new egg!?

[murph909]

hi so new to the forums, signed up a bit back but never used it yet. just woke up and looked into tank.. theres an egg!? totally shocked.. but after the shock comes the what do i do??? anybody please let me know what i need to do with it, thanks

Murph

btw, 3 leopard geckos, all around 2 years old, one male 2 females if i remember correctly. no history of eggs, im only owner.

 

[Khrysty]

Q. First: do you intend to keep the egg?
A. If no, just toss it. If yes, keep reading.

Q. Do you have an incubator?
A. If yes, turn it on, then keep reading. If no, consider ordering one. A lot of people use hovabators (without the egg turner).

Q. Do you have an extra heat lamp or pad?
A. If yes, you'll need that, a tupperware container, and some sort of medium (peat moss, coco fiber, vermiculite, hatch-rite, superhatch, etc). If no, just prepare the tupperware container.

Q. Do you have an extra thermometer?
A. Yes, good. No, get one.

-Moisten your medium so that it's moist, but not wet (like you're making a wet-hide)
-Put that in your tupperware container
-Make a slight indent where you want to put the egg
-GENTLY pick the egg up, be very careful not to turn it as this can drown the embryo, and place it in the tupperware container.
-Place the cap on.

(only do one of the following)
If you have a spare lamp:
Set the bulb about 6-10 inches from the container depending on the wattage and place the thermometer probe in the container. For a female you will want to incubate at 79-83 degrees, for either/or, it should be 84-86, for a male it should be 87-90. The further you move the lamp, the cooler the temp will be and vice versa.

If you have an extra heat mat:
Place the tupperware container on top of it with the thermometer in the container. For a female you will want to incubate at 79-83 degrees, for either/or, it should be 84-86, for a male it should be 87-90. There is nothing you can do to make it warmer, but to make it cooler, you can place anything from a thin layer of paper towels to a piece of glass or tile between the pad and the container. Experiment with it.

If you have neither:
Place the container over the heated side on your gecko's cage and leave it.

Whether you use any of these methods, you really should get an incubator. If she laid one, she's like to lay more. And if all the geckos are housed together it's possible your other female is gravid as well. This method will work for one or two eggs, but not more than that.

Good luck and remember we're always here to help, so if you've got any questions don't be afraid to ask!

 

[murph909]

thanks for the info, question for ya.. would either bone meal or potting soil work as the medium?

 

[Khrysty]

potting soil might, but make sure there aren't any additives (like miracle gro) in it

 

[murph909]

alright thanks for the info, definitely a good help got her set up, lets see!

so question, and im thinking its prolly not a good sign for the eggs but i still asked this stuff on what to do just so i know for the next eggs, but these two (found the other one) are all dented in on the sides. normal? havent seen or read anything bout it so guessing not

 

[Khrysty]

Denting is usually either caused by infertile eggs (in which case they'd completely collapse/never really firm up and then start to smell) or by a lack of humidity. To solve the humidity problem, bury the eggs almost completely for a couple of days and lightly mist the medium. After two days they should pop back up if that was their only problem

 

[murph909]

alright thanks again for the info!

 

[murph909]

hey so those two eggs were failure, all dried up and sunk in.. now they have laid again, in the water dish (which was half empty and they had kicked dirt into), and now they are in the box.. question is.. the bottom 3/4's are a yellow-ish color (faint) and a little softer than the top.. is this normal and ok? they were very soft taking them out of the water, but arent dried or sunk in liek the other ones atall.

I think whichever female it is is mad at me for taking them, shes kicked about 75% of the substrate burying their water dish twice since i took them

 

[murph909]

i should add that they now seem quite firm compared to when i first took them out of the water, which i beleive is a good thing. the veryy bottom of each egg is still a little soft, though not like htey were originally. the bottom is still a slight yellowish while the very top is white. container temp is 80 and humidity is 70%

 

[ajveachster]

They will continue to kick the lay medium where they laid the eggs, and even look for them. It is a natural instinct. After a day or two they may go back to acting normally. What do you have for a substrate in their tank? If the whole tank is some sort of soil you can expect them to lay eggs anywhere they can dig. If you want to control a little better where the eggs are laid you may want to look into having a solid substrate in the tank, and only the particulate substrate in the lay box. It isn't a guarantee they will lay the eggs in the lay box, but may help to control their laying behavior.

 

[murph909]

aha yea i wasnt worried about it and nah il leave it as is, i wasnt planning or trying on breeding but wont pass up hte opportunity, u know.

any advice bout the egg situation i mentioned and if its normal?

 

[murph909]

btw, thanks for the advice on their behaviour

 

[murph909]

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