Hi PetCoach, Please note this is NOT URGENT, I'm just curious and trying to find an informed professional source, so forgive me if this isn't the right forum. I'm curious about our use of terminology around live births, and how/if they relate to hatching. For instance, "miscarriage", and in particular, "stillbirth"; would it be outright incorrect to ever call a failed hatchling "stillborn"? Is the terminology transmissable but technically incorrect? Are there alternative terms to use? Thank you!

Updated On January 14th, 2022

Pet's info: Other | Unknown - Other | Male | 0 lbs

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Answered By Dr. Strydom, DVM

Veterinarian

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Hello, thank you for using PetCoach. We typically use the same reproductive terminology as in human medicine, however, that refers to mammals. That is not the same when referring to avian species. An egg that never hatches would typically just be an infertile egg meaning that it was never a live embryo. Any time you want to use the word miscarriage that would imply that there was conception, the embryo was alive but then died before it could hatch. There would never be a way to really know this so we don't use this term. There is time cut off in human medicine for using the term miscarriage (12 weeks I think) and since "gestation/incubation" varies in birds there has not been an established "cutoff". Using this word would not be appropriate in my opinion. If you break open an egg that was fertilized but did not hatch at the expected time and the "hatchling: was not alive inside, I guess technically you could call it a stillborn but again, not sure that would not be really correct. The chances of that happening are minuscule which is why there is probably no specific word for it. I hope that answered your question.......

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