Mourning gecko eggs!

RzezniksRunAway said:

That's crazy how different yours look from mine. Mine are a darker, way more mottled pattern. I know they can shift colors, but even at their palest they don't compare to your girls. The eggs take FOREVER to hatch. I had some go well over 130 days last year, infuriating to wait for. I'm waiting for 2 eggs right now that I discovered 1-20-14, but they're in-tank, glued to the upper rim of an exoterra. If you didn't get the girls as little babies, be prepared for the tiniest geckos ever. I have mine in a 4x4x8 acrylic box with screen on two holes, front and top. I feared smashing them in the door of the exoterra I originally put them in because they were so freaking small.

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dementedlullaby said:

Sucks the baby was dead. Wonder why. Oh my those must be some tiny babies! My leopard gecko girl dropped an egg but it's infertile for sure. I thought they had small eggs but wow.

Hope you have better luck with the future ones. They're really awesome looking little fellahs.

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Aquarimax said:

Here are some things I learned from my first few mourning gecko hatches that may help:

Egg viability
First of all, just like many sources indicate, the eggs can take a long time to hatch. The first clutch (only one of which was viable) took 4 months and 19 days. The second clutch (which only had one egg in it) took 3 months and 27 days.

Numerous sources indicate that the an air bubble will form within a viable egg, that it is visible when a light source is held near the egg, and that it will enlarge during the course of incubation. This makes sense, but I was not prepared for the size of the air bubble in comparison to the egg. I remember looking at one of the eggs and thinking, "That air bubble is really large, so it doesn't leave a lot of room for anything else. I wonder if the embryo is no longer viable and it is drying out." A week or two later, the egg hatched into a perfectly healthy gecko.

I also learned that eggs can become discolored , and yet remain healthy. The first egg became considerably darker in the latter half of the incubation period, and rather unevenly colored. It didn't seem to cause any issues. Late in the development process, the second egg had a darker patch at the more rounded end. The hatchling emerged from the narrower end.

Finally, I learned that the eggs really can survive less than ideal conditions. The first egg was inadvertently knocked from its deposition site when I opened the lid one day, and to my horror, fell to the carpeted floor, a drop of about 3 feet. The infertile egg was cracked, but the other egg seemed undamaged. I carefully picked it up and created a makeshift incubator out of a plastic food saver container with a small ventilation hole and some paper towels. I misted the side of the container (never the egg itself) occasionally, 1-2 times per week. Needless to say, the gecko hatched perfectly healthy a couple of months later, so the fall didn't seem to cause any problems.
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So far I have had 15 eggs laid. Of those, 5 have hatched, 2 were infertile, 5 were damaged before hatching, (four of those because they were laid in a rather unsuitable location) and 3 are soon to hatch, if all goes well.

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