Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a breeding pair of halmehera geckos. 4 months ago they laid a clutch of two eggs. One egg died off within a few weeks but the other has made up to now. I was checking on the egg since it's almost time to hatch, and the cover for the incubator fell on the egg and cracked it! the top of the egg fell off easy and the membrane inside the egg didn't break. I can see a 100% developed baby gecko inside the mebrane...once again, the membrane is still sealed. The eyes and everything are completely formed.. I didn't touch what's left of the egg and membrane in it.

Are there any chances the gecko can survive without the egg this far into developement? Please respond, I've been trying to breed these geckos for a year now and breaking this egg crushed me.

Thanks for reading.

Karl

Hello Karl,

Sorry to hear about your accident. I have heard of a technique for dealing with this sort of thing. You might try taking a clean cut out section of ziploc bag, large enough to cover the section of egg shell that is missing, and use it to patch the hole. The edges of the plastic can be sealed to the shell using a q-tip and clean petroleum jelly. I haven't had to do this before myself, but I would suspect that you still have a decent chance of the lizard hatching since it is so far along.

Good Luck,
Doug

Thank you for replying.

I underestimated how much egg broke. I was left with less then half of the egg to work with, so I took a piece of ziplock bag like you suggested, and gently wrapped it around most of the membrane and to the edges of the egg. I didn't seal it because too much egg was missing to seal it to anything, so I'm just going to sit back and wait now...

It's sad being able to see the geckos eyes open looking at me, a full patterned body, etc, inside that membrane and so helpless.

Thanks for the help, I'll post daily on how it's doing. I'm guessing the chances of it surviving now are very small.

Thanks again. =)

Geesh, what a shame, but accidents happen, I know how exciting it is waiting for eggs to hatch and hoping the lil ones peek out and all is well. It's a wonderful thing.

Sure pulling for the lil gecko to come out safe and sound

Yes, please let us know, hang in there, (And I would be watching him too, making sure he was still okay) I think we all would be going nuts looking at him in there.

Just think if all goes well he will already KNOW you when he come out, (He sees you too)

***Lets hope for the VERY BEST
-----
PHEve / Eve

Contact PHEve

Thanks for the kind words. I've been checking on him and the one thing I'm worried about is the lack of shell making it so it has no support.

This whole deal motivated me to re-do all my chameleon and gecko setups and start intense feeding regimes to get some more eggs soon.

Karl,

Sorry to hear.I will say that the chances of survival are very slim,unless your marginata was hatching within a day or two allready.My suggestion to you would be to take it as a lesson and keep your eggs (at the very least hard shelled ones) in deli cups within your incubator.I am just assuming you have a "hovabator"type incubator.I would discourage it's use as most geckos simply don't need them and Chameleons need them even less.A tip for better production in Gehyra.....feed them alot and incorporate fruit yoghurt into their diet 3 times a week at a minimum.The availability of prey and fruit/pollen is a major stimulant to a lot of geckos especially Gehyra marginata.The added calcium will help strengthen those eggs a bit as well.
Link

Karl, sounds like a tough situation. I've never had anything like that happen so I don't have any advice for you other than perhaps to ask around on the Geckophile forums. There's bound to be some folks that can help over there. The URL is http://www.geckosunlimited.com/forum/index.php
If he's still alive, I imagine there's at least some chance of him hatching out. So don't give up just yet.

Well, it's been a few days since the accident. For sake of knowing of trying to find out if it was dead or not, I gently tapped the mebrane and the gecko inside moved. So I'll keep everyone posted.

Jay, I'm currently feeding them a homemade mix. It is 1 small jar of chicken baby food, 3 medium jars of various baby food fruits, some honey, some lemon juice for preservative, calcium and multi-vit supplement powders. I feed this to them thawed out 3-4x a week. Should I switch off and on to yogurt?

Thanks for the support everyone.

Karl

So...it's been a few days now. How's everything going?