in/fertile !?

[sjremo]

Hey everyone,
just wondering how soon would i know if the eggs my little girly laid are fertile or not ?
the eggs kind of got 'stained' by the coco husk/fiber stuff she laid it in so it makes it hard to see anything.

[Hilde]

I would say to leave them, don't worry about being able to candle them. As long as they don't collapse, stink to high heaven or explode, leave them. After about 6 months, I tend to consider them duds. Some strange eggs have hatched over the years, and some that candled yellow hatched, so don't worry about the looks on the outside.

[sjremo]

thanks =)
in the meantime,
i shall keep my fingers crossed

[Sarin]

Hilde, I don't mean to hijake, but would you consider an egg a throw-away if it is starting to grow fuzzy whiteish mold?

[Oberon]

I'm not Hilde (I don't think so, anyways), but I don't throw away eggs until well well after the point that they look absolutely horrible.... Heck, I still had an egg (well, it was more like a ball of mold and rot) from last season when my critters started laying this year's clutches... That's probably a bit excessive, but I did have it's clutchmate hatch from all that gross, so thought I'd give it a chance.

[Hilde]

Mold will not damage a healthy, developing egg. I've had moldy eggs which hatched. I've also had one egg mold up, go slimy and grow microscopic critters like worms and mites, yet the other egg in the clutch right beside it hatched, safe and sound.
Roy Stockwell posted a picture years ago of a clutch of eggs that most people would have pitched (I believe it was corn snakes). There was fluorescent orange mold and slime on at least one egg, yet it hatched out a perfect snake. I've had a few prize winning moldy eggs, some just slimy, no mold, but I learned long ago that they might still hatch. The shell is a good protector of what's inside.

My routine is to keep them until they are at least 3 or 4 months overdue and one of:
deflated - flat, not just a bit smaller than they were.
cracked - lots of cracks which go all the way through the shell - soft eggs will just crack and stay together, hard shelled eggs break
stink beyond belief - open the incubator or container and I gag
explode - usually reserved for hard shelled eggs - most often explode in your face. It's easier if you wear glasses like I do, at least you can take them off to see your way to the bathroom to wash up.

[sjremo]

yea,
i dont know whats up with one of them;

one day it will look like its starting to deflate,
the next it will look like its regular round-ish shape.

[Midland]

Are you keeping it at an even humidity level? I think that can cause the inflate/deflate issue you mentioned but am not really sure.