Reptile & Amphibian Forums

this is my first time trying to breed leo's.i have two eggs in the incubator from my new blizzard couple. and my girl dixie laid two eggs. but i got to them two late.dixie is about ready to lay again she stopped eating 3 days ago.i expect them tonight or sometime tommorrow.and my 2end clutch fom jetta in about a week from now.ive read it takes apprx35-90 days for them to hatch?i have the incubator on @82. for female.one of the eggs are slightly dented.has no mold though ive sprayed a little more water on perlit for more humidity. any suggetions for my dented egg?another thing is my bliz/male is twice her size, dixie is evan twice her size.but she is at 42 grams after she laid her 1st clutch.how can i fatten her up she is really skiddish. and she does not eat much. i personally would not have breed her yet but she was housed with her mate moonshine when i got'em.i am currently feeding her superworms,giant mealies, and crickets.waxies.i have not tried thawed pinkes yet but dixie won't touchem.

The longest any of my eggs took to hatch this past season was 59 days, those eggs were incubated at 81 degrees. I incubated one set at 84 degrees, which was the warmest I incubated & they hatched the fastest at 45 days.

As for your dented egg, adding a little water & waiting to see what happens is all you can do, it may simply be an infertile egg. You can also candle it to see, if it is all a yellowish color then it probably is infertile.

It sounds like you are feeding your small female pretty well, I would get rid of the Giant mealworms though & switch to regular mealworms. The Giants are fed a chemical additive to cause them to grow big. Not enough research has been done to monitor what effect they may have on reptiles & birds. Also be sure she is getting plenty of calcium right now & vitamin supplements probably once a week.

That reminds me, my gecko laid 2 eggs november 14th. I kept oen egg to incubate as a male at 88 degrees and gav ethe other to a friend who has an incubator set at 84 degrees(this is how we do all of our eggs). My egg turned out infertile . His egg is on its its 41st day of incubating today(im not the best at math hope its right.) The egg blew up like a balloon, and it looks like it is only about the size of a dime(the embryo inside). How long until hatch day? Does the embryo just reapidly expand in the last week?

Yeah, the eggs look like they are about to burst the last week or so before they hatch. A lot of times the egg will look like it is kind of sweating shortly before it hatches too. The shell will look like it has wet areas on it. The last egg I had hatch in November looked that way for about 3 or 4 days before it hatched. Sounds like that egg is getting really close could be any day now

I think there may be a little too much humidity because his egg has been nearly double the size of normal eggs the whole time. Its been about 5 days since we candeled it, it was about the size of a dime(the embryo) and about 1/4th of an inch high. Does it just rapidly grow the last few days?

Yes they will expand alot the last week or so. Not all eggs are exactly the same size either. I know I had one very large one this year, quite a bit bigger than any of the others. The hatchling wasn't noticeably larger though. If there is too much moisture the egg will very likely start getting moldy.

K thanks. I hop eto havea hatchling by this time next week!!!

if the dented eggs are a pale yellow get rid of them there infertile

Give her a while bunch of wax worms one day. I'm not sure if you said she was alone, but if she isn't, and you can seperate her for a little while, that will help her gain weight. But 42 grams isn't particularily skinny, and she should fatten up in time; she just has to recover the weight she lost laying eggs.

Wax worms contain a lot of fat, so they will bulk an animal up quickly. But they should only be used for one day a week or so, because they have very little nutritional value besides the fat.
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Corn Snakes: Eden, Mars, Sierra, Lavendar, The Tweedle Twins
Crested Geckos: Parker, Emily Dickinson, Bonnie, Benz, Jude, Cali
Leopard Geckos: Paris, Helen, Annabelle, Artemis, Vesta
Jambea Dwarf Retic: Montague

I agree, waxworms should befed once a day. I was worried about my gecko because she lost a ton of weight after breeding so i gav eher like 4 a day and she got the runs, so i gav eher pinkies and she was back t oweight in about 2 weeks.

If I was you, I would not EVER feed wax worms and they are too addicting to leopard geckos, won’t help female at all. Basically, it causes fertility rate to drop with more fats. Once, they are addicted to wax worms, it is hard to get it off and it is like giving all junks to kid that doesn’t help with health. Best way to feed something that has high proteins like pinky, mealworms and Super Worms. Super Worms would be best for females to gain weight from laying and pinky for calcium regain.

Often, the best breeder out of your collection or people’s fertile rate is high are usually from high protein diet. I have about 90% fertility rate in past 3 years from having good proteins in diet with no wax worms. When, I used wax worms 4 years ago, I have about 70 to 80% fertility.

Since, you said that you have first clutch that is denting and it is likely to be unfertile and I wouldn’t add more water. Water causing to develops more mold that kills the good eggs. I would use 1 of water per 8 of Pertile. Then, don’t add anymore water and it seems dry but you would get better hatch rate that way than having wet or moist. Leopard Geckos hatches munch better at 70 to 80% humidity, less deformity and more actually made out.

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Preston Berry
www.coolgeckos.com
restonberry@austin.rr.com" target="_blank">Prestonberry@austin.rr.com