Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all

It's been a long time since I've posted on any KS forums, but I have a question for some of you guys.

Have you ever noticed anything to trigger hatching?

I had two clutches of eggs from two different pairs incubating. The clutches were laid about 4 days apart. Incubation medium is ceramic soil. They were not in an incubator. I left them out at room temperature in my dining room.

The eggs had been sitting for quite some time at this point. Over 8- days at least.
I noticed the medium was drying out, so I dampened it again. Just around the edges. I didn't lift the container, or let any water touch the eggs. About 24 hours later there was a gecko explosion. All the eggs hatched, within just a few hours of each other (even though there was a difference in clutch dates).

The hatchlings all seem fine, though one still has a little bit of yolk sack attached.

I never thought of it before, but could a sudden humidity increase be a trigger to hatch?

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I am highly prized for my meat.

could also be coincidence, clutch mates often hatch nearly at the same time. could also be that adding the water cooled them a bit, making them pop out. no way to know for sure.

I'm very well aware that clutchmates often hatch at the same time.

Maybe I was not clear enough. These were two different clutches, laid nearly a week apart.

Also, I used lukewarm (room temperature) water - not cold water.
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I am highly prized for my meat.

I thought about the same thing but never mentioned it. I had two leo eggs last march. And like you i thought the medium was drying out so i added some water(never getting the eggs wet) and within 24 hours they hatched. Maybe its something worth looking into.

Reptilefreak
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www.reptilefreaks.tk
4.7.2 leopard geckos (super hypo tangs, blizzards,albinos)
1.0.2 crested geckos (lite cream fire, buckskin, tiger)
1.2 golden geckos
1.1 texas collared lizards
1.1 veiled chameleons
1.0 Bearded dragon

Ya know same thing almost happened to me. I added water to my single clutch and that night they hatched. Hmmmm interesting?
-ELI

Sounds tempting to want to try to control, but remember that you don't want to have premature geckos (GOD those would be hard to take care of!). If it is true, I wouldn't mess with it on purpose.