Is it possible for leo's to lay false eggs?? I have 3 leo's in a 20 gallon long tank and have had them over a year or so. I'm pretty sure they are all females, but one of them laid a clutch of 2 eggs the other night. I have seperated the eggs and put them in moist soil and keeping them temp above 88 degrees ( if they are real I want some males!) anyways, i double checked all the leo's again and they all look like females underneath, I've seen males and know what they look like down there and unless one of them is just an underdeveloped male I'm failry certain they are all females. I know that iguanas can have false lays, so i was wondering if the same is true for leo's. And is there a way I can tell by looking at the eggs if they are true or not. They are white and soft. Anyways, thanks for the help.
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False eggs???
Replies (7)
It happens sometimes, but usually they will absorb them and not lay.
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www.LeopardGeckoBreeder.com
6.16.1 Leos
1.0 Peach Fronted Conure
0.0.2 Red Ear Sliders
1.0 Pembroke Corgi
0.2 Cats
8 fish
OK, i was wondering about that, well I'll keep them incubated to see what happens, just in case. In a couple weeks I'll candle them to see if they really are fertile...that is if they don't start stinking and rotting before then. Maybe one of them is just a not so well endowed male...poor guy.lol
i have had my share of eggs lately and the infertile ones are the ones that are soft, when candled they are yellow, or they are yellow in blotchs on the outside. thank goodness i havnt had many of those but i do always attempt to incubate until they totally deflate or grow mold. i have been having my females lay nice fertile eggs but the other day my girl layed her 4/5 clutch but i think they are infertile. o well it happens.
yeah, infertile eggs are a real bummer and I'm 99.9999% sure these are because I'm 99.9999999% sure all 3 of my leo's are female. But since she laid the egss it's kind of exciting and I may end up buying a male so that in the future I can have some actual fertile eggs.
yeah, the infertills one of my girls just layed was soft and smooshy the other the another girl layed is fertile. when the smooshies were candled they were pure yellow inside. when the fertile one was candled it had a red vein, now two days later it also has a bulls eye looking pink thing, the embryo i assume.
I checked the eggs again last night and they are pretty firm, so maybe I'll get lucky. HOpefully I didn't kill them though because I didn't realize that they were laid in the hide until I cleaned it....however I did just set that hide up monday night so i know she laid them later that night and then I went to change the vermiculite out on wednesday night to Moss so they eggs were moved within the first 24 hours. From what I've been reading some people say not to roll them at all after 2 hours and others say it's OK up to several days after they are laid. Anyways, next time I'll know to be more careful when changing the hide and well just see what happens this time.
Infertile eggs can be firm and fertile eggs can be mushy.
Usually a fertile egg being mushy is due to it being removed from the lay box too soon after being laid. The female rolls the eggs right after laying and should not be removed until she is done doing so, usually anywhere from 5 to 20 min. No one knows for sure why, but we have figured out that they usually don't harden up if she is not given the chance to roll them.
I actually caught a laying on video last month, it's posted on this page. Warning: even with broadband it can take a while to load.
www.leopardgeckobreeder.com/incubator.html
As you can see she turns the eggs. No one knows for sure why, but we have figured out that they usually don't harden up if she is not given the chance to roll them. Some believe the rolling motion takes away some of the moisture from they egg by attaching the particals from the substarte and that is what causes them to harden. I also believe that rolling the eggs keep them from firming up in a more flat shape, so that the embryo has plenty of room to grow inside the egg.
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www.LeopardGeckoBreeder.com
6.16.1 Leos
1.0 Peach Fronted Conure
0.0.2 Red Ear Sliders
1.0 Pembroke Corgi
0.2 Cats
8 fish
