Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just rescued this alligator lizard from my cats about a week ago, and she’s been recuperating well from some injuries. I have never had a lizard before (only snakes), and so her care is entirely new to me. Now, I left town for a couple of days and came back to find little eggs scattered around the cage... maybe 7 to 10 eggs. So now I have these little eggs to think about too! I have so many questions:

1) some of them appear to have been "popped" and are no good. Should I remove these?
2) the rest of them are dented or starting to shrivel. Is this dehydration?
3) I have read two different opinions about how to care for the eggs: remove them into a seperate container with vermicullite and water, or not to move or disprupt them and just leave them in the cage. What should I do?
4) I have a small ant problem and I have been able to remove most of them and stop the trail leading to the cage, but will the ants harm the eggs?

HELP!

The ants will harm the eggs and the lizard.

I found a trick to take care of this that I started in another thread.

http://forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=1307227,1310368

Instead of using the freesbie, if you have one of those CD/DVD container that you bought, just leave one in each leg of the shelf and pour water and a little bit of dishwasher soap into them.
-----
I will be back!

If any are popped or look yellow they are likely no good or already dead, but if in doubt you can still incubate. To incubate get something like a cool whip or butter container. Fill it about 2/3rds of the way with vermiculite (check stores like orchard supply that have garden centers). The vermiculte should be damp but not wet. About 1 part vermiculite to about .8 parts water by weight should work fine. Alternatively get the vermiculite wet and squeeze out as much water as you possibly can and use that. Place the eggs about 3/4ths buried. Be careful to place them in the substrate in the same orientation you found them in, don't rotate them or you'll drown the embryo. You should probably peek at the eggs daily (don't put any holes in the lid) to remove moldy or bad eggs. The eggs should have no odor, if they smell there's a bad one. Once all the eggs look good weekly or biweekly checks will be sufficient. Put the container somewhere in your house where the temperature is relatively stable. At room temp they typically hatch in 1 and a half to two months.

-Alice