Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, my pair of Leopard Geckos bred for the first time and she laid 2 eggs last week. I have them in an incubator at about 85 degrees. They are in a tupperware container with moist perlite in it.

I've never had eggs before so I'm not totally sure if they are fertile or not. In the picture, the left one looks pretty bad. It's kind of swelled up and it was like a bluish color when laid. The right one has stayed about the same size in the last week.

In my opinion it looks like the left one is infertile. The container is starting to develop a smell and I think its coming from that left egg. I'd like to throw it out so that it doesn't get any bacteria or anything in there to contaminate the right egg. What do you think? Thanks!
-Scott

the right one looks infertile to me. And the left one looks like it was fertile but may be dead.

The eggs will get bigger while the gecko grows inside. But that yellow and purple color like that doesn't look promising.
-----
www.LeopardGeckoBreeder.com

www.LeopardGeckoArt.com

5.13.1 Leos
1.0 Peach Fronted Conure
0.0.2 Red Ear Sliders
1.0 Pembroke Corgi
0.2 Cats
8 fish

I'd ride it out for awhile longer. Nasty looking eggs can still hatch. I'd say the one on the left, while it looks worse to you, is probably the good one since it grew. Fertile eggs will grow and stretch out. Just seperate the two eggs further apart from eachother, so mold won't transfer, and keep them going for a week or two more. Then, you can post another pic or make another judgement. Don't throw them out yet.

Your perlite looks a lil too wet, did you use the .8-1 weight ratio?

No, I just did it by feel. I don't have a low-weight scale handy. I did some research and many people just do it by feel and make sure that its not too saturated. I have some 1/16" holes in the top of the container too, so that allows some ventilation. I haven't had any condensation buildup or anything.

>>Your perlite looks a lil too wet, did you use the .8-1 weight ratio?

They are not fertile.
-----
Peace-
Kelli Hammack
H.I.S.S.
email me

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but those eggs aren't fertile. If there's ANY mildewy smell to the eggs at all.. they aren't any good. The only eggs that hatch that look like that are eggs that have already been growing for 4-5 weeks....Those appear to be slimey looking... and if you held them up to your nose you'd smell something like mildew coming off them.. I know... I had 2 years in a row where all my eggs went like that...So this year I switched a few things around... I went to vermiculite instead.. a very fine vermiculite thats just barely moistened with a spray bottle and mixed until all of it appears slightly damp and holds a ball when squeezed in the hand... and put my Hovabator incubator on a dimmer switch.. After the past 2 years of hatching only 5 babies total...I've got 10 healthy growing eggs now which is more than I've ever had at one time... 4 of which are only a week or 2 from hatching.. maybe less than that...

These are examples of healthy eggs at 3 weeks...

-----
Lucien

1.1 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)(Sutekh and Isis)
5.11.Leopard geckos (1.2 Blizzards (Caine, Phoenix, and Mirage), 0.2 Tangerine Albinos (Tequila Sunrise ...Tiki for short, and Casper), 1.0 Tremper Albino (Mycah), 0.3 Poss. Het. Albino (Annika, Lace, and Aris), 1.1 dbl. het blizzard x tang albino (Malice, Malfeas), 1.0 Full Stripe Chocolate Tremper Albino (Discord), 0.1 pastel (Raven) and 1.2 Normals)
0.1 Savannah Monitor (Kiros) (R.I.P. November 18, 2005)
13 rats (plus pups)
2 Dogs (Loki and Storm)
2 cats (Ashe and Hercules)

Thanks for the info, I appreciate it.

Yea, I kinda of figure they were infertile just because of how they look. I might give them a few more days and see how they progress just to be sure.

This is the first time my leo has laid eggs so I wasn't too optomistic. Also, she laid them directly on the repti-carpet, not in the box I set up for her. So I don't know if that caused problems even though they were only on the ground for max 10 minutes before I found them.

>>Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but those eggs aren't fertile. If there's ANY mildewy smell to the eggs at all.. they aren't any good. The only eggs that hatch that look like that are eggs that have already been growing for 4-5 weeks....Those appear to be slimey looking... and if you held them up to your nose you'd smell something like mildew coming off them.. I know... I had 2 years in a row where all my eggs went like that...So this year I switched a few things around... I went to vermiculite instead.. a very fine vermiculite thats just barely moistened with a spray bottle and mixed until all of it appears slightly damp and holds a ball when squeezed in the hand... and put my Hovabator incubator on a dimmer switch.. After the past 2 years of hatching only 5 babies total...I've got 10 healthy growing eggs now which is more than I've ever had at one time... 4 of which are only a week or 2 from hatching.. maybe less than that...
>>
>>These are examples of healthy eggs at 3 weeks...
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>-----
>>Lucien
>>
>>1.1 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)(Sutekh and Isis)
>>5.11.Leopard geckos (1.2 Blizzards (Caine, Phoenix, and Mirage), 0.2 Tangerine Albinos (Tequila Sunrise ...Tiki for short, and Casper), 1.0 Tremper Albino (Mycah), 0.3 Poss. Het. Albino (Annika, Lace, and Aris), 1.1 dbl. het blizzard x tang albino (Malice, Malfeas), 1.0 Full Stripe Chocolate Tremper Albino (Discord), 0.1 pastel (Raven) and 1.2 Normals)
>>0.1 Savannah Monitor (Kiros) (R.I.P. November 18, 2005)
>>13 rats (plus pups)
>>2 Dogs (Loki and Storm)
>>2 cats (Ashe and Hercules)