Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The other nite I looked at one of my eggs and it had a bit of water on it. Now it apears to be smaller. The clutchmate of this egg has already hatched. What is going on?

It may be too late but i'd slit that egg open and see if the baby is alive inside still. Egg sweating and deflating are both very strong signs that its hatching time. Sometimes they are unable to slit the egg to get out and end up dieing inside the egg. As a general most sets of eggs hatch withing 24 hours of the clutchmate. I find that if a second egg hasn't hatched in the 24 hour time period I always slit the egg and make sure the baby is ok. Good luck, hope the baby is ok.
Nate

this made me curious. i am incubating my first clutch of crested gecko eggs as we speak, and they have just passed the 70 day mark. the eggs are from a friend who was not having any luck incubating her eggs and keeping them viable. i have recorded the weight with every noticeable increment of increase (0.1 g), and they have reached 3.8 and 3.7 grams each. i am expecting them any day now and check up on them several times a day.

now you mention shrinking and "egg sweating." what is this sweating? from what i can imagine, i guess its just some of the (excess?) water leaking back thru the egg shell pores prior to hatching? is it accompanied by any weight loss? should i expect the slightly heavier egg to hatch first? if the second egg does not hatch a day or two after the first, would you recommend opening it?

i have also asked this several times before, but does anyone else record the growth of their eggs? if so, around what weight would you find that they usually hatch? nevertheless, my attention is not going to stray far from these eggs in the next 3 weeks.

When the eggs sweat beads of moisture appear on the eggs, if you watch them often you will catch this, sometimes I don't catch this. As far as the eggs shrinking, after they sweat the eggs tend to "colapse" some, this mainly happens when the babies don't hatch out right away. I can't comment on egg growths much because i'm working with chahoua and have limited breeding info with my sarasinorum (just started this year), and chahoua eggs are very different from the other rhac eggs. They are hard shelled so they start out much larger than other rhac eggs and don't grow very much over the incubation time. I haven't recorded weights on a regular basis as I prefer to handle the eggs as little as possible.
Nate

I've had eggs do that before, (in fact one of my eggs just did the same thing,) and the babies usually hatched out just fine a day later. I don't believe in helping them out; nature designed the eggs that way so that if they are strong enough to get out, they are probably strong enough to survive. It seems harsh, but it's even more heartbreaking to see one fail once hatched because there was something wrong with it to begin with.
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Terri
4:8:15 crested geckos: Popcorn, Goldfish, Harley, Bear, Big Red, Olive, Smudge, Blackie, Belle, Brilliant, Tina, Brick, Avis, Toni(y), Kermit, ChiliPepper, Zipper, ZigZag & Scallops, Bullseye & Tigerhead, RedFlash & OrangeFlash, Baubles and Pineapple, Brindle & AllVees

The egg sweated the nite before last the next day it was smaller but no hatchling. Today still no hatchling and the egg has stopped shrinking. I'm still on the fence as to slitting the egg.

Well I checked it out last nite and the little guy was very much dead and stiff but full size. I guess it wasn't strong enough to get out.

How sad. Please accept my condolences. (I still don't think nature meant for us to open their eggs for them, although I know how difficult it is to just stand by and hope.) Consider that there may have been something not-readily-apparently wrong with the baby. The eggs of mine that developed the drop of moisture outside so far have all hatched out alright, albeit a day or so later than their clutchmate, so don't panic too quickly if that happens to you again. If you lived near Wisconsin, I'd be happy to let you have a baby of mine since I have a bunch of little beauties at present, with 2 more new hatchlings just yesterday.
Terri
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Terri
4:8:15 crested geckos: Popcorn, Goldfish, Harley, Bear, Big Red, Olive, Smudge, Blackie, Belle, Brilliant, Tina, Brick, Avis, Toni(y), Kermit, ChiliPepper, Zipper, ZigZag & Scallops, Bullseye & Tigerhead, RedFlash & OrangeFlash, Baubles and Pineapple, Brindle & AllVees

Thanks However, I am pushing 20 cresteds so I will be fine.