How do you incubate your crestie eggs?

[ReptileWorld]

Hey everyone!

These past couple of months my fiances pair of crested geckos have been laying eggs like clock work. which is surprising to me because of their set up is below standard.

We hardly catch the eggs when their good they tend to shrivel before we get to them even with the moist nest box because she forgets to keep their nest box as moist as she should. but a few clutches i have harvested were nice pearl white and very firm. i tried to candle them but nothing. i incubated them like one of my old friends does in a tub on the top shelf in the living room which is a constant 75 to 78 in a 16oz deli cub with no air holes in vermiculite. i burped the container every few days to allow air flow. the eggs made it 45 days before molding and starting to break down.

any tips on how i should incubate them? i have a very old school hovabator but havn't used it in about 8 years and dont really have anywhere to put it. so just wondering how some of you guys are doing it.

any tips will be greatly appreciated

 

[ento890]

I'll use a tupperware container filled with cocoa bedding and a hole at the top. This box is kept moist, so if I forget to check for eggs, they will still be okay. Also, if I see dirt flown all over the cage, I'll know someone was digging and know to check the box for eggs.

I will mark the eggs with a pen on the side I found them facing up and keep this side up throughout the whole incubation process. I keep mine in deli cups filled with vermiculite (1 part water, 4 parts vermiculite). There should be enough water in the vermiculite so that if you take a clump of it in one hand and squeeze, only a drop or two of water would drip out. I'll keep them at room temp (generally 74 degrees) and they hatch for me around 60-90 days. I also poke two small holes in the incubation container to allow for just enough air flow, but not enough that it will dry out the subtrate.

If your eggs were molding, you may have too wet of a subtrate or they could just be infertile. However, I have had infetile eggs incubate with fertile eggs for the entire incubation period without molding at all. Try candeling with the brightest flash light in the dark you can find at about 10 days. You should be able to start to see the "cherrio" shaped veins developing.