Egg S.O.S.

[ZooKeeperKarin]

I have had some geckos for about a year now and I lost my male, Ziggy, about a month ago. So, for Mother's day we took a trip to the reptile store and I picked up a giant leopard gecko (he's too big to put w/ my others) and a beautiful hypo tangerine male. Ta-da... exactly 20 days later (Mother's day was the 9th, right?) I discovered my first ever eggs! Looking back, they were laid 2 days ago. That's when I noticed lots of sand that she brought in to the humidity box. I had damp paper towel as substrate in the humid hide. Here's my problem... As she kicked, she wrapped the 2 eggs in paper towel and then covered them in sand. They did stay fairly damp and have not hardened. BUT, the paper towel turned into glue and stuck the two eggs together. I know I couldn't leave them stuck like that so I carefully cut them apart and pulled off with tweezers as much paper towel as I could w/o ripping the eggs. One egg did unfortunately rip (talk about GROSS!), but one seems to have made it. I've marked the top w/ a sharpie and tried to jostle it as little as possible. It seems to be a viable egg. There's still some paper towel stuck to it that I can't get off w/o damaging the egg.
So I have two questions... will the paper towel stuck to it prevent it from hatching?
Also, the eggs had a sort of fishy odor. Is this normal?
I have the egg in the incubator at 82' with a 1:0.8 perlite/water mixture.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I'm totally new to this!
Karin

 

[RampantReptiles]

Hey a local!
First off grats on your new egg.(sorry about the other one)
I would have left them stuck together and just tried to get the paper towel off.

I dont think the paper towel would keep it from hatching but if there is no way to get it off then there is not much you can do anyways.

Eggs are not supposed to have much of an odor at all. This sounds like a bad sign but I would leave the egg in the incubator anyways until the smell is really bad or the egg gets really moldy.

Also change out the paper towel in the humid hide to a nesting material or create a nesting box. Some suggestions would be coconut fiber, sphagnum moss, vermiculite...


I do have to stress that you did something you should not have done. You bought 2 geckos and put one of them in with your current stock. There should be a quarantine period of 3 months for any new comers in which they are kept in their own enclosure to ensure that they are healthy. Does not matter if they looked healthy in the store or you got them from a reputable breeder. Just the stress of moving from one home to another could be enough to start a parasite problem. Also you put it into a breeding situation which is additional stress. Or the new comer may have already been living with a parasite/disease and introduce that to your current collection creating a lot of sick geckos. Quarantine should involve a separate enclosure(in a separate room if possible but not necessary) and washing your hands after touching the gecko or anything in its enclosure.

Having a gecko die for unknown reasons is also a big indication that you should not be getting more geckos until the reason is determined and any potential current health problems with geckos is resolved.

 

[ZooKeeperKarin]

Nice to meet you, fellow chosen spotter! lol
I know I took a gamble on their health, but I figured I bought them from a reputable reptile store.
I know chances are slim for this egg, but I'm hoping for more soon. I did change the substrate in the humid hide to vermiculite. Hopefully I'm able to get them earlier next time. I just wasn't expecting eggs! I've had the incubator since last year when we were hoping for eggs then and never got them.

Since you're in this area, are you involved at all with the Wildlife Defenders?

 

[RampantReptiles]

Nope never heard of them.

 

[Tony C]

Defenders of Wildlife are a nutbag animal rights group, one of their current pet projects is an attempt to ban all trade in amphibians.

 

[ZooKeeperKarin]

Nope, different group. Ours is Wildlife Defenders, run by Bridges for Brain Injury. People who have had brain injuries are involved in the care and shows of all different animals as a part of their rehabilitation. I've seen people, who's families have been told they will never walk or talk again, get up on stage in front of hundreds of people and give a presentation of an animal.
I started to raise crickets for my geckos and now I donate all my extras to them. :main_thumbsup: