heartbroken :(

Im new here, have only posted once to introduce myself, but Ive been lurking around for a few weeks. I was so excited to see eggs offered on here and at the idea of raising my own babies. I have recently moved, and so I have only dealt with my new mailman in person once, my first impression of him wasnt very good. I thought he was rude, and not very careful, but I thought maybe he was having an "off" day. Unfortunately, apparently I was wrong. My eggs arrived today. Four of the eggs were broken with the embryos no longer in them, the rest, all milky the babies look smashed inside them. I have one egg that looks clear like it should with an embryo that looks normal like it should.

Let me just say, I am quite certain the packing was NOT the issue, it was evident that they were packed wonderfully, and carefully.

My kids and I were so looking forward to watching these hatch and grow, I am afraid to order anymore, afraid to order anything alive actually now...

OH yeah... and I cant find any petstores around that sell them, as a matter of fact there arent very many petstores around, and I live close to a very large city, its odd. There are a lot of pet supply stores, that carry supplies and no pets though. So I cant even go buy one. Does anyone know anyplace in NC that would carry them, or is anyone from NC that may have some eggs or babies from time to time?

Have you considered asking your suppliers to ship using a different company, such as FedEx or UPS, that would not involve your mailman? The US Postal Service may be the cheapest shipping option, but it certainly isn't the only one.

I don't think your mailman could have done this damage all by himself Milky eggs indicates that they were infertile or subjected to excessive heat or cold along the way.

Were you using Priority Mail or Express Mail? With Express Mail there's an option to have the package held at the PO instead of delivered (thus avoiding the evil mailman). This would probably be cheaper than fedex or ups and it's very fast if you are near a city.

Don't give up, they were only eggs, you can try again.:wacko:

yeah our postal carrier sucks big time too. On top of breaking things in boxes marked fragile - she steals.

Anyway - if you want them to arrive alive - ask for them to be sent General Delivery - express overnight -

Name Here ###-###-####
General Delivery
Town, State, zipcode

If you call and alert your post office they are coming in and when you expect them, sometimes - if they are nice - they'll give you a courtesy call when they come in - 3 AM - 4 PM or whatever and you can come and get them directly off the truck. If you have them sent express mail USPS - your town may have an Express Mail Center - and when they receive the package you can pick it up directly from them.

Its not easy and you have to make a lot of phone calls and ask for supervisors. But when I have hatching eggs shipped in and sometimes live items thats what I do.

Sharon

They were live...you can see the embryos inside, the eggs that completely busted, were perfectly clear with the little embryos out, but dead, the others, you can see them in there they were definintely developinging, but imagine if you will...taking a raw chicken egg, and shaking it very very hard, the yoke would be somewhat in tact, but parts of it would have broken open and leaked out into the white, thats what these look like... you can see the embryos but their bellies or whatever have stuff leaking out, they are all messed up looking, and the clear part is also milky....they looked like they were good, before they were assaulted or whatever. You can see their tail, and where they would have been budding gills Yeah, I suppose I could try a different carrier... the price wasnt an issue, I honestly didnt know who or what was cheaper, wasnt too worried about that. I havent had experience with shipping them, but I got them from a member on this site, they were carefully packaged. I saw how the mail man was carrying them, and how he handed them to me...Ive also seen him drive....he uses my culdesac to turn around in, and its a new development so Im the last house and there are none on the other side of the street. He flies down our street and spins the truck around in the culdesac before stopping at my house, everything in that truck has to shift when he does that. Now my "good egg" has stuff leaking out of the embryo... has anyone else had anything like this happen?

The best you can do is shorten the delivery from the seller to you.

If stuff is leaking from the egg I'm afraid its a lost cause. If it were a pheasant, quail, chicken or duck egg - there are things you can that have limited success but I don't see superglue working in this situation.

I'm really sorry this happened.

All you can do is try again and remember sometimes disasters happen.

Good luck

Sharon

yeah, I know superglue isnt going to work, lol. I must not be describing accurately...the eggs themselves are not leaking... the embryo inside the egg is... I know they arent going to survive. I was just curious if anyone else has had that happen, where the egg is intact, but the embryo inside is leaking out its "guts" if you will. Not trying to be gross, but I was curious if this is common at all in shipping? I am new to axolotl eggs, but have a lot of experience with reptiles, exotics, farm animals, and amphibians. The only things I know of, that could do that to an embryo in an egg is a good hard shaking, so I just wondered if anyone else had experienced it.

Were they shipped in a full bottle/bag, or was there air space?

YEah I know what you mean the post office people don't understand the word live animal and dont seem to care when I picked mine up I just found out today that I got little babies in my tanks of four adults I will be posting soon. If you are interested Im not sure about sending eggs but when they get a little bigger I wouldn't mind trying to figure something out cause I can't keep them all. Ive sent some before and recieved my in the mail so I know how horriable things can turn out well good luck hope at least one survives

I am sorry to hear about your misfortune. Is there anyway you could post some photos?

Yea !!! I completely understand. My post office people are pretty rude as well. If you pay an over night price, you should get nothing less, no excuesses !!!!! My mail lady is nice though.
My husband had a race car part over nighted, that was real expensive. It took almost a year to track it down. Just imagine if it were a LIVE ANIMAL !!

My old mail lady was horrible, she would never bring a package to my door, if it didn't fit in my mailbox she would park in my driveway and honk until someone came to get the package. My dad lives in Europe and often sends chocolates and goodies in the mail for the kids, she put one of those packages in my mailbox in the summer and as can be expected there was nothing left to eat.

My new mail lady is awesome, she is very friendly, she loves to bring the packages to my door because she loves the kids and she doesn't mind my excessive internet shopping lol. She was very upset to find out that someone had sent me a package to be delivered on Jan 1st and that she wasn't told. She was even more upset to find out that one of the salamanders died because of it.

Eve

Thats too bad... because I'm all new to this I would be crushed if any of the eggs I'm eventually going to get are destroyed by my mailman. Mines ok, not the best though. Sorry about the lost, wish you luck next time!

I am so excited, got great news! I didnt have the heart to toss out the eggs just yet, though I was 99.9% certain all were completely gone, and probably 85% that the one that looked still in tact was as well, anyway, I separated the one from the rest, put them all up on a shelf high in my laundry room for a few days. I just climed my step ladder to check on them, and yeah, the ones that were together, have all deteriorated, dont even look like eggs anymore, but the one, the single one that I thought was dead as well (it had white stuff next to the embryo,looked like guts) is growing! He/she has gills! I couldnt believe it. None of the pics I took turned out well of any though. Part of the reason I thought the one good one was bad is because there is slime all around it, and its kind of milky looking, I thought milky was bad... anyway, so far so good.

Isn't that wonderful news!

And now the real fun begins. :happy:

Congratulations to you both.

-Eva

Ok... well, another update...he hatched! Hes out...now what? Do I remove the old egg and slime, or leave it? Will it rot in the water? Do I wait about 24 hrs before adding food?

Hi Ladybeetle,

These links would be helpful with your new axie baby.

http://www.axolotl.org/breeding.htm

http://www.axolotl.org/rearing.htm

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/raising.shtml

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/why_larvae_die.shtml

Regards

I have read the first 2 links, but had not come across the other 2 yet, thanks!