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Not a Sight I want to Ever see again.

BalloonzForU

BalloonzForU

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I'm posting this to show how bad fluctuations in temps during incbation is. So it may discourage people from building their own incubators when they don't know what they are doing, or constantly opening the incubator and candling their eggs, or anything else they may do to cause the temps to fluctuate. Or even someone attempting Trempers method of incubation.

As some of you know, I had a incubator issue last month and lost a lot of eggs. I've been very concerned about the ones that are still left to hatch as they were only a couple of weeks old and still at the stage where they would be developing and very vulnerable to temp changes, when my incubator malfunctioned.



This one egg had been sweating for the most of the day. Tonight I decided to candle the egg to see if it was any good. While scanning the egg I noticed that it was yellow in one end and almost black in the other. The egg was due to hatch already, and way too small to have a live hatchling. I cracked open the egg, what I found was still alive. Not a pleasant sight to see. I've added notes to the photo, the skull deformity, is the brown lump, which was hard as bone. What you see is not the egg membrane around the hatchling that is actual flesh. Interesting enough I did not cut the flesh away from the head, it never grew around the head. This hatchling is as it was when I took it out of the egg. I've since put him/her down, to end it's suffering.


These images are very disturbing.....do not go on if you have a weak stomach.







picture_3893_op_800x536.jpg


picture_3898_op_800x587.jpg
 
This is very disturbing indeed, however I'm glad for my strong stomach and ability to witness such things. Not that I was ever going to, but now you can be damn sure I won't try trempers method. Thanks felicia.
 
Thank you very much for posting it!
Untill now, I lost 3 female eggs which I put in the male incubator after they stayed in the female incubator for one month.
I opened the first egg I lost, and found a dead embryo:
P4030240.JPG

Last season, I did not have any problems, but this year, I use a new male incubator. It realy sucks, that I lost the eggs, because those were very important eggs. After I have seen your pictures I realy do not want to open the other two eggs I lost. If I will open them, I will post pictures of what i find. So I think i will not use Trempers method anymore. I realy hope, my other female eggs in the male incubator do not go bad as well.
 
Felicia, what kind of incubator issues did you have to cause this? How much fluctuation in the temps caused this? Thanks
 
The thermostat on my hova was not keeping them temps constant. I had the temp set at 85, and I'd look at it and it was 88, then 83, then 85, etc, pretty much all over the place. I had unplugged it then plugged it back in as I've found that sometimes that will correct it, but it didn't work. Luckily Jeanne had an extra hova that she sold me real cheap, thanks Jeanne! My one older clutch was able to handle the flux fine and they hatched out on the 5th. The one in the picture was from a SH Stripe x Hypo Tang. I'm so bummed over the loss of all the eggs, then to see this. The poor little thing.
 
ive been having a problem with my incubator also, the thermostat isnt keeping it exact. it goes from 83 -85ish ...is it the placement of the probe? what should i do , i do not want to see that
 
Felicia, I'm sorry you had this happen, and I'm glad you have a new incubator. Indeed, many deformities (especially eyes or eyelids) such as these are due to incubation temperature fluctuations or improper supplementation of the mother. However, the type of deformity this poor little creature suffered is usually congenital, and could have even been caused by a change in the egg position at a crucial time during embryonic development. At any rate, this is evidence that we all need to be be careful about the number of times we open our incubators... even if we are anticipating hatchlings 'any day now'.
 
Golden Gate Geckos said:
However, the type of deformity this poor little creature suffered is usually congenital, and could have even been caused by a change in the egg position at a crucial time during embryonic development.
Click to expand...


I guess that could be poss in this case too. I was very carefull moving the deli cups, when I put them into the new incubator. Twice they were moved, once when I got the one Jeanne sent me and then when I got my Nature Spirit. Once I find a place to put the one Jeanne sent me, it will be set it up for males. With my Nature Spirit, I've got thermometers all over the place with probes, a little overboard I know but once they newer eggs start hatching I'll feel more at ease. It has stayed at a constand 85 since it got set up, so I'm already feeling a little be better.
 
I agree with Marcia. That just seems like a very serious deformity for such subtle temperature fluctuations. I think one important thing worth mentioning is the speed with which the temperatures fluctuate. I've been able to successfully hatch eggs that were incubated with gradual natural night-time drops. But I'm pretty sure if I had dropped the temperature quickly over a period of three minutes as opposed to three hours, I would have had a different story.
 
Felicia, I am so sorry about that baby, what a horrible sight. The poor thing! Hopefully it will neve happen again.
 
I have a hobovator with an added proportional thermostat (from BigApple Herps) and a digital thermometer with a probe that's kept right next to the thermostat sensor. The temperatures do fluctuate slowly about 2 degrees even though I have the proportional thermostat. So far I have hatched out 15 babies (13 last season, 2 this season) with no problems or deformities. I don't know if there's anything I can do to reduce the fluctuations, or if this happens to some extent with everyone, but it doesn't seem to have caused any problems so far. It seems that the complete cycle takes about 15 minutes (minimum to max. back to min. temp)
 
I also have a hovabator and have had temp fluctuations...But I found if you don't open it...there is a lot less fluctuation...and you don't have to there are 2 windows there...The only time I opened it was to remove hatchlings....or putting new eggs in. But I never opend it all the way just lift lid a bit and stick in new deli cup as quickly as possible without jarring the eggs I had in the deli cup.
Robin
 
nydrgnldy said:
I also have a hovabator and have had temp fluctuations...But I found if you don't open it...there is a lot less fluctuation...and you don't have to there are 2 windows there...The only time I opened it was to remove hatchlings....or putting new eggs in. But I never opend it all the way just lift lid a bit and stick in new deli cup as quickly as possible without jarring the eggs I had in the deli cup.
Robin
Click to expand...
Yeah, i noticed this too. Once its stable, it pretty much stays there as long as yo udont open it too much.
 
Small flucuation for a real short period of time is not a problem. The hovabator worked fine all last season for me, with some small flux. It was when it was making these drastic changes that there became a problem. I've since changed the thermostat in the hovabator and it's fine now. So if you ever have it go nuts like mine did, check the thermostat.
 
Sorry to her about your hatchling Felicia :( I had my first little one die on me just after it pipped and had her body half out of the egg. I opened the egg the rest of the way to see if it was a deformity but there was none, so I'm at a loss as to what caused her death. Unfortunatly, as breeders this comes with the territory.
 
Oh god Felicia, I almost lost my supper. :censored:
There should be a warning on the subject line or something...


Regardless, thanks for the knowledge, that is a good thing to know.
 
geckonate said:
Oh god Felicia, I almost lost my supper. :censored:
There should be a warning on the subject line or something...


Regardless, thanks for the knowledge, that is a good thing to know.
Click to expand...

LOL...There WAS a warning! Next time you should read the post. :raspberry
 
Those are some gut churning pics.


This may be a dumb question, but are there not temperature fluctuations in the wild?
 
Something that worked well for me when I had my hovabator set up was to put a small tupperware container of water in the hovabator, and let the whole thing adjust to the temp you have set. That way when you open the thing to check on eggs, add eggs, candle w/e you have something more stable and better at holding temps than air in the incubator. My temps rarely flucuated more than 1 degree over the course of the entire time it was running w/ the water in it.
 
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