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Hoping for the best... fearing the worst

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Franks_Geckos

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I am experiencing a potentially major setback in this year’s breeding efforts. I went peeking into the incubator to check for hatchlings on Thursday of last week and noticed that none of the 4 eggs that were supposed to hatch had hatched. They had softened a bit and a few appeared to have some gel like fluid on them. It did not appear to be the moisture “sweat” that typically forms just before hatching, so I became concerned. To make matters worse another 4 that were due to hatch this week were appearing to soften as well and slight amounts of mold were forming on a couple. There were another 4 eggs that were a few weeks from hatching that may still be viable and another pair laid yesterday that were places in a separate incubation container, however, I suspect the eight that softened have all gone bad, perhaps a freak temperature fluctuation in the incubator occurred, or perhaps some microorganism that was somehow introduced in the container attacked the embryos in their final stage of development and killed them in the egg. I am not sure which scenario is more likely as I had not reset the min/max readings on the temp probe in the incubator since it was started 2 ½ months ago (my bad). I did reset them yesterday and will monitor it for peaks and lows on a daily basis to see if the incubator can still be trusted. I will leave the 8 eggs alone until they are totally collapsed and molded before I cut them open, however, I am not holding out much hope for them. I do not need the genes from the hatchlings that were coming, however, the loss of 8 hatchlings (SHTCT, Jungles, Rainwater Albinos) is going to be critical in a month and a half when I have a lot fewer hatchlings to sell at our next show. I was hoping to use the proceeds from selling these hatchlings and a few others that had already hatched from the same incubation container in the last 3 weeks to purchase a Mack Snow male. Obviously, the moral of the story is not to count your geckos before they hatch, even when they are a day or two away from hatching. I am crossing my fingers for the eggs and am hoping to go home to hatchlings emerging from these eggs against the odds. I hear stories of people talking about geckos hatching from moldy eggs, but it seems very bizarre that this would happen to eight eggs (all due to hatch) at the same time unless something really bad happened.
 
A similar thing is happening to me. 8 eggs go bad, it could be the gecko though, and all 1/4 possible blazing LV blizzards. Ive already hatched out geckos from this incubator setting too.
 
How awful, Frank. I had a very similar thing happen a couple of seasons ago, and I know how discouraging it is. All you can do is bury the collapsed eggs all the way, and try to clean off as much mold as possible On the others... and rub them with a little cornstarch. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.
 
Thats a bummer Frank.... I had a problem last year but it all happend in the same incubation container.... I realized a bit too late that my water to perlite in that particular container was off....There did seem to be a string of bad luck last year.... Truth be said, it is usually something that us as keepers did wrong.... Under the proper conditions, good eggs do not mold up even if a bad one molds up right next to them....

Don't beat yourself up over it though.... It happens to the best....
 
Marcis and Gregg,
Thanks for your words of encouragement. I will try to do the cornstarch thing.... not sure what the theory is behind it, but I will believe it can only help :)
 
That I believe is for the mold itself. Now if the fact is that the eggs just got softer, or they dented, they might just be ready to hatch.

I have been debating cutting open a few eggs, that were allready due to hatch, which had collapsed. I think what happened is the gecko absorbs the yolk, leaving some extra room in there, so they dent in. `Cus just when I thought they might have gone bad... One hatched last night for us! :)

The baby that hatched is from my "Red Eye Red Stripe" (RAPTOR X (APTOR X Red Stripe)) project. So you can imagine how Ive been hoping for some of those eggs to hatch. Looks like I proved the APTOR X RS male to carry the Eclipse-gene too, so jeez if this little guy didnt hatch out, I wouldve been devastated.
 
Marcia, cornstarch? Not baking soda? Im just thinking this because when we would remove mold from houses, we 'sandblast' contaminated surfaces w/ baking soda.
 
I have never tried baking soda since it has such a high sodium content, but we used to use cornstarch as baby powder a long time ago for drying up diaper rash. I have also heard of people using athlete's foot powder, but I was always too chicken to use it due to the fact it is medicated.
 
I would have thought Baking Soda too, but I used conrnstarch last night as Marcia instructed.... I hope I didn't use the wrong stuff..... in any case I don't think it will kill the embryos if they are not already dead.... cornstarch is harmless. I will check them again when I get home but I fully expect no progress :(
The eggs have all been dented in for almost a week and not one of the 8 have hatched. My eggs usually hatch in 45 days (like clockwork). The 1st 2 clutches are at 54 days, the 3rd clutch is at 48 days, and the 4th clutch is at 45 days as of today.
 
I have been having bad luck this season with my eggs, so I know the feeling. I have been trying different things to cure the problem, so far no luck. Denting problems have been the issue. One female I have, I cut a couple different eggs open and have found developed babies that stopped growing and died. First time, it looked about 40 days old and second about 50-55 days for an estimated 65-70 day inc.. So I hope everything works out for you.
Because I am now crossing my fingers for the season.

Scott McKillips
 
raiquee said:
I wish you the best of luck Frank. Itching to slit one open, just to see? :)
Click to expand...


Oh Yes.... that is for certain. It will happen. I don't know if I will post pictures of the fully formed hatchlings that died in the eggs when they were supposed to be hatching, but I am curious to see. I have done it before in the past and was disappointed when I saw how nice the hatchling was.
 
I cut open all 8 of the collapsed eggs. As I suspected, 4 of the eggs contained fully developed geckos and the other 4 had died a couple weeks shy of full development. I didn't feel posting a picture of the embryos was necessary. I suspect that they died from (perhaps) lethal doses of toxic Ammonia formed in the incubation container after a set of infertile duds had molded over a couple of days earlier without the container being opened to remove them (I was traveling for work for a couple of days). By the time I removed the molded eggs, the damage was probably done to the viable eggs that there almost ready to hatch. At that point the eggs that were damaged slow;y collapsed and brought me to where I am now. After seeing the way it happened, it makes more sense now than a temperature issue. I believe that someone else made a post in another thread where he mentioned the possibility that a bad egg could cause the formation of ammonia which could wipe out a whole container full of viable eggs. It definitely seems like a plausible explanation to me since this whole mess started just after a set of duds molded over in the same container and it remained sealed for a couple of days after they did. Any thoughts on this?
 
I would probably have to agree if you said that you started to notice the problem after the duds molded. I think the ammonia may have gotten to them.
 
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