Egg Identification

Thanks, Equilibruim.

Ceejay, I did not say that the CEO would train you but the one here does tell people the place to call and with whom they should talk. I was just trying to give some ideas. Sorry for the confusion.

I just read my post and I thought my comments to ceejay may sound a little harsh. Please, don't take it that way. I was laughing the entire time...but y'all cannot see me.

Your "I had a dream" comment gave me the giggles. Turtle skirts... too funny. Whatareya gonna do if they're little girl snakes? Lil pink one-hole sweaters?

I've never had a fungus develop on my earth. I wouldn't attempt to use a fungicide on that. Maybe you better pull off the cellophane. You mentioned steady temps of 73°. Was that a typo? Hmmm, I know this guy who is a herpetologist. I'm wondering if I can't fax him this thread. Do we have a print this thread option so I could print this out for a non-subscriber?

Hey duckmother, your comments seemed to me as if you were being sincere and I'm sure everyone took them that way. I can tell you one thing though, the people at our coop ext office would be passing any phone call off that came in about wildlife as if it was a hot potato so ceejay's comments hit home for me and made me giggle.

Hi EQ! What am I gonna do if they're snakes? Well, I've crocheted many a wild thing in my time, especially gag gifts for weddings. I can handle the snake skirt.....trust me....LOL. I can make them very pretty.

No typo...soil is 73 degrees (how do you do the degree symbol here?) and staying constant.I think I will remove the cellophane. It's probably just too moist. Let me see if I can get a decent enough picture (can't wait till my birthday so I can get a decent camera). I'm able to hit my print button and get the entire thread. Do you only want to print a portion?

Duckmother, Ceejay is a wonderful and kind soul.....have no fear. Your comments won't be misconstrued.

Ok ....I'll go take that picture now.

I'm simply not going to be able to provide a good clear picture but here goes...

Bad news. In addition to the soil problem, there is one egg...way over to the left of the first picture, that has developed some holes in it and a pinkish/reddish tip around the end. I think that egg will not make it.

Best pic I can get on the poor egg....

I've just been informed by DH that whatever hatches, he hopes they get me first and they sacrifice me to the alien brain sucking gods.

Think he's a little tired of having tadpoles, crabs, caterpillars and eggs in the kitchen area. Yeesh. I cook this man dinner? (Hahahahaha...I'll never tell him what I cook).

He's joking...he's a patient guy.

Gut tells me you should remove that egg. I've got to get this thread to that friend of mine.

How to get the °?

Go to the bottom of your computer and click on start then go to programs then go to Accessories then go to system tools then go to character map. Look for the ° in there and select it. Now cut and paste it in when you type. I'm sure there's an easier way to get to it but that's the only way I know. When typing in a foreign language, I change my whole keyboard otherwise it would be a nightmare going back and forth to the character map.

Alien brain sucking gods! That's one I need to share with my husband. Wait a minute, is my husband in your house right now talking about another man's wife that way? I swear that would be something my husband would say. They are twins, separated at birth and they married people like us!

Nightie night!

Ah haaa! Hold down Alt and hit 248....you can get the degree symbol automatically here. Whoop - ° There it is!

I'm certain there are many men of our DH's persuasion out there. Alien ships dropped them off in backyards many years ago and we have to teach them to be human.

I'll remove that egg. I don't think I'll throw it away, though...maybe I can find someone to look at it. I think I'll skim the surface of the soil as well and remove as much of the mold growing. Another egg has a split but is not open. Just an extremely soft and wet shell area where the split is. Keeping fingers crossed. It's the largest egg in the bunch.

I do hope your friend can clue us in. Thanks for all the help, EQ.

This message was edited Feb 25, 2007 1:00 AM

Here's the 'dead egg' that I removed last night. Today it has popped open and this is what is coming out of it.....

Looks as if it was developing. I can't see all that well what you've got going on there. Looks like strawberries and raspberries in a blender with ice cream sort of. I can't get a hold of Mike. I have no idea where he's gone off to but I did get a hold of my girlfriend who owns a pet shop and she said to consider removing the cellophane which you had already done and she also said to remove the compromised egg which you already did. Other than that, she says she receives her herps ready for sale (long out of the shell) and that if these were bird eggs she'd probably be in a better position to comment. I'd call that striking out on two counts. I'm thinking maybe you might want to get them in a sunny window. That might help inhibit some of the fungus and those eggs were found out in the open not buried. Maybe try d-mailing a member named joepyeweed and see what she thinks. She's out and about and might have a suggestion about the soil temps and the fungus or she might know somebody who might have a suggestion. Otherwise, do your best and keep knitting those sweaters. Think positively. At least they're not out there subject to predation and they have a loving mommy doting on them by misting them regularly.

Wow, I read it all.

This is so cool AND I learned how to do the degree symbol!!! ° There it is!!!

Knolan, I can't wait to see what you end up with. I'm rooting for turtles!

I'm rooting for Anacondas!

I'm rooting for dinosaurs!! LOL

LOL LOL

Oh yeah, I am GOOOOD!!! LOL

I'm just rooting for anything at this point. I've had two more eggs pop open today and you can tell that, whatever they are, they were developing. I'm so bummed...I almost cried. Yes Ginger, even if they're anacondas (which I will send to YOU!!) I moved them to a nice sunny spot. I'm keeping them moist. Sniff, sniff. Poor little buggers.

BP...good to see you here. I've been wondering where you've been hiding.

And I already started making outfits.

Life gets busy Knolan. I hate being gone for so long. Thanks for missing me!

Well, glad you're back and ready to party!

Hi BP!! Glad you are back and ready to boogie!! LOL

Ya'll know, the things popping out of the eggs look like a pink octopuss. See if you see the resemblance.....(I know, I need a photography class and a camera...it's coming in the near future).

Maybe they are aliens.

I think you need to call the ,

" GHOST BUSTERS "

Who you gonna call ?

You're doing your best. There's not much more you can do.

Got Mike, he said the sheer number of eggs you found doesn't sound like any species indigenous to your area. Mike is from Houston. The time of year you found these eggs is also leaving him scratching his head. He states the size of the eggs precludes them from being a native lizard. He believes what you might possibly have are the offspring of a green iguana that was a former pet. He claims there are many irresponsible people out there who release pets. If these are Green Iguanas, he asked that you please consider giving them to a pet shop.

The trick with any native herp (not an exotic such as what he believes you may have) is to keep the humidity high. He stated keep misting those eggs and to transfer them onto vermiculite maintaining the orientation and to cover the box with cellophane again that has slices in it for some air transfer. He indicated that for Texas, room temperature should be fine. He does not understand why the eggs are splitting open as you described other than that they were grazed by your rake or the pine needles possibly. He also said I need to tell you to do an about face and get them out of the sun.

That's good info, I'll follow the directions. Should I actually remove them from the dirt they are in now to place in the vermiculite?

Iguanas? How cool would that be? I'd definitely give them to a pet shop but I'd probably keep one or two for myself. I love lizards.

Wow, this gets more interesting all the time. I think Pepper wins with the dinasaur wish!!! I sure hope you get something to hatch. I'll bet the rake did graze them.

Pepper's wish might in fact come true! Wouldn't that be so cool?

I meant to say, this batch was one that I didn't rake over...that's why I chose to move this particular group in. Once I noticed the eggs, I stopped raking. This group was under pine needles near a clump of freesias that had come up.

I've moved them from the sunny spot, put a new covering of cellophane with nice big holes. I'll have to get the vermiculite tomorrow.

Also, there is a neighbor boy down the street that raises big lizards. I'm sure he would love to have one if this turns out to be the case. I always give them a call when I find tomato hornworms. He and his father come and pick them for their lizards. They collect large lizards and large birds. Pretty cool family.

Yes, Mike's a sweetheart. Really glad I was able to get him on his cell. He said to get them on vermiculite or a vermiculite/perlite mix actually (sorry for forgetting to mention the perlite but he was rattling off info and I was typing and then we got to talking about other things in between me sucking his brain) and to get them out of the sun. That means moving them to me. Just be careful handling them and retain the orientation.

I thought the eggs you found were in the open? Are you saying they were completely covered by the pine needles?

I was going to say it was some kind of lizard. That is what the popped open pink octo look like to me.

Yes, they were completely covered by the pine needles but not completely buried in the dirt.

Thank you so much for talking to your friend. I really appreciate it. I hope he's right!

Ugh, completely covered in pine needles eh? Sorry about that. I must have missed you saying that before somewhere. He's a Herpetologist, I'm not. I'd go with what he says. We're both Naturalists but a Herpetologist trumps a Conservationist in this particular situation.

Bad news.

It's been, what, maybe two hours since I moved them and recovered them, another one has split. It showed no indication of splitting earlier. I was making my bedtime rounds and noticed it. I wonder what could possibly be happening. I'll try the vermiculite mix tomorrow and if they all end up splitting, I'll just monitor closely the ones that are still in the bed out there. Nothing appears to be bothering them yet. I should say that I've noticed this happening to quite a few out in the bed as well. Not just the eggs in my box. This is just sad.

I'm going to go out there several times a day and report to ya'll. Hopefully we can get some babies. I'm happy to share if we do.

I'm really bummed. There are only 4 left in my box and 2 appear as if they are shriveling.

I've been doing everything right, I hope...spraying often, keeping the soil at a moderate temp. If it's happening outside too, well, could it be that we are unseasonably warm right now? Today it was 85° and low humidity. A week and a half ago the temp dropped down to 19° here. Night time temps seem to be in the upper fifties and low sixties right now. This is the only thing I can think of that might be causing problems for the poor little eggs. Maybe the freeze did something to the eggs to prevent their proper development? The freeze was before I brought this little group in.

Shriveling or "sucking in" means the humidity is too low. Spritz the eggs some more.

You're a good egg mommy. If I had eggs, I'd give them to you to hatch out.

Thanks, EQ. I needed a lift.

I'm trying to find something on the internet about temperature. So much for my early to bed theory.

Mike said that room temperature was fine. Look at the contents of those eggs, they are developing before they split. That means your temps are fine and that some other phenomenon is responsible for the splitting.

Do you want me to give you Mike's home phone number? I don't know that he can offer much more without seeing good crisp photos but I already told him that you were like me and would be the kind of person to try to save a skunk so he'd talk to you.

Forgot to mention that from what little I could see oozing out of that split egg, you don't have turtles.

I don't know that it will do much but make you feel better by doing something but you could put some shot glasses of water in with your egg babies. That might help with humidity. We do this in curio cases we have with little ivory figurines my husband collects called netsukes. We don't know that it helps but we don't know that it hurts. Could be one of those things we humans do just to do something pro-active. I dunno. Spritz your eggs one more time then go to bed egg momma.

Thanks, EQ....I'll rinse the shot glasses out real quick (just kidding)....seriously, I'll try that. I'll spritz them some more. Too bad I can't convince my dog to snuggle them.

You don't think the freeze might have hurt them? Even though they were developing, couldn't the freeze have done something in an early stage to ruin their chances of reaching full development?

You say by looking at them you can tell they weren't turtles. I can say for certainty that they're not snakes either. The pinkish development looks like limbs forming in a curve. There are definitely four limbs and a spine to this creature. So, snakes are out of the question too. Tomorrow, I'm going to completely remove the shell of the largest one and see if I can see a head that had started to develop. I can't see that from what is exposed peeking out of the egg. I've tried to find photos of embryo development and haven't hit one yet. I've come up with lots of scientific mumbo jumbo that means nothing to me....I want pictures for comparison. A turtle develops like this....a snake develops like this...a lizard develops like this....that's what I want to see in different stages of development for each of them. Anybody out there need a science fair project? LOL. Honestly, I'd like to see someone do this. I can't find this information anywhere.

Well, the freeze could have done em in but I don't know. He did mention that the time of year you found these eggs was leaving him scratching his head. It seemed kind of early to me too.

Your photos weren't clear enough (really sorry but my vision isn't the greatest) for me to see any limbs forming. I'm an extremely visual person and I also want to see photos of "....a snake develops like this...a lizard develops like this...." . One problem, I would never be the one to slice open any unknown egg to photograph development. It's not in me to do that.

Nightie night EggMomma. Sweet dreams.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marginated_Tortoise#Incubation_and_hatching

http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/7608/hatchlings/hatch.html

Scroll down to eggs and their development - There's a little information there of interest.... http://www.deancloseprep.gloucs.sch.uk/chelonia/testudo/articles/breedingT.htm

Google tortoises. Technically, turtles are sea creatures; tortoises are land creatures.

Oh, I won't slice open a good egg, no, no, no...didn't mean to insinuate that. Just one that's already popped. No, never. I just want to remove the entire shell of one of these that hasn't made it so we can see a little bit more.

I'm going to borrow my buddy's good camera and take a good picture for you to see. Take that back. I'm going to have HER take a good picture for you to see.