Reptile & Amphibian Forums

we just put our pair of crested geckos together in a new inclosure roughly 3 weeks ago and already have found a pair of eggs (saw the female digging and decided to look the next day). quick research seemed to point to using damp vermiculite in a smallish airtight container with only a few small holes poked for ventalation. this seems ok but i'd like to get more detailed instructions and feedback from people who have been successful hatching in the past.

assuming this setup would be suitable, do you place the eggs directly on the damp vermiculite? the eggs were found buried in coco fiber and are therefore covered in it, is this going to be a problem or should i attempt to gently brush it off or is this perfectly ok? i don't have a humidity guage that will fit in the container i came up with (very unexpected to find eggs this early so i made do with what i could find- kind of a small tupperware container with 3 holes poked in the lid). i can see a very small amount of condensation on the lid (not enough to drip, more like a fine kinda fog on the inside of the lid), i'm assuming this is where i want to be with the humidity, or is that too high? the temperature stays pretty constant at around 78 and i've read that should be fine for incubation, is this correct? how much and how quickly should the eggs increase in size over time? any other information or feedback would be greatly appreciated. like anyone else i just want to give these 2 eggs the best chance i can at surviving. i've searched these forums (and google) to death and found good info, but i'd like to get feedback from personal experience and answer some of the more detailed questions i couldn't find answers to. thanks in advance.

Ill try and help as much as I can. I bury my eggs so that there is still half of the egg above the vermiculite. As far as humidity i dont know what level it is at but i mix the vermiculite 1:1 by weight. I have a scale to do this now but at first i was just guessing. Keep the vermiculite moist but not wet. You may be on the wetter side if you have condensation. As far as the eggs growing, you wont notice it really until you compare them to next months, then you should notice they are a little bigger. Eggs that are two months difference are definately distinguishable. I'm 12 for 12, knock on wood, doing it this way. Well, good luck. P.S. Its a long 60 days to wait but its so sweet to hatch your first one.
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- Dan

4.6.14 keeper Crested Geckos

Hello,

I have fairly detailed instructions on incubating cresty eggs on my website. As far as the coco fiber on the eggs, just blow off what you can or lightly brush and don't worry too much about it. It won't harm anything unless it is really caked on. Then it may be a good place for mold to start.

http://reptile-like.com/crested_gecko_care.htm
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Peace!
KofSeattle
Reptile-Like
Here lizard lizard.........

thanks for the input so far guys! the eggs are stuck together and i hope that won't be a problem, but because of this it was easy to not let them roll over. i didn't put indents in the verm. for them to rest in but they shouldn't be in danger of rolling over. i guess i'm just a little unsure about the humidity still, is condensation definately too much humidity?

so far this has been a very exciting experience. i didn't think they'd mated since the female would chase the male away every time i saw (i keep them in a room i'm often in until late at night, so i catch a lot of the action). then i noticed the female has been digging her head into the substrate and leaving little pits all around the cage from digging. then 2 days ago i noticed she was gone (must be in the cave i thought) for a couple hours at least, and later i saw her actually digging the dirt with her front leg to cover the entrance to the cave. next day i decided i'd better make sure she didn't lay eggs (it wasn't obvious she was carrying eggs, she's always been pretty fat compared to the male). sure enough when i carefully lifted the cave i noticed there was a mound of freshly moved substrate and under it (packed pretty tightly i might add) were 2 little white eggs! took me totally by surprise cause i thought it was too early (they've only been together roughly 3 weeks). then of course i had to do a crash course on incubation technique. fun stuff.

Not to burst your bubble or anything but don't be too suprised if they are infertile. It is always a possiblity especially if you have not had them together that long and/or the female intimidates the male as you mentioned. They will often lay eggs even without a male present. Also, the first year is a little less productive than the years to come. Best of luck to you it is really exciting to hatch your own little reptile critters. AS far as the humidity thing, it is hard to judge without seeing it up close and personal. Be weight the water added to the vermiculite should be the same weight as the total weight of the vermiculite 1:1 No holes, just open the container once every week for air exchange and you should be good. If you have any questions along the way feel free to email. Cheers!
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Peace!
KofSeattle
Reptile-Like
Here lizard lizard.........

is it possible to tell if the egg is fertile/infertile or do you just have to wait 60-80 days to see if anything ends up hatching? also, i just noticed that the coco attached to the eggs has formed a tiny bit of cottony mold. i'm wondering how delicate the eggs are because i'd like to try to brush all the coco i can off to prevent the mold from affecting the eggs. i think the humidity is a little high so i'm going to fan out the container more often until it goes down a bit and then go back to fanning less often. i'd really like to know how to tell about fertile/infertile though if it's at all possible to tell. thanks!