CutieRankins
New member
Hi there.
So, I've been rearing eggs in my incubator from my Rankins. Normally, I can tend to other reptiles eggs just fine - but these eggs are perplexing me.
I get all the way to 60 days (on a slightly lower temp, around 28c so the incubation period is a touch longer) and the fertile eggs grow, develop, kick about - then they pip... Then nothing. I don't even manage to get little snouts or heads poking out. Like they *try* to pip, but just don't manage it fully?
I've been using perlite and vermiculite, but the perlite seems to keep the humidity a little more stable. I don't get denting or dehydration UNTIL they pip. I've not *caught* one pipping yet, but they're always positioned with their noses right on the break line when I check on them. I don't fuss with them apart from a mid-way point candling. No temperature spikes as far as I can tell... Ugh!
I wonder if they've just not been strong enough? I've spoken to a few other breeders and they're perplexed too. Once we've known the clutch was dead, I've opened them up (we're talking 5-6 days after pipping and no movement, so dead dead, deflated, starting to smell) and they've been perfectly formed - some with a LITTLE yolk, some completely absorbed. One had the equivalent of a cleft palate, but that was 1 out of 10.
I have ONE egg left now on this second clutch and I am losing hope.
Edited to add: These are my girls second clutches. First clutches weren't fertile.
So, I've been rearing eggs in my incubator from my Rankins. Normally, I can tend to other reptiles eggs just fine - but these eggs are perplexing me.
I get all the way to 60 days (on a slightly lower temp, around 28c so the incubation period is a touch longer) and the fertile eggs grow, develop, kick about - then they pip... Then nothing. I don't even manage to get little snouts or heads poking out. Like they *try* to pip, but just don't manage it fully?
I've been using perlite and vermiculite, but the perlite seems to keep the humidity a little more stable. I don't get denting or dehydration UNTIL they pip. I've not *caught* one pipping yet, but they're always positioned with their noses right on the break line when I check on them. I don't fuss with them apart from a mid-way point candling. No temperature spikes as far as I can tell... Ugh!
I wonder if they've just not been strong enough? I've spoken to a few other breeders and they're perplexed too. Once we've known the clutch was dead, I've opened them up (we're talking 5-6 days after pipping and no movement, so dead dead, deflated, starting to smell) and they've been perfectly formed - some with a LITTLE yolk, some completely absorbed. One had the equivalent of a cleft palate, but that was 1 out of 10.
I have ONE egg left now on this second clutch and I am losing hope.
Edited to add: These are my girls second clutches. First clutches weren't fertile.
