Cleaning Eggs?

[sarahanita]

My leo laid her first clutch of eggs today in her moist hide full of peat moss. I relocated them to the incubator in vermiculite, my question is i wanna candle them in a few weeks to check is they are fertile but they are very dirty, how can i carefully and safely clean off some of the peat moss to get a better look inside?
heres a pic of the eggs

 

[fl_orchidslave]

It would be better to change out the peat for sphagnum moss. I wouldn't try to clean the eggs, they could become damaged.

 

[sarahanita]

the meat moss is a favourite of my geckos, if i cant clean then i can still try candling, even if i could just wipe off the top, i have very soft cotton pads i use for my face, if i wet one and VERY GENTLY tried wiping it is it very easy to damage the egg?

 

[Pinky81]

It would be better to change out the peat for sphagnum moss. I wouldn't try to clean the eggs, they could become damaged.

not only could you damage (even with soft cotton) but you don't want to take your eggs out of the incubator long enough to try and clean them. If you can't tell from candling...just keep incubating you'll have more eggs to come anyways!!

 

[THE WHISPERER]

my girls lay on paper towels. nice white clean eggs every time.

 

[ajveachster]

You can probably candle the eggs even without cleaning them, but you can try to clean them if you want.

There are times when you do have to do some cleaning of eggs. Typically that is when they start developing mold. I have found that I am able to do so with a q-tip. I simply moisten a q-tip with some saline and gently wipe the egg where needed. I usually don't move the egg at all unless absolutely necessary.

Anytime I do any cleaning of an animal (eyes, wounds, etc...) or eggs I always use saline. It is sterile and cheap. That way I don't have to worry about anything that may be in tap water.

 

[Gregg M]

I dont know why you even need to candle your eggs to be honest... Just incubate them... If they are going to hatch, they will... If not, they will start to stink in a few weeks...

The best way to insure your eggs will hatch is if you just leave them alone...

 

[fl_orchidslave]

I dont know why you even need to candle your eggs to be honest... Just incubate them... If they are going to hatch, they will... If not, they will start to stink in a few weeks...

The best way to insure your eggs will hatch is if you just leave them alone...

I agree!!! The more they are handled, the more chance of something going wrong that can be avoided. Folks with more experience can do more, knowing exactly what to look for and what the limitations are. Then they're still incubated until they mold up or stink, so why bother the eggs?

 

[gixxer3420]

I use eco earth for my female geckos lay boxes and the eggs are in a since dirty but I spray them off before I put them in their deli cups. Ive been doing this for over ten years with out any problems. I dont candle any of my leopard geckos eggs. I do candle some of my fat tail eggs though.