Emu egg losing weight too quickly

[Avie]

Hi all,
I've been lurking here a few months. Reading your stories gave me the confidence to give this a try!

So... I have 3 eggs that have been incubating since March 5th. I've been weighing them regularly. Two of them are perfectly on track. But Egg # 1 has been losing weight much too quickly

Egg # 1 start 563.0 yesterday 499.0 lost 11.3 %
Egg # 2 start 553.3 yesterday 521.5 lost 5.7 %
Egg # 3 start 566.1 yesterday 531.5 lost 6.1 %

I noticed that Egg # 1 was losing weight too quickly from the very beginning and have been trying different things such as increasing the humidity right near it (a loose tent of plastic) and putting masking tape on it. The tape covers about half the surface. The rate of weight loss has slowed down but it's still way different from the other two eggs.

Here's what it looked like on day 1


It looks very similar to the other two, except for the ridge on the shell. Strange that it's behaving so differently!
Every time I turn the eggs I also switch their positions in the incubator, so it's not that this poor little guy has been right in front of the fan or anything.

Any thoughts???? Thanks for your input!

 

[yinepu]

have you noticed any difference in the color of the egg as compared to the others? (more turquoise coloration showing through)
if so then it is a more porous egg

if not.. it very well could be a bad egg... only time will tell for sure..


if it is more porous you can add more strips of tape or even paint stripes of plain wax or non toxic paint on the shell.. (just weigh it before and then again right after so you can see the weight of whatever you have added and then deduct that from your weigh ins)

 

[Avie]

have you noticed any difference in the color of the egg as compared to the others? (more turquoise coloration showing through)
if so then it is a more porous egg

if not.. it very well could be a bad egg... only time will tell for sure..

They all look the same in color. The one visible difference is, the wonky egg has a raised, bumpy ridge. I guess if the shell is visibly thicker in places, it might be abnormally thin in places too. I added more tape this morning, keeping the air cell part uncovered.

I worry that if there's a chick in there, it will hatch very sick and then die a slow and painful death

I'm a worry wart!

Well, time will tell!

By the way -- I am very proud of our home made incubator! It's made from old scrap wood and birdcage parts, a computer fan from Radio Shack, a reptile heat lamp, heat pad and thermostat, and 50-some little plastic bottles that are from the breakfast drink my son has every morning. The bottles are so useful looking I can never throw them out, and I finally found a use for them!






The layer of bottles got covered up with a galvanized metal tray, and that has the reptile heat mat on top. It keeps a constant temp. which is low enough there's no danger of the bottles melting. They soak up the heat and radiate it back.






That picture was taken the first day -- now I've added a hygrometer, and something to angle the eggs so the air-cell end is upward a little. It's holding a steady temperature quite well. I hope the eggs like it!

 

[Avie]

Even with all the intervention the problem egg was still on track to lose 30% of its weight by hatch date -- so I decided to stop the incubation and empty it out. It was clear. Whew!

I'm a little sad -- already had a name picked out

I guess you shouldn't name your emus before they hatch

Still 2 eggs to go. I hope there's somebody home!!! The suspense is terrible, isn't it!