Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hey all,

I write to you very stressed and very worried. I use Co Co fiber to incubate my cresty eggs and I've had a 98% hatch rate so Im really fond of it. The only thing was that about 2 months ago a beautiful harley baby had a mouthful of co co fiber and I took a little out, not making to much a deal from it. 3 days later the baby passed away. Today, a new baby was born and had a mouthful of co co fiber. I tried to clean its mouth as throughly as possible and got much out of his mouth but he seems really fragile. MOst of my baby's come out running and jumping and full of life and this one like the other one looks sluggish. Im scared to washout its mouth because I may wash in what I dont want him swallowing and I dont want to stress the poor baby. What do I do????? Any suggestions or Ideas are very welcomed. Thanks

cresty

I have had that happen to me using vermiculite. To tell you the truth there is very little you can do. I have tried to remove as much as possible of the ingested skin and vermiculite from their mouth but it rarely works. When they come out they are all wet and if their not taken out quick enough they shed and eat their substrate covered shed. Just hope! It is probably one of the leading causes of death of juvis (that I have experienced).

Ryan
Link

sad news

baby gecko passed away this morning. Co Co fiber was arrested and convicted for the murder of baby cresty. Co Co fiber is now serving a life sentence in the county dump. I have always tried to be careful with baby's but this is my 2nd death due to co co fiber. What is the best media for incubating??

Just to let you know, I'm new to the breeding seen, so I'm not the best person for advice here. But every person I know that does uses perlite. They use a 1:1 ratio or a 8:10 and rarely, but sometimes a 5:10 ratio of water to perlite by weight. They usually have really good hatch rates.

I am actually surprised your eggs successfully incubated in coconut fiber..I have heard that it can cause eggs to go bad within 36 hours. However i deffinitely agree that you should use something else as an incubation medium than the coconut fiber. Most breeders use vermiculite or perlite, or a 50/50 mix of the two. To prepare it, mix one part vermiculte to two parts water by weight.
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PHLdyPayne

Thanks All.

I am a little hesitant to change my media due to the 95% hatch rate and I have lots of baby's. But the fact that I would risk any to death due to my media really makes me sick so Im going to try the perlite media and hope that this will save the life of any and everyone of my baby's. Thanks everyone!!!

cresty