Gecko Egg Help

[Kiowakaykay]

One of my geckos had laid 2 eggs and i was VASTLY unprepared for it. I figured I'd try and hatch the eggs anyways, and i'm currently very embarassed to tell you guys my current setup for a makeshift incubator. Currently, I have a tupperware container filled halfway with moistened substrate (it's some kind of organic substrate; didn't have time to run and grab anything like perlite) and it's sitting underneath a heat mat with a heat lamp shining on it. i went to check the eggs today and they were sort of shriveled. I'm thinking about trying to keep it going anyways, and i put some moist moss in the container since I believe the "incubator" (if i can even call it that) is too dry. Or do I just have too much heat?

 

[Geecko123]

here I found this.
The most common containers used for leopard gecko egg incubation are plastic deli cups or shoeboxes filled with 1 to 2 inches of vermiculite or perlite. Achieve proper moisture by mixing equal parts of incubation medium to water by weight, not volume. Slightly bury leopard gecko eggs, and space them at least a half-inch apart. Cover the egg box with a tight lid, and add five to 10 pushpin-sized air holes to the top.

If you see dents occurring in leopard gecko eggs during incubation, then your medium is too dry. If that happens, spray the inner sides of the egg container — not the eggs directly — four or fives times.

Incubation temperature determines a leopard gecko’s sex. If eggs are incubated at 80 degrees, then 100 percent of the hatchlings will be female. At temperatures around 87 degrees you basically get an equal number of male and female leopard geckos. At 90 degrees 98 percent of the hatchlings will be male. Temperature conditions below 74 degrees can be lethal.

If you need to control egg temperature, a number of simple incubators are available. Never place leopard gecko eggs in an incubator without substrate or moisture. They turn into raisins if you do. Eggs incubate 35 to 89 days depending upon the incubation temperature.

 

[acpart]

If you had the container uncovered then the eggs will shrivel and dry up. If you can find a place that will maintain a fairly constant temperature, you can put the (covered) container there. I know someone who hatched a number of eggs by putting the container on top of his water heater. You will likely get more eggs in about 2 weeks. If you want to be more sure of successful hatch, get yourself a hobovator for less that $50 (though you really will need a better thermostat with it) or a Zoomed for about $150 (which is the cost of the hobovator plus a decent thermostat) and get ready for next time.

Aliza

 

[Kiowakaykay]

Thanks for the help guys. I checked them this morning and they seemed significantly less dented. I'll have to go to the pet store today to get some thermometers. my female hasn't been eating, but part of me feels like that's because she doesn't like being fed from tongs/is sick of mealworms. I haven't had the chance to get more crickets in quite literally months because of a car crash. I believe a pet store trip is a definite must for me.

 

[Kiowakaykay]

Another thing: I may need to find some space to place a second tank to keep the male and female separated during the breeding season. This breeding was entirely unintentional, but I believe it will be better in the long run for the female and the eggs if I create a separate environment for the two. I realize I probably shouldn't have been housing them together in the first place, but in my observations they don't appear to constantly try to mate nor does the female appear stressed, but I will have to separate the two to see if I observe any improvement.

 

[Kiowakaykay]

I just put a divider in the tank. Also, the incubator got knocked off of the desk, but the eggs don't appear cracked. Will they be ok? I think the substrate I used may have cushioned them from the fall, and the fall itself was only about 3 feet.

 

[Geecko123]

good job, tell us if you succesfully hatch them!

 

[Kiowakaykay]

I had a breeder tell me that my resources sucked and I'd most likely hatch deformed babies if I kept going with it. I realized I don't necessarily have the right resources to care for gecko babies, so I'm afraid i need to dispose of any eggs I get unless I somehow find a way to make a third (I put one of the gecks in my spare tank.) tank/ house each baby individually, but I'm very unsure of how to do that. Since I don't really have any means to care for a bunch of baby geckos, I'm sadly going to have to freeze any eggs I get in order to euthanize them.

 

[Geecko123]

I'm sorry to hear that, maybe once you research some more and are a little more prepared thanyou can try again.

 

[adewey]

You could actually make your own incubator if you have a cooler/styrofoam box, extra heat mat, gladware container of some sort with vermiculite/perlite/hatchrite/superhatch... a thermostat, and a thermometer.

Or you could keep the eggs in a gladware container with moist (not wet) vermiculite/perlite/hatchrite/superhatch (I'm currently using vermiculite and it works great) until the incubator comes. But I recommend getting them at temps of 79-90*F (without fluctuations) as soon as possible.

If you decide to make your own, be sure that the temperatures are stable enough before putting the eggs in.

 

[Kiowakaykay]

I honestly do not have space for babies. Even if they did hatch healthily, there'd be no way for me to house them separately and safely. I don't have any shoeboxes or anything, or space for a rack system. Plus I don't know anyone in the area who would buy them.