Less than 25% egg viability this year;

[cathis]

As the title says, less than 25% of the eggs laid by my females this year were viable. Also, for some reason, they laid less eggs than I expected; I have 5 mature females and 1 year-old female. Of these females, I got eggs from 2 of them (maybe 3). Last year, I had at least a 75% success rate, and had 15 or so babies.

I am not sure what the issue with viability is, I was thinking maybe my incubator's gone bad; of all these eggs, the only one to hatch so far (three are due within the next week) was malformed, missing toes, one leg lacking an elbow, no eyelids.
Most of the eggs have deflated within the first week, some deflated about a month in. All candled fertile at laying.

What could the possibilities be? I don't mind laying out for a new incubator next season if necessary. (I have a Hova-bator with a seperate thermo-regulator attached to maintain 83 degrees).

 

[justindh1]

There are many people that use hovabators and have success. I started out using a hovabator and was happy with it besides the limited space. I still have it as a back up just in case. Does the temps seem to fluctuate any more then 1 degree? If so, it could be the root of the problem.

There also could be a supplement and feeding issue in the laying females. Lack of nutrition in the laying females can cause hatchling deformities. What do you feed them, how much, and with what supplements at what times?

Sometimes you just are going to have a crappy season and there's really no way to explain it. Last year I had a horrible year but this year is going fantastic. My set-ups and pairings are exactly the same.

 

[cathis]

As far as I know, temps have not fluctuated. The deformed baby was an enigma with a FIERCE out-of-the-shell enigma issue, as well. Poor little dude never had a chance. I'm honestly surprised he made it out.
I feed them superworms, dusted with calcium and/or vitamins. I feed them until they don't want to eat anymore, basically Same pairings, same enclosures, etc. Very strange.

Edit: Healthy baby just hatched, thank god. No idea what morph, LOL.

 

[LZRDGRL]

Congrats to your healthy hatchling! :main_thumbsup: If you post a pic, maybe we can help you out about the morph (what are all possible parents?).

Maybe you should allow your females a year of rest from breeding. Have they been breeding a lot? I let my females breed for one year, and then they have a year off. I lost five females (I have over 300 geckos) this year/end of last year in motherhood, so I'm not letting them breed anymore for more than 2 consecutive seasons (most just for one season; then, they're replaced by a daughter or other female).

Your incubator sounds fine, as well as your supplementation. I also use the hovabator and had zero deformities this year. Maybe it was humidity-related? It's very unlikely that all your breeder females should have underlying genetic issues (I'd suspect this if you had bred only ONE female with a 25% success rate). So maybe they're just worn out?

Good luck for the future!

Chrissy

 

[KelliH]

It sounds more to me like a supplementation issue. What do you feed and how do you supplement? Have you changed something this season that was different last season?