Help with leo eggs, please?

[lillith]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay, so I knew my girl leo was carrying eggs, and I went and picked up a hovabator at the NW captive breeder's expo last weekend.

Monday morning I found two eggs in her damp hide on the moss, and I thought I knew what to do: I got out the Hatchrite I bought, filled up a styrofoam deli cup (with a pinhole for air) halfway, marked the eggs in upright position, then gingerly removed them and put them in the cup with the lid. They are stuck together on the side, I don't want to try to separate them, I'm afraid I'll destroy them. I then put them in the terrarium in an 84-86F zone and have been fiddling with the hovabator and room thermostats, trying to get a stable 84-86F range within the incubator itself. It finally stabilized at 84ish this evening.

To my great dismay, as I went to relocate the eggs, I opened the lid to check on them and they are halfway shriveled and slightly sunken. I think they're dehydrated, the perlite is drier than I think it should be. I removed the eggs and used a penlight to check if they're fertile, there are two pinkish blotches about the size of a BB pellet in each of them. I very very carefully rinsed them off with a few meager drops of water, and replaced the Hatchrite completely. They are now in the Hovabator in the same styrofoam container.

My questions are:
1) Do you think it is too late for these egg-bebes?
2) Is it possible to rehydrate eggs if you caught it within a day?
3) Did they dry out due to the styrofoam deli cup?
4) Is there anything else I can do at this point other than wait and see if they live?

My mama girl is just over a year old, she laid infertile eggs about 1 1/2 months ago, they were blatantly yellow after a week, so I tossed them. These eggs are 3 days old and it breaks my heart. Mama is in pretty good shape, she's lost a little tail fat (she wouldn't eat before laying) but her tail is still 3/4 of her neck, I've got calcium and mineral powder available at all times, I feed her mealworms, crickets, and the occasional tiny pinkie.

Am I doing anything wrong? Is it just an experience-needed sort of thing? These two clutches were my first eggs ever.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

p.s. I've perused as many of the other postings here as I could and I've decided to try the paper towel method...are there any reasons I shouldn't, or does anyone have extra info on using paper towels (how many folds/layers, how wet, how long until you can remove them, etc.?)

 

[acpart]

My questions are:
1) Do you think it is too late for these egg-bebes?

Worse looking eggs have survived, so it's worth a try until they start to mold and smell, or shrivel up into something that looks like petrified egg.


2) Is it possible to rehydrate eggs if you caught it within a day?

Sometimes.


3) Did they dry out due to the styrofoam deli cup?

I'd say that's likely since I think the styrofoam is not airtight, so the humidity might dissipate.


4) Is there anything else I can do at this point other than wait and see if they live?

Get a gladware container with a tight fitting lid. Go to "Albey's too cool reptile" site which you can find a link to at the top of the forum page ("Site Sponsors") and find his incubation page at his site. That method (which uses perlite) works very well.

Try not to be too upset if things don't work out. Many of us have had eggs that looked fertile and were incubated with our own tried and true methods (which hatched out plenty of babies other years) just not hatch this year. I've even had eggs go bad after 8 weeks and opened them up to find everything from a dead totally developed hatchling, to a tiny embryo to nothing but slime.

Good luck.

Aliza

 

[lillith]

UPDATE:

Well, I don't know if it's my imagination or not that the eggs look slightly plumper than they were; but they certainly aren't getting any worse! I am so glad I found this forum. I never knew paper towels were miracle workers (egg band-aids, too!).

I'm a little afraid to move them to a new container so soon after what felt like "crisis management"...I'm lightly misting the paper towel in the evening to keep it just visibly damp and maintained. My hovabator is finally situated in the 84-86F range, I don't care what comes out of the egg as long as it's a whole healthy gecko...and even if I don't get that, I'll have definitely learned some new lessons by this. But one can hope, just a little.

I have read Albey's site, I just figured a deli cup was a deli cup was equal to a gladware (yaay ignorance - egad I felt slightly dumb). I was trying out Hatchrite because it was premeasured and I was hoping it had less chance for error. Next time I think I'll try straight vermiculite or perlite with the Holy Ratio of .8 to 1.

 

[acpart]

I'm glad things are looking better. Just be careful you don't get the eggs too wet because that can be a problem as well. Gentle misting is probably OK, but wetting them a lot would be a problem.

Aliza

 

[lillith]

So, a sad little update: The eggs were fuzzy and sank again. So, admitting they didn't make it, morbid curiousity took over and I took a look. One was completely infertile and the other had only one little vein starting to grow from the center or the spot (which looked like the 'thick end' of the vein, really). I figure it was maybe 3-5 days of growth, then kaput.

I'm not telling anyone when I get new eggs. Not 'til they eat their first worms!!!
Spring will be better. I can focus on plumping up and chalking up (calcium supplementing, no not with real chalk) the girls.

I for now am thankful that all my herp kids are healthy. =D