Egg cutting

[ArborealsAnonymous]

How many of you cut eggs? I have not yet cut a chahoua egg because of my experience with my very first clutch of chahouas. The first baby hatched out (105 days) super fast and was moving around in the incubator a ton (I have a camera set up in my incubator, it was the middle of the night but it set of the sensors like 50 times) and was rolling around the other egg in the cup with it. I took it out and the second baby hatched shortly after (106 days)- except where the first baby was robust and 3g, the second baby was only 0.6g (not a typo- it was tiny!) and very week. It barely made it out of the egg and died and honestly from looking at it I could not imagine how it pipped on its own. My theory was that it wasnt ready but the motion from the clutch mate rolling the egg around stimulated it into hatching early. The problem with my initial theory is that the third and final good egg from the pair went on to hatch unassisted at 125 days but was very small and weak and only lived a few hours. It shifted my thinking to genetic incompatibilities from the pair or possible incubation issues though I couldn't pinpoint anything wrong. Regardless, the discrepancies between development rates between clutch mates has left me too scared to cut eggs at all.

 

[TroysGeckos]

I have gone from not cutting at all, to cutting very (too) often, to trying my hardest not to cut any (many) eggs.

Reasons why I initially shifted from not cutting to cutting often?

i. I witnessed several pip and die events (and heard about many more from other breeders) and wanted to avoid those at all costs
ii. I became comfortable physically opening the eggs
iii. I witnessed such a high percentage of my eggs hatch on their own before or around 120 days and thought just about all of my babies would be fully developed by then
iv. Impatience to meet my new baby Chahoua!

Reasons why I have shifted away from cutting so often?

i. I unearthed too many (a half dozen maybe?) premature geckos that MAYBE would've survived had I not cut them out
ii. My impatience was made worse by the thought of being able to cut an egg and free the baby early

This season I've only cut one open and it was several days after its clutchmate had hatched and it appeared to be full term. Going forward, I am trying to cut only sparingly (only if I feel confident, based on number of days and/or clutchmate hatching several days earlier unassisted) in an effort to reduce pip and die events while avoiding pre-mature, artificial hatching.

 

[ArborealsAnonymous]

I am, in general, a non cutter. I did go through a bout last year where my AC went out for nearly two weeks before we could get a new one put in, and it happened to be during a heat wave that was 105 outside and about 85 inside. I was very worried about my eggs (which I moved after just a few days of the heat wave) so I did cut several leachie eggs after the clutch mates had hatched already. I was scared that the high heat at the end of development could deplete the oxygen and kill the babies before they had a chance to get out.

 

[Michael]

My experience mimics Troys. I used to not cut for years, then when I got an incubator, that made it much easier to "standardize" my incubation times and temps so I know that if an egg goes past 90 days, something is suspect.

I will candle, look at the remaining yolk, look at the size of the baby, and I generally wait for one baby to hatch and then give the other egg a few days. If it has still been another few days with no sibling, I might cut to see what is up. In 95% of those situations, I find an undeveloped fetus that failed before going full term.

 

[ArborealsAnonymous]

Sitting at 36 hours no clutch mate. These are the anxiety hours for me, I always fret so much!

 

[Michael]

Sitting at 36 hours no clutch mate. These are the anxiety hours for me, I always fret so much!

Have you candled the egg? If so, how does it look and how much yolk is left?

 

[ArborealsAnonymous]

Its solid dark, I can't see anything through it anymore. But it was the bigger of the two eggs from Ember so i imagine will take a bit longer to finish.

 

[ET Geckos]

A fun test I like to run is the "squish" test. This may just be my experience, but when eggs are getting close the shell starts to give a bit. After about two weeks from the initial "squishiness", the egg shell has a decent bit of give and you will notice it get moreso over time. Usually I know then the egg will hatch within the next week.

Egg cutting can be dangerous. Not all eggs develop at the same rate, oddly enough. I have had some hatch a week or two after the clutchmate. Cutting really is quite a gamble and though I have not lost a baby to it, I do notice some are not as strong as the ones that hatch naturally and take longer to grow.

Patience is hard.

 

[Michael]

In the last two years, most of my eggs have run 75-83 days before hatching. Some even a little shorter, like 72 days. My first clutch of the year is now at 84 days and I'm really starting to be on edge about it.

I've candled and definitely see healthy babies, but I also see a fair bit of yolk left, too. I'm impatient, but not impatient enough to cut yet.

Tick, tock... tick, tock...

 

[ArborealsAnonymous]

Well I had an egg start sweating late saturday (6/8) and do nothing. The clutch mate hatched this morning so I cut the egg that was sweating this morning and it was dead in the shell. No idea why it didnt hatch as it seemed fully formed and had the egg tooth. It was also the larger of the two eggs and the larger baby. These guys sure do like to test you

 

[Gray Sky Exotics]

I’ve never had to cut a chahoua egg yet, but I do cut at least 1 gargoyle egg per season. Actually had to cut a gargoyle egg this morning; it was conjoined twins that died overnight in the egg (their shared heart/lungs were outside the body). The clutchmate hatched big & healthy 5 days prior; then last night their egg started sweating with no progression by am so I cut it open in hopes of getting the babe out before it drowned....no such luck this time.

 

[Michael]

I'm so sorry, @ArborealsAnonymous That baby is gorgeous too. Nature is hard to understand sometimes.

 

[ArborealsAnonymous]

The baby that made it is pretty killer, so I'm just going to focus on that. I need to take better pictures of the parents but this is their first baby and I think they are going to do some pretty amazing things together

 

[Michael]

The baby that made it is pretty killer, so I'm just going to focus on that. I need to take better pictures of the parents but this is their first baby and I think they are going to do some pretty amazing things together

I would say so! That baby has it all... color, collar and pattern!

 

[SVgeckos]

Question on the egg cutting, at what point did you decide to go ahead and cut the egg? This is only my second year with chewies. My last season I never cut, this season I have an egg at 115 days and still hasnt hatched. A friend who breeds mostly Leachies and some cresteds told me I should go ahead and cut the egg. I didnt know whether to wait a little longer or go ahead and take the advice

 

[ArborealsAnonymous]

I would wait. I rarely wind up cutting eggs, only if something indicates to me that I should. These guys have an extremely variable range of development and for myself, I would rather risk letting a baby that couldn't make it out of the egg die than risk cutting an egg too soon and the baby is alive but underdeveloped and probably won't make it anyway.

 

[MelissaSR]

I would wait also, these guys can sometimes take a long time to hatch, and what can be full term for someone at 85 days can be pre-mature for someone else.

 

[Michael]

As another point of reference here, my eggs have reliably hatched in 75-79 days for the last 3 seasons. I have no idea why, but so far this year they're all running closer to 90 days with the same temps and incubation methods.

You never really know.