Important Info

[GeckoJunkie]

Guys and gals I would like to know how many of you have bad years as in years were you have alot of "bad" eggs or you just do something wrong? I know no one likes to talk about losing geckos but this is info that everyone can put to use and not make some mistakes that others have. I made a deadly mistake this year with my laying boxes or the substrate that I used any ways. I'm not sure if what I done had been discussed before or not or if it has even been a problem for anyone else. This year for the first part of the year I used peat moss mixed with spagnum moss for laying boxes. ALL the eggs I had layed in the boxes with this substrate have turned black and rotted.I caught what was going on and swapped out the remainder of my eggs and all seem to be good now. Anyone else had a similiar problem with this as a sustrate in laying boxes? I lost 27 eggs using the above mentioned substrate,since then I have swapped to another substrate and the rest of my eggs (78) to date have all been good and are now starting to hatch.:main_thumbsup:
Any thoughts would be great.

 

[eyelids]

Sorry about your losses. Maybe the substrate was too moist or it had mold spores in it...

 

[GeckoJunkie]

Michael,
Thanks for your condolences. I think really what happen is like this. There was alot of the moss that stayed stuck to the egg. ( Keep in mind that this was the medium that I used in the lay box NOT in the incubation box. I used perlite in the incubation box.)I would wipe as much off as possible but there was alot that stayed stuck. As the egg would grow it would get to a certain size and then turn black and shrivel. I took the time to cut most of them open once they had got to that point and inside of each I found a fetus that had started to grow and then just died. My thoughts on this is that the peat is too acidic or it just plain suffocates the egg. I was wanting a little feed back from others that may have had anything similar happen. I have since swapped over to using vermiculite in the lay boxes and have not had a problem.

 

[eyelids]

My thoughts on this is that the peat is too acidic or it just plain suffocates the egg.

I think you could be right.

 

[giantkeeper]

Guys and gals I would like to know how many of you have bad years as in years were you have alot of "bad" eggs or you just do something wrong? I know no one likes to talk about losing geckos but this is info that everyone can put to use and not make some mistakes that others have. I made a deadly mistake this year with my laying boxes or the substrate that I used any ways. I'm not sure if what I done had been discussed before or not or if it has even been a problem for anyone else. This year for the first part of the year I used peat moss mixed with spagnum moss for laying boxes. ALL the eggs I had layed in the boxes with this substrate have turned black and rotted.I caught what was going on and swapped out the remainder of my eggs and all seem to be good now. Anyone else had a similiar problem with this as a sustrate in laying boxes? I lost 27 eggs using the above mentioned substrate,since then I have swapped to another substrate and the rest of my eggs (78) to date have all been good and are now starting to hatch.:main_thumbsup:
Any thoughts would be great.

I use spagnum moss stuff from Home Depot, and have no issues. There is a lot of material that will stick to the egg, but I just leave it on there.

I've had 110 eggs laid this season. I have lost about 10 geckos (full term, failed to hatch), but I am still deliberating what I feel caused that.

 

[robin]

. My thoughts on this is that the peat is too acidic or it just plain suffocates the egg.

i have never had this problem by using plain old sphagnum peat. could it be temp fluctuations? what kind of thermostat are you using and what is your water to ratio for your perlite? also even though vermiculite is messier i find it much easier to work with and incubate with than perlite. seems that perlite causes too much condensation on the lids of the deli cups or whatever you use to put your eggs into. also how much water were you adding to your sphagnum peat in the nest boxes?

 

[ByRandom]

I have used Peat moss for years and haven't had any problems...

 

[yellermelon]

Wow this post turned out way longer than I expected! Gecko junkie, hope you dont mind me posting this in your thread, seems to be more of a discusion, and one I am very interested in ,givin my hatch rate right now.


Ive also had alot of problems this year, As it is my first year with eggs, I kinda expected it. Ive used in lay boxes: vermiculite-wouldnt hold moister for me, peat/spagnuhm- the eggs were black as I removed them, molded and withered. Spagnuhm alone- Ive lost a few eggs due to being soft, and molding. But using this last egg chamber method, I have 2 eggs big and plump going on 50 days in. I think I may have been keeping the spagnum too wet, and not changing it often enough.
As far as the inc. material, Ive tried vermiculite- dried out to fast. hatchrite- I must have gotton a bad bag, it was wayyyy to dry. Albeys perlite mixture- so far so good.
Keep in mind all of my geckos are also first year breeders. So when you mix in them being beginers, me trying to figure out with laybox, and incubation material works...I guess the fact Ive got 2 eggs about to hatch and 2 more looking promising, to be decent odds.
I may try using vermiculite again, I can use albeys water adding with it the same as perlite right? Also to answer the question ahead of time Im using herpstat for my temps. Thanks to everyone who read this lol. Im new and trying to learn as much as possible to have a good hatch rate.

 

[GeckoJunkie]

i have never had this problem by using plain old sphagnum peat. could it be temp fluctuations? what kind of thermostat are you using and what is your water to ratio for your perlite? also even though vermiculite is messier i find it much easier to work with and incubate with than perlite. seems that perlite causes too much condensation on the lids of the deli cups or whatever you use to put your eggs into. also how much water were you adding to your sphagnum peat in the nest boxes?

Robin,
Maybe my problem was I mixed spagnum and peat together and used as a lay box. My temps are staying with 81.5-82.3. And the eggs are now starting to hatch at about 55-59 days. These are the ones that were laid in the vermiculite. Same set up everything except that they were not laid on the moss mix. I have a fex egg boxes that are vermiculite just to see how I like it. In the nest boxes I did not use any method to mix in water. I mixed it until I just felt like it would be right. And I add water to them as they seem to get dry. Its mixed really close I guess to the egg box mixture like Albey's method. Not too wet but not too dry.
Thanks to everyone who has replied to this post I'm keeping notes to reference down the road and if it is a problem with the peat and spagnum moss then I want to know for sure not to use it again. Which after my results this year I dont think I will anyways.
Oh and only about half of these girls laying the eggs are first year breeders.
Also I dont know if anyones else does it or not but I microwave ALL my substrate before using it (lay boxes, humid hides, and egg boxes). Not sure if any types of spores could live through the microwave or not.

 

[LeopardGeckoMom52688]

This is my first year breeding as well I have only lost 3 eggs to date. The first one was turned when i was taking it out of the laying box, the other two were laid in the middle of her tank. She has laid 10 eggs. The first clutch one died because of me when I turned it. The other hatched last month but was quickly put down, she had no eye lids and was refusing food. And then last month I also had two more hatch. They are still alive and thriving. And then recently I have 4 more eggs 2 of which should hatch any day. I use bed a beast in both my laying boxes and my incubator.