Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is a pic of the 2nd clutch this season to either pip from the egg or completely emerge to go belly up!!!!! The eggs in this pic were laid on 3/28/05 incubated at 83 degrees in a hoovabator with vermeculite as the incubation medium. The parents are tremper albino "male" by het tremper albino "female" both proven from last season with great success. The parents were well feed prior to breeding season mainly on giant meal worms with occasional treats of wax worms the male started the season at 73grams and the female at 53grams she produced 5 clutches this year this is the first to hatch this way. The other clutch that this happened to was from completely different parents with similar stats. I'm just wondering if anyone may have exerienced this or may have opinions. Thanks....

I have never had that happen myself, but it does seem odd to me that they develope perfectly, and then go through the hard job of hatching only to die on the way out. I am just guessing, but it makes me wonder whether there may be something toxic in the vermiculite that they are breathing in. I believe that some studies have shown traces of a asbestos in vermiculite. Try searching vermiculite online. One site I found says "There is the potential of asbestos fibers being released into the air where they can be breathed in if there is any disturbance of the vermiculite." There may only be trace amounts in the vermiculite, not enough to bother us, but the babies are small and vulnerable. Why not switch to perlite? That is what I use and it works great. Holds the moisture and works well for burrying the eggs in. Just an idea. I could be completely wrong with this theory, so don't hold me to it. I just figured it wouldn't hurt to switch to perlite. You might just figure out this problem if you do. Hope this doesn't happen to any more hatchling. And by the way, their colors look great!

I have to agree. Here it is very hard to get Vermiculite our local garden center ays that there r issues with something in vermiculite that can cause cancer maybe what ever this is can kill geckos I have always used perlite and had great results with any eggs I had hatching.

Casey

Also, the baby might have had an internal problem you couldn't see. Getting out of an egg is tough business, it might have died from exhaustion. I use perlite for incubating because I had heard so much about abestos in the verm.
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Katie F.
Peach State Geckos
Breeding Mealworms
My Email

"A herper's life is never dull" - ME

Do you have any small air holes in those containers? In delli cups that size I always leave two small air holes.
Oh and it's not a vermiculite problem, it has been used for many years with no issue with the geckos. could just be a fluke, stuff happens, but I am curious if you had air holes.
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Sarah H

www.fototime.com/inv/500FFD9910FF842
[email]ghia12345@aol.com[email]

I just looked at the pic again those containers are also really small, The size I use can fit four egg comfortably. And if you didn't have any air holes or not enough , it looks like they just didn't get any air.
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Sarah H

www.fototime.com/inv/500FFD9910FF842
[email]ghia12345@aol.com[email]