Hello,
So my breaded just laid her eggs yesterday. Already had the incubator set up and ready to go. I order the hovabator. When I notice she was digging at the corner of her cage. We set up her lay box and I've been putting her in it every day and taking her out at night. Well she ended up laying her eggs last night about an hour after being put back. This is her first set of eggs shes every laid. Some of them dont look right. Can any help me with what eggs are supposed to look like.
Was she with a male previously? Have you tried candling (putting a flashlight over them) the eggs to see if they are fertile? Healthy eggs should look pure white and have a red dot at the top or middle of them. That is the embryo.
Be very careful NOT to move the red dot to the bottom or anywhere else, as that could kill the eggs. How many eggs are there?
Most of the eggs look healthy, some look a bit misshaped and I do see a few slugs in there too. Slugs are the eggs that look more yellowish and small compared to the other eggs. But Be sure to candle them first to see if there actually is an embryo though. Sometimes eggs can just turn out more yellowish, but most of the time they're slug/dud eggs.
Also be sure to give your female calcium on all of her daily meals for about 2 weeks just to help her retain her calcium levels back. Maybe even liquid calcium for about a week as well might help her. Increase the amount of food you give her for about 5 days.
Egg laying is very very taxing and stressful for the female so you need to give her special care for a bit so she can regain her strength back without any problems.
Yes she was with a male previously.
And no I havent tried candling them yet, I was going to today. She ended up having 19 eggs. I forgot to get pictures of the last 3.
After she laid her eggs I put her in a luke warm bath, while I collected all the eggs.
So after doing the candling. I looks like they are all infertile, but maybe one or two. How long do I wait before throwing away? How long does it take to tell if the are fertile or not?
I'm not too sure, maybe wait a week at least before trying to do that? You do still need to take time to let the embryos develop. Could you post some photos of you candling them so we may help in determining the fertile and non fertile ones?
I can see right away like Hippie said that some are infertile. Don't be in a hurry if you can't see the red mark, it's not always obvious until a week or so. If the egg looks plump, give it a chance + be patient. Sometimes the red dot is on the side, not always on the top and not always readily visible.