Can an egg that is not fully calcified (also known as a water egg) hatch successfully?

As shown in the picture, the female snake laid this egg 4 days ago. At first glance I was going to throw it away, but I candled it anyway and saw blood vessels, so I placed the egg in an incubator to incubate it separately. Now I can see that the blood vessels are gradually increasing. However, some people have told me that this kind of egg will eventually develop mold or start to weep fluid, and cannot hatch successfully. Has anyone successfully hatched an egg like this? Is there anything I need to do? To be honest, I noticed a slight foul smell from the egg today, but the blood vessels are still present and increasing, so I want to persist a bit longer.

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I’ve seen eggs waaaay worse than this hatch, Hognose snake eggs, while not the same species, are actually notorious for developing windows and not being fully calcified like the one you have here and they do just fine most of the time :slight_smile:

As they say, incubate until there’s no debate, I’m glad you didn’t throw it away!

Is it like a rotten meat smell? Or just off? Bad eggs will give off a very noticeable foul odor, you won’t mistake it. I wouldn’t give up otherwise if the veins still appear strong…

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I’ve had a couple poorly calcified ball python eggs like that hatch from a first mom.

The problem with eggs like this is the areas that are not calcified as well are more delicate. They will take on more water from the substrate and can end up drowning the embryo. Or the bottom of the egg will just mold over.

With BPs, a lot of us like to use an egg tray made of plastic or the ‘egg crate’ light diffusers. The egg will rest above the incubation medium, but still benefit from the humid surroundings without that risk of overabsorbtion and the airflow will lessen the likelihood of mold.

Maybe a smaller size tray or grid space that can hold that egg size easily would be a great option to try for these little guys as well

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Thanks for the advice. Funny enough, two days ago I was looking at incubation boxes online and wondering if I should get one with an egg tray. Unfortunately, I hesitated for a few minutes and closed the page instead. Looks like I really do need one now. Hopefully this egg stays stable and doesn’t get worse before the package arrives. :smiling_face_with_tear:

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The smell is a little hard to describe, but I think it’s somewhat similar to rotten meat. That said, it’s not an extremely strong odor right now. I’m planning to buy an incubation box with an egg tray and set up a better incubation environment for this egg. Hopefully its condition doesn’t continue to deteriorate. :crying_cat_face:

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I’ve had a few corn snake eggs like that hatch. Don’t give up.

While you’re waiting for the eggtray to arrive you can elevate that egg with something simple like a zip tie pulled into a circle a bit smaller than the egg. You could even set it on a Lego or something like that.

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Thanks, that’s actually a really good emergency solution. I’m going to elevate the egg right now. :smiley:

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