I gots eggs!!!

[Purrrfect9]

I woke up this morning and checked my girls humid hide/egg lay box, and I saw that she had dug up the moss/vermiculite bedding mix and had buried two eggs! She had laid them sometime between 12:00 AM this morning and 9:30 this morning, so I hope that I got them out and into the incubator in time! They looked a little dimpled, but they seem to be perking up slowly now that they're incubating.
So, quick question. I'm incubating for Females at 81.5*F, how many weeks should they take to hatch? anywhere between 10-15 weeks? I checked one of my books, and i just gave a generalized estimation of 6-15 weeks for any temp range. I'll have pics up as soon as I can find my camera!

[mlededee]

incubation time is more like 40-100 days depending on temperature of incubation. the leopard gecko manual states an incubation period of 36 days when incubated at 90.5 degrees and an incubation period of 107 days when incubated at 75 degrees (incubating below 75 degrees is dangerous so i tend to go with something more like 78 for a low).

[Purrrfect9]

I wanted to wait a week after my eggs were laid to candle them, just so I could make sure that everything was working well (and because it was pretty cold the morning that I found them) so nothing could happen to them. Well, I went to go candle them tonight and noticed some mold growing on the eggs. I tested the vermiculite and it was lightly damp to the touch, so I don't that that the mold sprung up because of high humidity. After knocking the mold off I went to candle the eggs and saw no veins. =/. It's been about a week since they've been laid, so there should be veins appearing by now, right? I've put the eggs back in the 'bator just in case, but this is the third non fertile clutch that she's thrown since she's been with my blizzard male. It kinda sucks cause I've been looking foreward to hatching out some babies this year =(

[mlededee]

more times that not the mold results from the eggs being infertile. i'd keep them anyhow just in case and toss them once they turn to stinky cheese.

how old is your female and how much does she weigh? has she or the male ever produced offspring before?

[Purrrfect9]

The female is about 3 years old and she was 75 right before she laid her eggs. I weighed her tonight and she's at 68g. She didn't seem to interested in eating for about 2 days after laying, I even tried enticing her with crickets and wax worms, but she finally came around the third day after laying and ate regular sized mealies like there was no tomorow. I'm not sure how old my male is. I bought him as an adult from LLL Reptile over a year ago, so I know for sure that he's at least two as well. He was 95g last week, and visually hasn't seemed to loose any weight. I've seen them copulate several times before she laid her eggs, so I'm not worried about that area. I don't know what's going on

[mlededee]

is this the only female the male has been with? has the female ever produced before that you know of? i'm just wondering if maybe one of them is infertile or something. nothing else seems out of the ordinary so far. even if the male was used as a breeder before you got him and over bred he should be recovered after a year of rest and having good weight on him.

[Purrrfect9]

Yes, she's my only female that is paired with him for now. These are the only two geckos that I have, and I've raised my female up since she was a juvie. She layed two clutches for me last season, but I had the same problem with the infertility issue for both of them. At the time I thought that maybe it was something that I had done incorrectly, like making the substrate in the incubator too moist, or of a possible temp spike in the hobavator, since i was using their crappy built in 'thermostat' (which really isn't a thermostat at all). I was planning on getting a second female to make a 1.2 trio. I guess when I do, I'll find out if it's the male or the female that I have that's infertile.

[mlededee]

so is this her first clutch this season? often times the first clutch of the season is infertile so that's nothing to worry about.

[Purrrfect9]

yup, the first for the season ^_^. I was kinda hoping that this one would be fertile though, because they would have nearly hatched in time before school started in the fall, when I would have to move everyone back up to the dorms. It's a good hour and a half trip, so I'm not sure that a clutch would survive the car trip up there, unless i kept them in a styrofoam cooler with one of those heating pads that you use if your car breaks down in the winter to warm your hands with