Who needs Easter eggs when

You get your very first clutch of eggs!!! :astonished: This is my very first breeding season and clutch, so these are very special to me. Pairing was Sienna (Miami pos het scaleless) with my scaleless boy, Danger, though I didnā€™t see any locks, so at the last minute I threw in my ghost motley/stripe boy. Guess itā€™s a wait and see game on the paternity, but hoping it was the scaleless and she proves out. :crossed_fingers:t2: Itā€™s taking everything in my power to leave her alone and do minimal checks. :joy: My other female just had her pre-lay shed yesterday, so if all goes well, there will be more photos to share!

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Cool! The not checking constantly is one of the hardest parts!

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It was definitely torturous, but I managed to not interrupt. She has finished laying, nothing retained, and it looks like thirteen, maybe 14 good eggs. #14 is kind of a two-for-one, but I plan to incubate until anything changes.

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Photo once I got them set up in the incubator. Using a dual probe thermostat and the cheap little thermometer, with a temp gun for spot checks because Iā€™m paranoid. You can see the 2-for-1 in the middle. I will be splitting the clutch as things progress.

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Interesting egg! I wonder if youā€™ll get twins out of that one.

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On close inspection it does seem like two separate eggs joined together, and only the very middle is slug-like, so weā€™ll see. :crossed_fingers:t2: I figured thereā€™s no harm in incubating it, worst that can happen is it goes bad, and I was wondering myself of the possibility of twins.

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Congratulations! That elongatated egg is definitely unusual. I have only had one pair of twin corns. Their egg was not unusual initially. It was a large egg, but it was their damā€™s first clutch. As often happens, the eggs were all a bit large.

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Yeah, I know twins are usually just a single egg thing, so thatā€™s why Iā€™m curious. So far itā€™s still looking okay, but itā€™s only just over 24 hours. I would not be surprised if that one does go bad, Iā€™m almost counting on it. Either way, the other thirteen look pristine, and for my first clutch I seem to have it under controlā€¦Yā€™know, except the nagging voice in my head wondering if I did anything wrong and urging me to check on them every few hours. :rofl:

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Iā€™m actually expecting (well, she is) a clutch from the grown- up and beautiful twin I kept. Her name is Victory.

Is that nagging voice in your head, too? Iā€™ve got two ladies who are post- prelay- shed. Iā€™m arguing with that cerebral voice myself. :joy::rofl::joy:

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Ooooh, I hope that all goes well! Iā€™m trying to keep my checks down to once or twice a day. Seems the odd egg does indeed have some veins, so thereā€™s a possibility something may actually come of that one.

The voice in my head right now is, are the eggs too wet? Too dry? Is the female who hasnā€™t laid stressed out? Do I need to put towels over her whole enclosure to make her feel safe? Celia has gotten absolutely huge, she looks like an uncomfortable, lumpy sausage at the moment and I canā€™t help but wonder how much longer she plans to hold onto her eggs. I just wish the voice would quiet down a little. :joy: :joy:

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Another update: I bought a better flashlight for candling. I might try to get some photos later, but there is prominent development in all 14 eggs AND the wonky egg appears to possibly have two different areas from which veins are growing.

My other female is still keeping me waiting on her clutch, I grow more impatient and she more uncomfortable by the day.

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How exciting!! Iā€™m hoping you get healthy babies from every egg, including two from that large egg. It sounds like that may be the case.

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Unfortunately, todayā€™s check revealed that the large egg was sunken & spongy, and a check showed nothing going on inside, whereas the others all have prominently developed (save another I have an eye on that seems to be some days behind). Removed it, did a more thorough inspection, and sure enough, it had gone bad. Iā€™m not really disappointed, Iā€™m honestly happy for any babies at all my first year out.

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A bit of an update, lost the other egg that seemed to have stopped developing really early. However, the remaining eggs are all doing amazing. Halfway through incubation, and when candled, I can actually see movement! I hope to get a video one of these days. Veins are all big and beautiful, canā€™t wait to see what hatches in a few weeks.

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If you get the video done by the 20th, upload it to YouTube and post it in the VoTM competition.

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Well, it doesnā€™t qualify, because itā€™s not a minute long, but I do have a short clip. I will try to get some better footage, unfortunately I have an essential tremor, so itā€™s shaky.

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Today scared the pants off of me, and has caused some serious headaches (literally, allergies). Opened the egg bin to the overwhelming smell of mold. Suffice to say, it was bad times. I quickly set to work setting up a whole new incubation bin, thin layer of perlite but mostly sphagnum since weā€™re 39 days into incubation. Wiped all the eggs off with a damp paper towel and transferred them over. Rearranged them to have more space between each egg and Iā€™m not blocking any of the ventilation holes on this bin. Going to give it 24 hours and check to see if Iā€™ve managed to stop everything getting out of hand.

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What I do to prevent mold is add springtails. You might not have any or a colony of them but in the future it might be something to look into.

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I plan to eventually convert several of my enclosures to bioactive at some point, so I will look into those.

This was 100% my fault because I had forgotten to take out the paper towel at the bottom of the bin before putting in perlite. Not a mistake I will ever make again. I am hopeful Iā€™ve managed to catch it before the eggs were too affected. It was mostly contained to the very bottom of the bin and there was only some small, light grey patches of discolouration on the eggs themselves, no visible fuzz. I will candle later to see if I am still seeing movement. I figured my best course of action, before applying fungicide, would be using the natural properties of moss. The thin layer I had on top in the other bin mightā€™ve been what saved me.

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Ooh, Iā€™m sorry to hear that this has happened! It sounds like you probably have caught the problem before the eggs were damaged. If the mold was more ā€œfuzzy,ā€ for want of a better term, youā€™ll almost certainly be all right. Leaving ventilation open is smart. Hopefully the moss will take care of any residual mold spores. Fingers crossed! (And I hope you feel better physically.)

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