Infertile Egg with Bulls-eye?

[Neon Aurora]

I'm a little bit confused. My first season female laid a single egg for her first clutch outside of her laybox. When I found it, it looked nice and white with good form. However, as soon as I picked it up, it started to dent and never recovered. When I candled it, it looked yellow but it had a "bulls-eye" at the top, so I assumed it was fertile despite people saying the first egg of the season is usually not. I incubated it for about a week and it deflated and got moldy and continued to candle yellow.

So my question is, was this a fertile egg that died due to being laid outside the lay box, or was it infertile and what I'm seeing is not the "bulls-eye"?

 

[Ac26]

I've had females lay eggs on the floor and they still hatched.are you sure your water ratio is right in the substrate your incubating in.

 

[Neon Aurora]

I'm pretty sure. I used a triple beam balance to measure everything. I used 1 part vermiculite to .8 parts water and my incubation container is a plastic shoe box with no air holes. I did add just the tiniest bit of water, about half a spray from a spray bottle because the egg was denting and I was worried that the moisture was getting out when I would open the lid. I live in a desert and there's no humidity here at all, so I thought maybe adding a few drops of water would help. It still seems about right to me, though. If I pick some vermiculite up in my hand and squeeze it into a ball, it keeps it's form but falls apart easily when touched, and no water drips out when it's squeezed.

I mean, the egg did start to deflate immediately after I moved it and never recovered at all. I was expecting an infertile clutch because everyone was saying first time females don't typically lay fertile eggs for their first clutch. It's just when I candled it and saw the bit of red at the top, I thought it must be fertile. It acted like an infertile egg, though, as it got squishy and deflated and started to mold very quickly. It has candled yellow since it was hatched to, no doubt about that. I guess I'm just a bit inexperienced and confused.

 

[Neon Aurora]

Oops, It won't let me edit my post. I meant to say at the end "It has candled yellow since it was laid", not "it has candled yellow since it was hatched".

 

[acpart]

Some eggs to register a bulls eye so they were technically fertile but it never develops, either because it wasn't meant to (possible genetic/developmental problems) or because it wasn't laid in good conditions. It's really tough during the first season, where you don't know what to expect and you worry about everything. The most we can do is to provide the best nutrition and environment for the female and then just wait and see what happens. I find it useful to distract myself with other things to keep from obsessing about the eggs. Some will work out and some won't. Hang in there.

Aliza

 

[Neon Aurora]

I see. You're right, I should probably just stop worrying and hope the next clutch works out better. My incubator is perfect, completely stable at 82, so I should just be patient and try not to worry. =)