Discolouring of eggs

[JungleGuy]

I have been incubating a clutch of darwin eggs for about 10 days now and discolouring has slowly begun to appear on some eggs. The slugs were removed before placing the eggs in the incubator however the other eggs have not been candled yet. I was just wondering if it is common for what looks to be a healthy egg to become discoloured where a slug has been removed or it is more likely that this egg is in fact not fertile?

Cheers,
Tim

 

[Pythoninfinite]

Depends on the colour - yellowish or greenish is usually bad news, especially if they start to "sweat.". Best to candle asap anyway, before development of any embryo becomes too advanced.

Jamie

 

[JungleGuy]

The egg has a light yellowish colour starting from where the slug was attached but it almost seems like it has been spreading. I'll candle them tonight and see. Should the egg be removed if I can't see veins during candling? What are the chances of it killing the other eggs if it is infertile?

Cheers,
Tim

 

[Pythoninfinite]

It shouldn't affect the other eggs at this stage if you remove it. If you still have doubts about its viability, just put it in a separate container in the incubator to keep it removed from the rest. Is the clutch in a mass or are the eggs separated? Many times infertile eggs won't affect the other eggs in a clutch (wild snakes lay infertile eggs too, and they just tend to shrivel up without harm to neighbouring eggs), but I think that air circulation in artificial incubation is much poorer than it is with maternal incubation, so infertile eggs can encourage pathogenic fungal and bacterial growth in an incubated clutch.

Jamie

 

[JungleGuy]

I just candled them, all seem healthy. The coloring looks to be an absence of the harder white shell rather than a discoloring. It looks almost clear when candling. I'm assuming the inner membrane must be exposed on these eggs. The clutch is still in a mass and all looked good when candled so ill keep them together at this stage. Not quite sure why the membrane is how it is, hope they remain viable throughout incubation.

 

[Pythoninfinite]

Ah OK, those clearish patches are areas of low calcification, and won't affect the viability at all. They will be fine. Greg Maxwell has a bit about that phenomenon in his books on Chondros, I've seen it a few times myself, doesn't seem to cause problems.

Jamie