Hello,
I have a male aptor and a female reverse stripe/jungle giant albino. I bred them this year and the female laid 1 egg fairly late, which was infertile (probably because she laid it so late...) I boosted her supplements for the next attempt and this time around she laid 2 eggs, just about 4 wks after the breeding. I was actually out of state when she laid, so I had to have my mom set things up... I had pre-measured perlite and set it aside in a container and I had figured out what I thought was the correct water-to-perlite ratio, so I had her add the water, put the eggs in, etc and then set the incubator to 79-80 degrees for females. The egg that was laid first started to dent a little so the container was misted more. Now, I've read that if fertile the eggs will become turgid like a stale marshmellow. One egg got that way...at least it seemed to gain weight and density. The other stayed very soft and "plushy" sort of like a little water balloon and started to get yellowish areas which I assumed weren't good and probably not an indication of fertility... The first egg also began to get moldy and at this point they both seem to be goners. Humidity was obviously wrong. Any suggestions besides getting the humidity right?
Btw this female gecko will only eat crickets. She doesn't touch worms. Are there any special guidelines for supplementing a gecko who only eats crix? Since 2 of her 3 eggs seemed to be infertile I'm thinking I need to adjust the nutritional aspect... I read a thread once where a breeder commented that supplementation is different when dealing with crickets as the main staple versus a more varied diet like supers, mealies, crix, etc.
One more thing.. My female always lays her eggs on the paper towels in her cage..despite the provision of a moist laying hide (which is always kept moist). I have eco-earth (coco fiber, bed a beast, etc) as a substrate. Could it be she just doesn't like the bedding??
Thanks,
tc_legacy
