My duck egg hasn’t internally pipped yet

[Alicetaylorson20]

Hi everyone,
I was hoping that someone could put my mind at rest!
I have 1 Duck egg In my incubator, it was originally being looked after by one of my adult runner ducks but after about day 16 she got off them, I managed to save this egg using my incubator.
I am worried because it has definitely passed day 28 and it still has not internally pipped yet! It has been trying for about 3days as I can see it pushing the membrain when I candle it.
will it hatch okay? Should I just keep waiting? Or should I assist it with the hatch?
Any help would be greatly appreciated as I am going out of my mind

 

[Miss Lydia]

@Isaac 0

 

[Alicetaylorson20]

The movement seems less tonight too so I am getting worried that it won’t hatch

 

[Isaac 0]

Hi, there!

Personally, this has never happened to me, but I have heard other people say their eggs "shadowed" for three days, why they take so long is beyond me, I guess if you were running your humidity too low or too high it'd be harder for them to pip through the membrane, what's yours at currently?

Are you sure of the days? Day one starts 24 hours after being set.

 

[Alicetaylorson20]

thank you for your reply, our incubator doesn’t have a humidity gauge but it has two tubes that we have filled with water to boost the humidity for hatching, it worked last time so we just did it the same as our last hatch. We counted the days she was sat on them as best as we could but can’t be completely sure how old the eggs are that’s why I’m worried. The moment from the duckling was definitely more this morning than it is now and it was definitely trying to push through but like I said it has done this for about 3 day now
can we assist with a hatch if it hasn’t internally pipped? I have searched online but all of the advise is after the external pip

 

[Alicetaylorson20]

Movement *

 

[Isaac 0]

Ok, could you get one? Incubating without a hydrometer is not advised. If it were my egg, I'd wait it out another day or so before I did something, opening up the air cell before an internal pip is risky business unless you are sure of the day count, and in your case, the egg may have been added into her clutch a few days after the start of incubation, that happens a lot.

 

[Alicetaylorson20]

I will try and order one, can you recommend one for us? And I won’t give up on it Don’t worry as that’s not in my nature to give up on my animals I just worry so much.

 

[Isaac 0]

I use these,

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QMZL448/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Alicetaylorson20]

Thank you I will give it a go and let you know how my duck egg gets on