AGH! Cresties eggs! HELP

[NyxsMomma]

We weren't sure if our new boy and existing girl would breed, but low and behold......TWO EGGS!

I was moistening their humid hide box like I always do, spray a little, shake the dirt a little, well I f'ed up and shook a little too hard and found an egg, it moved/rolled. I immediately rolled it back to what I hope was regular position, then found another. We weren't prepared for this as our female did NOT look pregnant at all. I moved them into a small tupper ware with damp dirt, half exposed and will open the container once a week (I read some where to do this and was told this from our male's breeder).

My problems are the following....

where the eggs were buried it was not very warm.
not sure how old they are
they are quite hard, is this ok?
how warm should they be kept?
how long do eggs normally take to hatch?
how will I know if they are dud eggs?

I know I should know more, but at the moment I am freaked out that I killed their first babies and am not thinking quite right, plus I'm pretty under the weather so I can barely remember my name at the moment.

Please help! We also need to know where to find the right substrate for breeding, I think it's called vermiculite? None of our pet stores carry it. Can i use a "bead" box as an egg incubator? And if so how can I keep the temp right? We keep the air on in the summer so the place is usually about 68-70, not surer thats warm enough for the wee ones.

Also, anything I should be doing for my female since she had her eggs? Seriously, she did NOT look pregnant at all. I thought she looked plumper then normal but not enough to think it was eggs.

Thanks for any help you can give!

 

[Kristi23]

I'm no help with crested eggs, but I wanted to say good luck. I hope they hatch for you.

 

[NyxsMomma]

I'm no help with crested eggs, but I wanted to say good luck. I hope they hatch for you.

Thank you. I'm hoping too. I'm just hoping for our next batch we will be more prepared. We wanted them to breed, just didn't expect it this quick. :no:

 

[bubblez825]

I've been searching online and found some info . This is some info I pulled from 2 different care sheets:

Breeding: The first requirement is to have a breeding pair. Crested geckos usually start breeding at night during early spring. A male will chase a female throughout the enclosure and will mount her from behind. A male might bite the head or neck area of the female while mating. Provide a nest box filled with moist moss or potting soil. After 30-45 days of gestation, a female will lay two eggs in the nest box. Some immature or older females will lay one egg per clutch only. Vermiculite and perlite can be used as the incubation medium. Eggs incubated at 72-78 F (22-26 C) will hatch in approximately 70 days. Females that lay under-calcified eggs should be separated immediately and provided extra calcium supplement for 3-6 months before allowing to breed again.

Breeding Crested Geckos
There are many different formulas people use for breeding and hatching crested geckos. Below we have detailed the process we have used successfully for several years.

Breeding crested geckos is as simple as having at least one healthy adult pair together. Males can usually start breeding at 9 months to a year old and females can breed as early as a year old. I highly recommend waiting a solid 14 months before breeding females. Females should be at the very least 30-35 grams before breeding assuming that they have their tail. Waiting until the female is 40 grams will result in a much more successful first breeding season, for that reason I highly recommend having patience and waiting to introduce the female at 40 grams. Subtract 3-5 grams for tailless females. Breeding groups can consist of one male and up to four or maybe five females. Males kept together will sometimes fight violently.



In order to induce breeding, temperatures should be kept between 75 and 80 during the day and can drop up to 5 degrees at night. The enclosure should be misted lightly once or twice a day particularly in the evening, however you should not soak the cage so much that it doesn't dry up in a few hours. Special attention should be paid to making sure the breeding crested geckos are getting plenty of high quality food. Gut loaded insects and the T-Rex Crested Gecko Diet are recommended.



Make sure to dust the crickets with a good Calcium and Vitamin D3 powder (or alternate between pure calcium and calcium with D3) . Check the calcium sacs of your breeding females (located on the roof of the mouth) once per month to make sure they are not getting depleted.



An egg laying container should be used inside the cage for the females to dig in and lay their eggs. The container should be large enough to accomadate the female and allow her to dig down at least 3-4 inches. It is recommended that the egg laying medium be a 50-50 mix of moistened Peat Moss and Vermiculite. However straight Peat Moss works too. A piece of cork bark works well to conceal the container and make the female comfortable laying her eggs. You should check for eggs every

morning while they are breeding and remove the eggs promptly so they do not dry up. Females will lay a new clutch of eggs every 25-35 days. The eggs should be placed in an airtight container with 2 inches of slightly moistened (3 parts water to 4 parts substrate-by weight) vermiculite, perlite, or a mixture of the two. We've recently started using Hatchrite, which is a pre-moistened incubation substrate, you simply use it right out of the bag, no mixing, or measuring is involved. You should open the top of your egg containers once per week for a few seconds to allow for some ventilation.


I keep the eggs at a constant 76 degrees and they hatch in about 60-70 days. Eggs have been hatched at a variety of temperatures ranging from 72 to 80 degrees. I would recommend incubating somewhere in between. Temperature dependant sex determination (whereby the sex of the offspring is determined by the temperature at which they are incubated) has not yet been proven with crested geckos.


If you have a pair or group that is not breeding you should take a look at the key factors such as temperatures, nutrition, cage space, age of the animals, etc.



Best of luck with the eggs and future breeding!

Emily

 

[NyxsMomma]

Thank you VERY much Emily. This is a great help. I will update everyone if anything happens. We are going to get the vermiculite this weekend and set up an egg incubating container for future clutches. Something with consistent heating to make sure everything will go a lot smoother and we won't lose any clutches. I have a feeling with the parents morphs/colors there will be some beautiful babies. We have a ten gallon we will have set up and ready to go this weekend too for babies.

 

[Valley Reptiles]

My problems are the following....

where the eggs were buried it was not very warm.
not sure how old they are
they are quite hard, is this ok?
how warm should they be kept?
how long do eggs normally take to hatch?
how will I know if they are dud eggs?

Crested eggs dont need to be warm, too warm and it will kill them.
They are suppose to be hard.
anywhere from 68 to 80 is fine. Temps can fluctuate between that range.
it takes them anywhere from 60 to 100 days to hatch.
if they are bad they will start to mold.

you can get vermiculite at lowes or Home Depot. But I wouldnt do anything with heating. They can stay good at cold temps but if you get them too hot they're gone.

 

[Gecko Euphoria]

They are pretty tough if you dont think they are in the right position you can candle them and put them with the bulls eye up for the first 2weeks after laying and they usually do fine and then you can candle them without moveing them after that so you can see the progress and see if they are growing. Hope this helps.

We weren't sure if our new boy and existing girl would breed, but low and behold......TWO EGGS!

I was moistening their humid hide box like I always do, spray a little, shake the dirt a little, well I f'ed up and shook a little too hard and found an egg, it moved/rolled. I immediately rolled it back to what I hope was regular position, then found another. We weren't prepared for this as our female did NOT look pregnant at all. I moved them into a small tupper ware with damp dirt, half exposed and will open the container once a week (I read some where to do this and was told this from our male's breeder).

My problems are the following....

where the eggs were buried it was not very warm.
not sure how old they are
they are quite hard, is this ok?
how warm should they be kept?
how long do eggs normally take to hatch?
how will I know if they are dud eggs?

I know I should know more, but at the moment I am freaked out that I killed their first babies and am not thinking quite right, plus I'm pretty under the weather so I can barely remember my name at the moment.

Please help! We also need to know where to find the right substrate for breeding, I think it's called vermiculite? None of our pet stores carry it. Can i use a "bead" box as an egg incubator? And if so how can I keep the temp right? We keep the air on in the summer so the place is usually about 68-70, not surer thats warm enough for the wee ones.

Also, anything I should be doing for my female since she had her eggs? Seriously, she did NOT look pregnant at all. I thought she looked plumper then normal but not enough to think it was eggs.

Thanks for any help you can give!