Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My 2 year old female has laid 12 eggs so far. So far about 5 have gone bad. Ok, that's fine. But i have several (from what I can tell) viable eggs that have been incubating at 83 degrees. I use hatchrite as a substrate. After 11 weeks incubating, my first and second clutch began to dent. ok, no big deal, they are getting ready to hatch. then low and behold, mold begins to form. I gently wiped off the mold with a q-tip. they are still in the incubator, but have become darker in color and look pretty sad. I bred this female last year to the same male as this year and had a 100% hatch rate. I can't figure out the difference between last year and this year. the only thing i can think of is that maybe the hatchrite is too old? Does hatchrite go bad? I bought it for last year's breeding season and have been using the left over. Please help..
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1.1 Western Painted Turtle (Mougly, Scooter)
1.1 Albino Leopard Gecko (Daphne, Guy)
1.0 High Yellow Leopard Gecko (Sunshine)
1.1 HTCT Leopard Gecko (Rocket, Dot)
0.1 SHTCT Leopard Gecko (Tequila)

I had the same problem with the hatchrite when I used it last year. What I observed is the moisture seamed to work it's way down to the lower substrate & the dryer top substrate sucked moisture out of the eggs. I went back to useing Vermiculite & that seemed to eliminate the problem.

I wonder if it could have anything to do with being bred to young? Do the eggs look like this? I use Perlite in my egg containers, it dose not mold. Whats the humidity in your containers?



Foot Hill Reptiles

Oh geez, Wrong pictures and half a wrong post. I am very sorry. I am ready to many posts at once. Ignore me.
Foot Hill Reptiles

my eggs are about the same color as the darkest looking eggs in those pics and a little more deflated. they have started to become a little slimy. As far as using vermiculite, do you use albey's method still? and do you think that i should switch all my eggs to vermiculite or use vermiculite on eggs in the future. I have three eggs going bad and 4 more that still look good. I'd hate to lose them all!
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1.1 Western Painted Turtle (Mougly, Scooter)
1.1 Albino Leopard Gecko (Daphne, Guy)
1.0 High Yellow Leopard Gecko (Sunshine)
1.1 HTCT Leopard Gecko (Rocket, Dot)
0.1 SHTCT Leopard Gecko (Tequila)

Off the top of my head, I'm not to familiar with Albey's method. So I would have to say no.I follow the method described in the "Leopard Gecko Manual" by Ron Tremper
I would swith them to the Vermiculite right away. The three eggs you said were dark, deflated, & slimy are probably bad. Honestly I would give up on those eggs for the sake of the others you think are still good. If you kept them all together the bad eggs will rot producing toxic gases & possibly killing the the good eggs.
It's better to be safe then sorry.