Ok so I know everyone has their own opinions and reasons revolving around cutting vs. not cutting eggs.
It is day 59. Out of my extremely unexpected clutch we only have 2 decent looking eggs left out of 5. One was a slug, and one molded and stunk horribly early on. Now 3 are left, with one disgusting, moldy looking egg with no visible veins. But it is attached to the healthiest looking egg so it remains in the incubator.
The egg on the right, pictured below, was dimpled as expected for being so close to hatching. However, when I checked the incubator this morning it had sunked much more and mold had developed and spread to a few places on the egg. Over the past few days, we had candled it and it had veins but there was no movement. I decided to cut (only that one) once my daughter got home from school so she and my husband could also watch.
Guess what? I cut, and the baby MOVED! It looks healthy, though I decided against poking and prodding and did not take any photos but once it leaves the egg I will certainly update! I’m cautiously optimistic that it will make it out of the egg and flourish. So thank you all for all the advice and kind words.
Oh my goodness how exciting @gina5678 Gina! I remember without going back to read your first post about how distressed you were when these eggs appeared and now you are on the brink of seeing the first baby for the first time! I know what a great home you will make for this little guy/guys! Isn’t life so grand when one shares it with God’s creatures!
I do so so much hope you will be posting baby pictures very soon Gina! And may I be the first one to congratulate you!
Lol yeah, I thought about it all day but ultimately decided not to because it still looks pretty plump and not all sunken in like the one I cut. I am also leery about cutting because I have absolutely no idea what would happen if I cut both but with the moldy one being stuck to it still. I tried gently separating the two with no luck. I don’t see any veins at all when candling the yucky one and although it smells a little bit.
I’d love it if you or others could weigh in with their thoughts and suggestions. Being inexperienced AND an overthinker is painful
I follow Mutation Creation on YouTube. They always cut. They’ve done videos explaining why they do. They aren’t the only big name breeders that do either. I don’t see an issue with cutting them all if you’re right there at around day 60. Even if it’s a little early, they’ll just chill in the egg until they’re ready to come out. I’m the type that would rather know they can get out and breathe when they need to🤷🏻‍♀️
Just don’t pull them out of the egg if you cut and let them crawl out when they’re ready. I don’t blameyou for cutting the one starting to mold. That would freak me out too.
All the eggs were incubated at the same temp, so they should all be developed to the same degree. The uncut, healthy egg should be safe to cut developmentally as was the other one you cut. If the super moldy one truely has no veins and smells bad, it’s probably dead. I don’t think cutting the moldy egg will impact the two healthy eggs, but it sure will stink, and since you can’t unstick it from the healthy egg you’ll have to live with the stink. I would cut the last two eggs, you won’t have to live with the stink many days.
So day 60. I have bad news and hopefully good news. The baby whose egg we cut yesterday had died. We went to check on the eggs and it was motionless. It was a normal (het pied), fully developed. I wish I knew what happened but I have no idea.
On a positive note, the other baby pipped. We were able to separate the bad egg (yep totally bad) so now the pipped egg is thronly one in the incubator now. Hoping for the best in a sad situation.
While it may be a case of “it just happens sometimes” I can’t help to think that if the eggs had been someone else’s care then 4 of them would have survived.
Don’t beat yourself up @gina5678! I have seen clutches that people post with several seemingly good eggs and then for some random reason only 1 or 2 of the eggs hatch. You are second guessing yourself which is normal and easy to do. I’m sure everything you did for those eggs was right, nature just didn’t cooperate with you this time.
I am also sure you will have other breeders chiming in saying the same thing! Just focus on the little good egg pipping and the fact that you will be welcoming new life into the world very soon! . Great job Gina!
Oh @caron you always so kind to me. I appreciate that, especially at a time when I’m kicking myself and wondering what I could have done differently to change the outcome. Thank you very much for the positive note.
Yes listen to @caron this could have happened to anyone, and believe me it does! Life is still somewhat a mystery! You just never 100% know all the answers! I think you did great! Also agree with both @hlynn2224 & @kavoll as long as your incubation temps are stable there is no issue with cutting. You don’t have to worry about it now since the other one pipped, but the one that died, didn’t do so from getting cut, something inside its body could have been wrong, you can’t know for certain(unless you got a necropsy) Also I have had stuck together healthy eggs to moldy eggs with no problems to the normal eggs, it does happen! Check out a weird looking clutch I had, they all hatched, except that moldy one! Congratulations and job well done!
