single egg? weird place?

[PwnzorsNTittlywinks]

A friend of mine recently got his first leopard gecko from someone who was selling theirs before going to college, the person they had gotten her from kept her with another gecko they thought was a girl.
Turns out the other gecko was a male. (Dont know how they managed to not see that..)
and she was gravid. She layed an egg (just one single egg though, and doesnt seem to be gearing up to lay any more..) near her food bowl, it was plump and white and didnt have much of a distinguishable color (somewhere between yellow and pink) when we held it to a light.
I took the egg in and now have it incubating in a homemade incubator i made from a video i found online.
Im using vermaculite (pure 100%), water, and a small tubbaware with its lid on, the temp is staying at a steady 85 according to my probe thermometer, and the humidity is at 80% according to the dial i put in the tub, its been sitting ontop of a UTH inside of the big tank i have, It was layed and put in the incubator on the 6th, should i candle it again to see if it is good on the 13th? ( a week later when ill open it for air exchange) or should i keep incubating it til its obvious that its no good?
I read somewhere that if the lay it out in the open like that that its probably a bad egg, and i find it weird its just one egg since ive always seen people with like 14 eggs...
im willing to do whatever in order to give it its best success rate, any advice is welcome!


* i attached a picture of the egg right after i put it into the incubator, i have sense put the two humidity/heat thermometers in it, and it has a lid and on heat. the picture is JUST the egg in the vermaculite

 

[jemjdragon]

Leopard geckos do not lay all of their eggs at once. They lay a clutch of 1-2, sometimes even 3, at a time. These clutches can be laid anywhere from 10 days to 35 days apart. So it is very likely that if she did get bred, she will lay more later. And if she is laying in a weird place, she may not like where her lay box is. Some people place two lay boxes in the tank (one on the warm side and one on the cool side) until she picks the one she likes more to lay her eggs.

 

[PwnzorsNTittlywinks]

thank you! I've taken her in for him til everything is settled, so ill make another hide and put it on the other side, i was afraid to put a moist hide on the warm side for bacterial reasons

 

[jemjdragon]

There should not be a problem of putting a moist hide on the warm side. If you are worried then you can always change the moist hide substrate everyday to minimize bacterial growth. Anyways, good luck with her. Make sure she is getting her vitamin and calcium supplements too.

 

[PwnzorsNTittlywinks]

I moved the moist hide between the warm and cold side and she is now sitting in the moist hide and has dug up one side, is she digging because shes getting ready to lay more? she gets dusted worms with calci d3 and has calcium in her tank at all times in a cap, i press it down so i can see the little spots from her tongue so i know shes getting it.
shes looking great right now, thank you for all the advice!!

 

[jemjdragon]

If she is digging in the moist hide that means she is interested in it and it is quite possible she will lay there. Make sure to check the moist hide everyday for eggs. Even if you do not see them on the surface, she might have buried them. Also, make sure when you move the eggs you do not turn them from the orientation they were in when you found them. You can mark the top of an egg with a sharpy so you know what orientation they should be in. Are the worms gut-loaded and are you also using a multivitamin dust?

 

[PwnzorsNTittlywinks]

I did the sharpie thing with the last egg too, and yea the worms are gutloaded and no i dont have a multivitamin dust, is that 100% needed?

 

[Ozy]

Yes. You need to use a multi-vitamin. I use Repashy Calcium Plus with every feeding. Basically I just dust everything my leo eats with it.

 

[SC Geckos]

Also, make sure when you move the eggs you do not turn them from the orientation they were in when you found them. You can mark the top of an egg with a sharpy so you know what orientation they should be in.

It seems from what I have read and experienced myself that it does not effect the eggs if they get rolled around a little, even several days after being layed. They dont seem to be like say python eggs in the sense that the position they were layed is they way they must stay. In Ron Trempers book he talks about having eggs fall on the floor and roll around and they still hatched perfectly fine. Check out Matt B. (sasobek11) on Youtube. He has a video talking about eggs and not having to worry about there position when collecting them. (I don't want to post a link because the video is not mine)
Another thing I personally would never mark my eggs with a toxic marker like a sharpie but thats just me.

 

[jemjdragon]

Sharpies are considered non-toxic. If I remember correctly, I believe my orthodontist used a sharpie marker to mark the wire on my braces to figure out where to bend them. But if you are worried about toxicity then use a different marker.
I have heard and read from several sources that embryos can drown if moved from the position they are laid in. As a result I wouldn't want to risk rolling the eggs around or dropping them.

 

[PwnzorsNTittlywinks]

sadly when i went to air exchange today the egg was completely rotted and had a red spot on the bottom, candled a bright yellow and smelled horrific. my boyfriend and i decided to discard it.
sad day :'(

 

[jemjdragon]

I'm sorry. Does she look like she will lay more eggs or has she laid more eggs?

 

[PwnzorsNTittlywinks]

no she hasnt laid anymore, and doesnt look like she will be.