Problem...

[Manitoban Herps]

My leo has laid another pair of eggs, the first pair being slugs. I have the incubator at 83-84 degrees, the problem is, the female moved all of the vermiculite to one side of the nesting box, and layed them on the plastic, but there stuck too the plastic. After I left them she buried them too. Should I just remove the container (it's a large margrine container) and put it in the incubator?

Thanks :D

[ydnic]

well if they are really stuck that is what I would do...may just put lots of vermiculite around them after the humidity gets to them they may loosen up..

[TLH_Wär§cöötmän]

I've never really had them stick, but maybe you could VERY carefully use a razorblade and cut them out of the container and place the eggs with the chunk of container into the incubator. I think this is your best bet.

[clint545]

I think trying to cut the container would jostle the eggs too much. Just put the whole thing in the bator like you were planning .

[Manitoban Herps]

Thanks you :)

[Ryan23]

Seeing as the eggs are stuck to the bottom of the container you'd really have to make sure that while keeping the vermiculite moist you don't drown the eggs at the same time. I had one female that always seemed to lay eggs like this too and I used warm water to loosen up the eggs from the container, letting the warm water soak the very bottom of the egg usually did the trick for me.

[Manitoban Herps]

I have a small entrance hole in the container which i covered up with duct tape, so the vermiculite stays nice and moiste anways :D

[beanersmysav]

I had the same problem as Ryan my one female likes to stick them to the back of her humid hide, warm water was also my solution, I sprayed it down with a spray bottle and they came right off.

[Manitoban Herps]

I thought if the eggs become wet they go bad?

[beanersmysav]

Well I guess I'll find out in a week or two but I candeled them and they were fine and they have been getting bigger and looking nice

[DragnDrop]

The eggs can drown if they get wet, but they're a bit more foregiving right after they've been laid. For the first day or so there's not much going on inside the egg, it's in a short diapause. This means that the rough treatment it gets during laying won't hurt the embryo - the mom can roll it all she wants, jiggle it around and even kick it lightly while filling the hole. You normally have at least a few hours grace period to deal with the eggs if you check the laying box daily, but if you only check every second day or even later, I'd be extremely careful moving them.
Assuming they're fresh, laid within the last few hours, then gently spraying a wee bit of water on the floor of the margarine tub, trying not to wet the eggs too much might work. I've done that without problems. Sometimes an eyedropper works better - just a few drops of water to soften the shell right where it's attached to the container. Give it a minute or two, and nudge the eggs, they usually come off. I never try to do it the second time though, the shell is too fragile to do that again, the water might have softened it too much and it will tear. In a case like that I'll use a single edged razor blade to cut that part of the tub, maybe trim it a bit after it's been cut to make it fit a delicup. Again, this has to be done within the first few hours, a day at most to be safe. Minimum jiggling of the eggs helps. It helps to use soft sided tubs like margarine or coolwhip tubs in case you have to cut the container. For my leos I use sterilite shoe boxes, never had an egg stick to them yet, but maybe I'm just lucky.
Should you have to leave the eggs attached to the plastic, you just have to have a big enough container to put tub in, nothing wrong with doing it that way. It takes up a lot of incubator space but it works. I once found some G. stentor eggs (hard shelled) glued to a rock after I'd sold the parents. The tank had been empty and heat turned off for almost a week, I didn't even know the eggs were there since the females normally laid them in a different spot. The only way to incubate them was to put the whole 10 pound rock inside a rubbermaid tub and then into the incubator. That was fun :) The eggs hatched 3 months later, perfect geckos, even after all the jiggling and wiggling the eggs went through.

[Manitoban Herps]

Thanks, I just took the container out and put it in the incubator. Hopefully, she will lay them on the vermiculite next time and I can just move them to the box in the incubator.

I love green eyed geckos! Would of bought a few at a local petstore but when I came to get them they were sold :(

[Tim and Julie B]

You can also do something I came up with a while back. Line your lay boxes with wax paper then fill with vermiculite. If the eggs get stuck to the wax paper you can easily cut around the eggs and place the eggs/wax paper into your deli cups for incubation. The wax paper never molds or interferes with the eggs.:D

Julie

[TLH_Wär§cöötmän]

Yea thats an awesome idea Julie, if I ever have any problems with eggs sticking I will use your idea immediately!! But I have been very fortunate and not had eggs sticking as of yet!

[DragnDrop]

I heard of the wax paper trick years ago and it apparently works well. Trouble is every one of the girls I tried it with back in those days had different ideas. They dug around under the paper, in once case even pushed it out of the laying box. It works well if your geckos approve of it. :)