Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My pair of cresteds laid two eggs two or three days ago. I found them yesterday. They are nice and plump and firm, but they are weird looking. For one, they are very brown. They also have an almost almond-like appearence, one side is just brown, but the other is paler and covered in brown lines. I called the pairs breeder and asked about it, and he said he's seen it before, and it didn't mean they were bad. They look healthy except for the color. Its been a couple days now and they are firm and flump, no wrinkles. And they are certainly not collapsing. Has anyone seen this before? Its my first pair of crested eggs, so I'm not sure.
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Corn Snakes: Eden, Mars, Sierra, Lavendar, The Tweedle Twins
Crested Geckos: Parker, Emily Dickinson, Bonnie, Unnamed 1 & unnamed 2, Cali
Leopard Geckos: Paris, Helen, Annabelle, Artemis
Bearded Dragon: Humphrey
Jambea Dwarf Retic

they are most likely infertile.
crested gecko eggs when infertile will be a light yellow-almond color, with a slight scalation texture to it. the fertile ones will be much smoother ( smoother than a chicken egg) and bright white.
under calcified eggs with have a " starry" or " snowflake" like appearance on more of a transparent background color.
stick them in the incubator ( or a small cup with vermiculite, perlite, or diff. substrate) and if they are infertile they will likely begin to mold within a couple of weeks.
i have yet to see a fertile egg from anything get moldy when kept in a clean substrate, so if it molds cut it open or throw it out.

They aren't yellow at all, they are very brown. I immediately assumed they were infertile, but the pair's breeder told me he has had sucsessful hatches from brown eggs. Is it possible the coconut fiber stained them somehow? It might just be wishful thinking, but other than their color they look very healthy.
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Corn Snakes: Eden, Mars, Sierra, Lavendar, The Tweedle Twins
Crested Geckos: Parker, Emily Dickinson, Bonnie, Unnamed 1 & unnamed 2, Cali
Leopard Geckos: Paris, Helen, Annabelle, Artemis
Bearded Dragon: Humphrey
Jambea Dwarf Retic

well, i'm not really sure. everytime i've found mine have been within 0-8 hours of being laid and have always looked like this... ( sorry for the crappy picture)

If you use coco fiber for your substrate, then a little staining is certainly possible. I use bed-a-beast for my tanks, and my geckos lay directly in that. Its not uncommon for the eggs to be a slightly brown color, if they are still plump and firm, with no visible signs of collapsing then go ahead and see what happens. I wouldnt worry about them being infertile, as I said a good deal of my eggs have a brownish coloration to them, and as far as I can tell its just a result of having being laid in bed-a-beast.

Sometimes the substrate in the egg box can stain the eggs. When I started using peat instead of coco fiber, I noticed that a lot of them are that color. I initially thought they were bad, but sure enough, they started hatching. The only bummer about it is that it's hard to mark the eggs.

>>My pair of cresteds laid two eggs two or three days ago. I found them yesterday. They are nice and plump and firm, but they are weird looking. For one, they are very brown. They also have an almost almond-like appearence, one side is just brown, but the other is paler and covered in brown lines. I called the pairs breeder and asked about it, and he said he's seen it before, and it didn't mean they were bad. They look healthy except for the color. Its been a couple days now and they are firm and flump, no wrinkles. And they are certainly not collapsing. Has anyone seen this before? Its my first pair of crested eggs, so I'm not sure.
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>>Corn Snakes: Eden, Mars, Sierra, Lavendar, The Tweedle Twins
>>Crested Geckos: Parker, Emily Dickinson, Bonnie, Unnamed 1 & unnamed 2, Cali
>>Leopard Geckos: Paris, Helen, Annabelle, Artemis
>>Bearded Dragon: Humphrey
>>Jambea Dwarf Retic
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Anthony Caponetto
www.ACreptiles.com