern on this one.






These guys are growing quickly. Soon I probably won't be able to see any movement because they'll be filling their eggs so I'm grabbing a few shots while I still can.

Day 54


Her eggs are looking more and more like squished marshmallows. lol I wish they would hurry up and hatch!

Day 55



I believe the baby's belly and pulsing umbilicus are visible in this clip. I'm getting impatient waiting for these guys! The eggs have been sweating a bit for the past few days and they no long adhere to one another. Any day now!

I think you should guess the clutch! Who's gonna hatch?

Well, I went against my own advice and cut one of the eggs because worry had been nagging at me. It's the little one that had spent some time at the top of the pile as a chin rest for mom. It had wrinkled much earlier than the others and though it reflated a bit after I moved it, it has just stayed smaller than the rest and I wasn't sure if the baby inside was going to have much room in there as a result. All of the eggs have been sweating like crazy this week and I was getting water spots on the little egg and one other. I just didn't want to wait any longer on the little one so I snipped it yesterday. Inside I saw a perfectly healthy looking, albeit small, baby and it was definitely alive so I placed the egg back on the pile and left it alone. I didn't get any pics then but got a couple this morning.






The other seven eggs have still not pipped yet and I'll not cut them unless something seems amiss. Today makes Day 61.

Cute lil baby! Can't wait to see the rest. What are you expecting?

There should be normals and mojaves in here.


I had to add some more water to its egg because it was looking dry in there. I had the camera with me so here are a few more pics of the little one I opened early.

Yesterday I moved the baby from the cut egg to a deli cup lined with wet paper towels because I wasn't seeing much change in the yolk sac and worried that the cord was twisted or knotted. As of today the baby is looking plumper and the yolk sac has changed a bit but is still quite full. If it doesn't change much


Here are some pics from yesterday and last night.













And today












When putting my deli cup baby back into the enclosure with its mom, I noticed that two of its egg siblings are pipping.








Today is Day 62.

It's official! I've hatched my very first morph!

Yeay! Congrats!!!

Awesome!!! congrats sandy!