Newbie with a few eggs.

[beege_3]

Hi there,

I'm new to the forum and have been keeping leos for the last 5 years. This is my first year breeding them and have got 11 eggs from my 9 females so far this year.

However, I am starting to encounter problems with the eggs, for example some of the eggs have never hardened, but they have grown. Some are starting to collapse now, even though they have been incubated at reasonable temps.

If anyone has any tips or can tell me where i am going wrong, it would be a great help. Oh, and I am using vermiculite to incubate in, my females have both vermiculite and sphagnum moss lay hides available to them, and the incubator I am using is Lucky Reptile's Herp Nursery set at 28oC (82.4oF).

Thank you, I really appreciate any help!

Bryan

 

[beege_3]

No one?

 

[dprince]

How wet is your vermiculite? If it's too dry, the eggs could collapse. But you don't want it too wet, either, because that will cause your eggs to explode. I use a 1:.8 vermiculite:water ratio and have good luck at that ratio. I also check on my eggs to make sure they are OK, because even when I measure everything out, weird things happen sometimes.

If the eggs are never really getting hard, they might be infertile, or the females may not have gotten enough calcium. Have you candled them to see if they're fertile? Also, non fertile eggs will sometimes collapse.

 

[beege_3]

Thank you for the reply, I have candled them and they were pink / red. Couldnt see any veins, so you may be right about the lack of calcium but I have been supplementing them regularly.