Maternal Incubation (Day 60)

Looking for some help within the community of those that do or have done material incubation. It is currently day 60 and she’s been off the eggs for 2 days now. From my understanding the mother goes off eggs when they start to pip. They have not pipped though. Is this normal or do I need to intervene?

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Eggs will pip when they are ready to pip, the “60 days” rule is a rough estimate. My eggs generally go 65 or so days before the pip. If you are concerned about the vitality of the eggs, you can candle them and check for veins. As long as they are there then the eggs should be fine

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They still look like very good eggs. I think it’s just a timing thing now.
They’ll come out when they are ready ha-ha :slight_smile:

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Well, I posted in another forum and it had me a little worried. The 60 days was for reference. I know they can go up to around 70 days or so, but it had me wondering why she wouldn’t wrap them. I did cut just to be sure and now they’re in an incubator. They all look like I could have left them with the mom.




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As T_h said the time of incubation is its an estimate, but also temperatures have an effect on incubation, You haven’t said what temperatures the eggs were at or if you know your thermometer is accurate by being calibrated properly

The belly heat is 90 which normally gives a tub floor temperature of 88. The room is about 75 ambient. I have a heat gun, but I don’t send it off for annual calibration, just kind of trust that it’s close. The egg temps would fluctuate depending of if the mom wraps them or not, so I don’t have a measurement for that.

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The egg temps would also fluctuate depending on humidity or if she has urinated on them (evaporation cooling) I would humbly suggest testing the temperature of the eggs, not the Mum
You can calibrate the thermometer yourself.
Boiling water should be 100c. Ice water Zero C. if its reading different you know its not accurate.
You can google the farenighted conversions.
Centigrade is just so much easer as its zero or 100

If it makes you feel any better, my first clutch was maternal incubation, and they went until day 77.

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I would’ve lost my mind!

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All my clutches this year have went past 65 days so far.

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Same here weird season. I’ve had 1 BP clutch pip @ 57 days, all others around 65. Even my carpet clutch which is usually 55/56days went 60 and my BRB litter went 110 days(this had me freaking out a bit).

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I honestly think 60 to 65 is probably the norm if your not cutting.(for balls) It’s been like this for me ever since I stopped cutting nothing I’ve hatched the last three or four years has hatched before 60 days. Even after the first one pips I usually have some in the clutch that don’t pip until after 70 days. My last clutch first one pipped on day 65 last two pipped on day 71.

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It was a very close thing, that’s for sure! I was getting a little bummed to be honest, thinking they might not hatch, but then I went to do a water change and the first one was completely out of the egg.

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It’s always when you least expect it to happen! So happy one is out of the egg :smiley:

Oh this was two years ago, sorry! Four out of six eggs hatched though.

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