More Hatchlings! My Retained Clutch of Panther Eggs

On September 20th, 2012 my female panther laid her retained clutch from her mating with my male, Daedalus. Followers may recall that this is the mating that produced a clutch of Nosy Faly x Ambanja x Nosy Be x Sambava panthers last Fall. These are their siblings.  This clutch is only 8 eggs, so it will be another tiny clutch.  

And today, July 9th, 2013, the first baby has started to split the egg! Right now the egg is split open but the egg is still full of fluid and the baby remains inside, so I will keep an eye on it but leave it alone. 

I have my fingers crossed that this clutch will give me more males this time, and allow me to keep a son like I'd planned to do last time but didn't get a chance to. I still have two sisters, however.

July 19, 2013

The baby that slit the egg a little over a week ago did not end up hatching after all. As sometimes happens, not all hatchlings are strong enough to emerge from their eggs. I did cut the egg open once several days had passed to inspect him for defects and did not observe anything unusual. Sometimes it's just not meant to be! 

Honestly, I'm surprised all the eggs didn't just perish during the winter. I moved home twice within a few weeks, each time entailing a 3-4 hour car ride with the eggs, in drastically changing Florida winter temperatures (one day it might be 33*F followed by a 87*F day). So I fully expected them to simply mold over and die months ago but I kept them just in case and am happy to see them start to hatch. 

Since then his siblings have taken their cue and have also slit their eggs. This morning I found nearly all the eggs split open on one end and am hoping to have babies out by tonight or tomorrow morning. 

An update, only a couple hours later:

Baby #1 was out and about, and by the time I got the camera he was sitting on a sibling's egg.  

Sorry about the cell phone photo. Baby #1, still covered in vermiculite, exploring his new baby bin. 

July 20, 2013

As of last night four of the eggs have hatched (I've counted 3 boys, 1 girl) and the remaining eggs still look like they'll take a few more days. This morning I took their baby bin outside for their first experience of natural sunshine. But this was them yesterday: 

July 26, 2013

Today, Friday, makes one week since 3 of the babies hatched. This morning the last of the 7 babies hatched out, so I took them outside for some sunshine. 

Baby #7, another female. 

It seems that I have 4 males and 3 females in this clutch, so as close to half-and-half as you can get! I plan on keeping one of the boys for myself, and everyone else will go to their new homes in about 3 months. I'll post more photos of them as they grow up in the coming days and weeks.