Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, my female patternless finaly laid her clutch today after 4 weeks of being gravid. The thing is she dug all the way to the bottom of the hide, and laid straight on the plastic. One of the eggs came off easy but the other one is stuck on pretty good, I can see a lot of it is stuck on when I look from the bottom of the container. What would I do in this situation? Thanks for your time!
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-Sal

1.4 Leopard Gecko Colony

Depending on what you used for a nesting subtrate I would just put the whole laybox in the incubator if it is really that stuck...... If you feel you might break the egg I would not try to peel it off......

Thanks for the reply, I used vermiculite in the nest box, but the nestbox is pretty big and can't fit in the hovabator, lol. I may have to cut it out?
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-Sal

1.4 Leopard Gecko Colony

Sal, I have had this happen many times. Sometimes if you bend and work the bottom of the container back and forth, the egg will loosen enough to break free easily by wiggling it back and forth very gently. If not, you may have to take an exacto knife an cut around the egg so you can get it into a deli cup that fits in your hovabator. Eventually, as the egg grows, it will come loose.
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Marcia McGuiness
Golden Gate Geckos
www.goldengategeckos.com

Thanks for the replies, I was able to get it out by using the method Marcia explained (Thanks!). I wiggled it out very gently and it came off pretty clean. So I put both eggs which really do feel like a stale marshmellows (good sign I hope) in the incubator. Well just when I thought I had enough egg excitement this morning, I checked some of the other hides. Turns out that one of my first year breeders had laid two eggs also! But these eggs looked really infertile, I mean they were half the size of the first eggs I found from my second year breeder, and they were really soft-shelled and dented. I put them in the incubator anyways and I'll keep an eye on them. Below are pictures of the first eggs I found from my second year patternless. Thanks again for the replies!

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-Sal

1.4 Leopard Gecko Colony

Next time you can put paper towels in the bottom like someone else said and you can also use a nest box that fits in your incubator..... When I was breeding kings this would happen from time to time....... It got to the point where I would not even take the eggs out........ I would just put the nest box in the incubator.......

DONT try to pry it off. It may break. Ive successfully pried a few of mine off, never broken any. But it is risky.
Place the whole nest box into the incubator, seal it off.
That is the safest way to go. Unless you want to try peeling it off.
If you do, I suggest using a bit of water or vegetable oil (not too much, and dont spray the entire egg) and use a plastic butter knife to gentley peel it away, while wiggling it in the process. If you are gentle enough, it shouldnt break, and peel away nicely.

But if you DONT want to risk it, just place the entire box in the incubator.

As a precaution, next time..place a moist papertowel under the nestbox bedding, and this shouldnt happen again.

Good luck

Crystal
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Crystal Light (Yes..thats my real name)

*Whenever you lose a gecko, just think of it as God building on his own Leopard Gecko collection

www.thegeckobarn.com