Not for the Weak! Collapsed/Smelly/Moldy Egg!

I've been keeping an eye on an egg from one of my first year breeders, that was laid 2/16 on my b-day. The egg started to mold about a week later. I used a q-tip to brush as much as a I could off, and even changed the deli cup and vermiculite it was in. This egg was showing veins so I was working hard to keep it viable. A couple of days ago, I noticed that it was starting to colapse in a strange way. One side was firm to the touch and the other very soft and mushy. Today it was completely collapsed on the mushy side, and very firm where the mold has been and starting to smell. When candled you can see that the mold was infecting the egg. Since it was starting to smell, I knew there was nothing more I could do for the egg and the baby inside. I decided to open the egg, and was amazed at what I saw. The mold had worked it's way in to the one side of the egg.

I had to share this picture to those that find the embryo development interesting as I do. You can clearly see the head (of course), but look in the center of the eyes, pupils, and look at the little mouth, and the start of the front legs. That was pretty much all that had developed the body had no defined shape yet. I'm not sure if the baby was alive prior to me opening the egg, but sure it would have died anyways, due to the smell. I was hopping this baby would survive as the female that laid it keeps aborting one egg out of each clutch. Arrgg.

yup... we opened up a fattie egg that was well past its due date and had gone to mold and found much the same thing, only further along...



No doubt it was gone, this thing stank....

Its too bad, but its a part of the whole breeding process, you are going to have these kinds of things happen...

What I couldn't believe is how the mold had worked through the shell of the egg. I was starting to get a little queasy so I didn't mess with it to much. My son, brought home a nasty cold and I haven't been feeling well, me thinks he passed it on to me. Otherwise I don't think it would have bothered me in the way it did. Upset me yes, make me sick, not sure.

Does anybody have the development of a gecko? Like somebody who had 40 eggs and cut on open each day? I know this sounds inhumane, but i was looking at a book with chickens and it showed all of the development, pretty cool.

Sorry to hear that Felicia, it does happen tho

Originally Posted by LeosForLess

Does anybody have the development of a gecko? Like somebody who had 40 eggs and cut on open each day? I know this sounds inhumane, but i was looking at a book with chickens and it showed all of the development, pretty cool.

Sacrificing that many eggs, when it takes so much out of the females is not worth it too me. Maybe at weekly intervals, not days, I might be able to live with that. But again, not sure that I could kill the embryo, knowing it could have lived.

Yeah. If from different females mabey, but i think if peopkle just got pics like you did and reported TOD we could compile the pics. Thatd be pretty neat.

I don't think that would be too accurate. My egg could have had something wrong that caused it to mold, or the mold caused it to slow in development, or it could have been at the correct development for the age of the egg and the incubation temps. That leads to the issue of incubation temps, which changes the development rate. Even at the same incubation temps they hatch out at a wide range of dates, so who's to say for sure.

And look at Cory's, the egg was past hatch date when he opened it, and it was dead for some time, no TOD known. It deffinantly was further devolped than mine, and I guess realy that would be the only thing that we could know. That one is more devolped than the other and fit them in a timeline puzzle, with a guess of embryo age.

Yeah i guess. So i guess the only thing to do would be the intential killing, but it would still be hard. It would be neat to see exactly where pigmentation comes in.

i think that no matter what you shouldnt start ripping open eggs even if theyre from diff females. no breeder i ntheir right mind would possibly do that, its simply not right, and of course the loss of perhaps new stock and return. not to mention never seeing that baby pop out.