Am I doing anything wrong?
So as you might have read in my other thread, Lily's first clutch was no good. They never really even resembled eggs and got pretty nasty after a week or so.
I changed the lay medium (from ecco-earth to cypress mulch) and the incubation medium (from vermiculite to SuperHatch).
The cypress mulch worked really well for the lay medium. Eggs looked great!
http://tech-tiles.com/wp-content/gal.../img_02041.jpg
They looked even better in SuperHatch...(yeah, typical eggs, but the other ones were just mushy sacks)
http://tech-tiles.com/wp-content/gal.../img_02051.jpg
I followed the directions on the SuperHatch for moisturizing the medium. My Reptibator was set to 83 F and always said 85% humidity.
I had the eggs in a ZipLock container with a very small pinhole. I did not rotate the eggs when I transferred them from the lay bin to the incubation tub.
This second set of eggs which was laid a week ago was VERY moldy when I checked on them this Saturday. I candled them and didn't even see a spec of red, just yellow.
Is it safe to say that these eggs are infertile or am I messing something up with this process?
Lily is due to lay again this Sunday, please advise. This has been very frustrating. :rolleye2:
Re: Am I doing anything wrong?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
jfreels
Thank you for the reply! She laid four more clutches of 2 eggs and two clutches of single eggs. I incubated most of them and all developed very bad mold.
I tried sphagnum moss for a couple of the clutches but I found that it molded too, quite quickly.
Anyway, I'll try again next season. The breeding female did a good job and I think she likes being "normal" again lol. She seemed to lost her interest in hunting and it has since returned after she laid that last single egg a week or so ago.
YW!
They are probably molding with the moss because they are bad eggs, but you are right if the moss is too wet and she lays them and they are not removed fairly quickly even good eggs go bad.. but it sounds like to me she was just a "bad" first year breeder. It happens often no matter what you do.
No matter what your substrate is if it's too wet they will mold. Using vermiculite is fine. Many people use that for both egg laying and moist hide. I personally prefer perilite for incubation and moss for laying/humidity box. It works very well for me and my setup.
Next year should def be better! Keep her calcium up and lots of proteins and vitamins and she should be good to go. The good news for you is she did lay a good amount of eggs, so once she get's it right you should have plenty of lil baby geckos running around (:
Photo of our old setup with egg laying box (not an actual female but our egg laying boxes were identical last year - this is just a humid hide with the top off) We have upgraded to larger setups for this year.
http://www.geckobabies.com/leopard_g...no_enigma1.jpg
Re: Am I doing anything wrong?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
5GsReptiles
Where they yelowish and rubbery?
Yes, they were. I had read online that you couldn't tell if they are fertile until after a couple weeks. I guess that website was wrong. :confused:
I didn't like the vermiculite because it would stick to the eggs and I could never get a good mark on them with a sharpie.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
geckobabies
They are probably molding with the moss because they are bad eggs, but you are right if the moss is too wet and she lays them and they are not removed fairly quickly even good eggs go bad.. but it sounds like to me she was just a "bad" first year breeder. It happens often no matter what you do.
I would literally remove them an hour after she would lay them. The mold I am referring too is mold that occurs between egg laying. Do you have to replace the moss after eggs are layed?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
geckobabies
Beautiful girl! Thanks guys for the info. Hopefully next year will work out better for us.
Re: Am I doing anything wrong?
you guys are making me feel lazy.... I keep everything in colonies, 1male with 2-3 females.... 1 egglaying box and just really watch females, you will know which one just laid... Ne who, I use vermiculite in the lay box, and in the "incubator" my hight tec gecko incubator is a steralite tub filled with moist vermiculite setting on a uth with a dimmer switch to control heat(i know some of you are gonna bash me for method... but it hatched 100% last year:P) Ne way UI have had a few females that just never laid good eggs.... dont sweat it it happens.... I keep a penlight like the cheapones dr.'s carry to candle eggs.... It they dont look good, give em a few days and put the flashlight right up to them and with the light youshould be able to see veins..... hope this helps you know they say a watched pot never boils, I kinda think the same is with leopards,if you try to hard it seems much moredifficult than it is....