- Joined
- Sep 23, 2012
- Messages
- 711
So, I am a bit distraught today. I have been incubating a spider tortoise egg for a long time now, and I'm about 2-3 weeks prior to expected hatch date. Today I noticed something looked "off" when candling the egg and I checked for a heartbeat (using the Avitronics egg buddy) and ... nothing. It appears to have died sometime within the past couple days (I had a good heartbeat a few days ago). I am not tossing it yet, but I am about 98% sure this little guy didn't make it. This would have been my first hatchling of the species.
On candling, I can see that the baby is fully formed, but small (the yolk sac is two or three times the size of the hatchling). The thing is, he was positioned sideways with his head pointed straight down. So, I know we are not supposed to turn reptile eggs, but I am wondering if he passed because his head was positioned badly, given that the air sac is at the top of the egg. I'm sure there could be other reasons too. I bought the egg buddy so that I could intervene, if needed, at the time of hatching - but this one was not ready yet - even if I had caught that it was in distress, I would have no idea what to do about it.
Has anyone ever run into this situation? Is there ever an appropriate time to intentionally rotate an egg to better position the hatchling for survival? Is this even preventable at all?
Steve
On candling, I can see that the baby is fully formed, but small (the yolk sac is two or three times the size of the hatchling). The thing is, he was positioned sideways with his head pointed straight down. So, I know we are not supposed to turn reptile eggs, but I am wondering if he passed because his head was positioned badly, given that the air sac is at the top of the egg. I'm sure there could be other reasons too. I bought the egg buddy so that I could intervene, if needed, at the time of hatching - but this one was not ready yet - even if I had caught that it was in distress, I would have no idea what to do about it.
Has anyone ever run into this situation? Is there ever an appropriate time to intentionally rotate an egg to better position the hatchling for survival? Is this even preventable at all?
Steve