Reptile & Amphibian Forums

one of my females laid eggs about 2 weeks ago, when she did i didnt have any vermiculite so i used a perlite soil mixture. well today i looked at the batch and noticed little brown spots where the perlite was touching. i rushed out to a garden place that i found out had vermiculite, (30 min drive) to get some to switch them over. while i was moving them over i noticed on every egg that where ever the perlite was touching it looks like mold. has anyone ever had a problem with perlite causing this? im hoping that switching them over will save the eggs knowing that mold will kill eggs. any help would be great.

Also. i am using a hovabator incubator (with fan), 84 degrees spraying them every 2 days but not with too much water.

Can you post a picture of them?

When I add water, I don't add it directly to the eggs themselves, but I drip it on the vermiculite around the eggs and only if the substrate is drying out. Otherwise the eggs expand too much.

I know perlite is controversial, but I have heard of people using it successfully. I wonder if it would be a high moisture content and not the perlite. I haven't used it myself, so I can't attest to whether it would cause the brown spots.

*By the way, we just love our little blue-tongue skink...thanks a million...she's really cool!

Eeeks! Never spray the eggs directly! As the previous poster said, only drip water into the substrate as needed, usually once or twice during the incubation period. Did you sterilize the egg containers? Also i highly recommend you use boiled water to moisten the substrate and only touch the eggs with gloved hands.
~E.

Also the turbofan is a bad idea. It dries out the eggs. The hovabator without the fan is the better choice. I agree with the no water on the eggs. Oxygen needs to pass thru the shells and water blocks that causing the eggs to drown.

thanks for all the input but ive never had a problem with my method before(if it aint broke dont fix it). all im asking is if perlite has a tendency to mold. i have eggs incubating now in the incubator on vermiculite being sprayed and i have no mold on them.will the mold kill all the eggs or did i catch it time.

Perlite is not known to cause mold any more than vermiculite would cause mold. The eggs may be fine, just keep incubating them and see what happens. I had snake eggs that hatched with obvious fuzzy black mold. Sometimes you just don't know what will happen.

thanks. yea ive never had problems with mold and ive incubated at least 100 clutches of eggs.

glad to hear the bluey is doing good.

I've never used perlite myself so can't say if its causing the mold or not..but one thing I have noticed incubating eggs with vermiculate, is if there is any dirt on the eggs from the egg laying bin (if you used a mix of soil/sand/vermiculite either all of them or a mix of one or more) sometimes that causes mold. Brushing of the egg carefully of any stuck soil before putting them into the incubator (keeping proper orientation of the egg) can help prevent mold.
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PHLdyPayne