Eggtopsy Help Please (graphic photos)

[laurapea]

Hi all, I have just had my first ever hatch of White Crested ducklings in a home incubator. Very much an amateur here! I started with 6 eggs, and when I candled after week 1 we had one that was infertile, and 2 that had blood ring and dead embryos. But 3 were looking good!

I candled again on day 25 before lockdown and one egg was clearly very different to the other two. There was very slow and limited movement inside, with a smaller egg sac and it looked nowhere near internally pipping like the other two did. The other two showed signs of shadowing.

When the other 2 hatched I left the ‘odd’ looking one in for another 2 days but sadly there was no movement at all by then, so we just performed an eggtopsy. Obviously I have very very limited experience so I wondered if anyone could please offer their suggestions for if I decide to hatch again? It had the exact same treatment as the other 2 eggs which hatched fine.

So when we did the eggtopsy, the duckling had its head between its legs - is this malpositioned? Or is this normal depending on when it died?

I also noticed its skull seemed not to have developed, is this normal? Or was this the problem and hence why it died?

I know it’s hard to comment when you know nothing about my set-up etc, but any help at all is very much appreciated. Thank you for reading.

 

[casportpony]

Sorry no one replied and sorry for your losses.

So when we did the eggtopsy, the duckling had its head between its legs - is this malpositioned? Or is this normal depending on when it died?

That is a bad malposition and in my experience it's almost always fatal.

I also noticed its skull seemed not to have developed, is this normal? Or was this the problem and hence why it died?

That is not normal, and could very well be the reason it died. I have heard that this is more common in Crested than non-crested.

 

[laurapea]

Sorry no one replied and sorry for your losses.

That is a bad malposition and in my experience it's almost always fatal.

That is not normal, and could very well be the reason it died. I have heard that this is more common in Crested than non-crested.

Thank you so much for your reply and I have a little consolation now in the fact that it probably wasn’t something I did wrong.

It’s so sad to watch one develop to the end and not hatch, but I am so grateful I got 2 out of the 6. They are little fuzzy balls of joy!

Hoping to add some more to the brood soon. Take care and thanks again.