Fat Tail eggs

[UKFatties]

Hi all,

I am relatively new to breeding fat tails and have a few questions on eggs.

One of our females is producing eggs but none of them seem to be surviving more than few days/2weeks in the incubator. They seem to start sinking in and going mouldy and smelling. We are unsure if these are just infertile eggs.

We believe we have the conditions for incubation are correct, The temps in the incubator range from 28.9C (84F) to 29.6 (85F) inside the boxes so I think this is in parameters for fattie eggs as I know they are more sensitive than other species. In terms of moisture i am using vermiculite and there is condensation on the sides of the boxes where the vermiculite goes upto but nothing on the roof/exposed sides of the box. I think this is correct? If I have this wrong could somebody please help.

The eggs are like firm bags of liquid and don't really have a "shell" to speak of. Is this normal (as when I have bred cresties in the past their eggs are very different with a very hard shell)?? When I candle them they look yellow. When I have done a little research i have read that there should be a small red dot/blob if they are fertile. I can't see this in any of the egg. We have had 6 eggs so far and all seem to have gone bad. I am really stumped as to where I am going wrong could someone please help/give me some advice?

 

[Garrett_Keith]

Hmm sounds like their just infertile. The incubation sounds spot on. Because if they are sunk in id say its not moist enough but you said theres moisture on the container so thats not it. Is the male living with her? He probably is just throwing blanks :main_robin:

 

[geckobabies]

It is not uncommon for first time females to lay bad eggs. It happens. Your parameters sound fine to me. From your description my guess would be weak/infertile eggs.

 

[UKFatties]

Thanks for the replies. ill just go grab some pictures and see what you think!

 

[UKFatties]

Here are some pictures of the egg boxes. as you can see there is condensation on the sides but not the top. You can also see the mouldy sunken egg. I havnt thrown it yet because it doesnt smell but i think it is most definately dead.

@Garrett_Keith The male is no longer in with the female but i did witness him pinning her etc (i didnt actually see "the act"). I dont think the male is firing blanks as he has produced fertile eggs with a different female the last time we tried - unfortunately we lost these in a power cut with the incubator :-( and since then have had no luck. As for humidity we did wonder about this but didnt want to go too humid as i know this can be detrimental as well? What do you think looking at the pictures below?

@geckobabies we wondered whether it was just that she was producing bad eggs though now the humidity question has been raised by Garrett_Keith we are wondering about this too. Could you take a look at the pictures and see if you think this is humid enough or if this might be our problem?

In terms of how we set it up. we watched a youtube video (i think by imperial geckos) where water is added to the vermiculite and is then squeezed until no more drips out. this is the method we have been using. Any other advice on this is welcome.

I know some people use perlite. is this better than vermiculite?

 

[UKFatties]

Here is another egg from another clutch from the same female. Again you can see it has sunk. This egg i tried to add a little more water to as there was no condensation on the side of the box and it was starting to sink. This seemed to help but then it just completely collapsed.

 

[geckobabies]

I don't think lack of humidity is your problem at all. Condensation on the sides is fine in small amounts.. you need humidity for the egg to live. You don't want water on the egg.. this is why some people use the "suspension" method of incubating, where the egg does not touch the substrate at all. If your vermiculite "balls" up and does not drip water, yet you have a little bit of condensation on the sides you should be fine with healthy fertile eggs. Unfortunately I just think you have bad eggs being laid so far from that female.

I personally use Perlite. I have used both and prefer Perlite. Many people use Vermiculite with success so I don't think that is your problem either.

This is an article we wrote on how we incubate our Leopard Gecko eggs. I use the exact same method for my Fat Tail eggs. Maybe it will help you, but again it looks like you did a good job the way you did it IMO.

How to Incubate Leopard & Fat Tail Eggs

 

[UKFatties]

Thanks for the reply. I've had a look at the article and dropped you a PM with a cheeky request!

 

[geckobabies]

You're welcome. Msg sent.

 

[brillobee]

Thanks gecko babies. You article has helped me, too. I am also having issues with eggs molding. Mine are molding at the 2-4 weeks. My set up is similar to the OP's. Just got a new clutch and set them up just as you said, so here's hoping.I do have one good egg, it's almost 2 months, and getting big.

 

[geckobabies]

Glad it helped GL with your new eggs!

If the egg is growing that's a good sign

 

[UKFatties]

So she laid again the other night.

I took some pictures as I took the eggs from her laybox. As it was morning and I was kinda rushing to work I didn't get chance to take pics of them being candled but again they appeared clear yellow no red spots or the such like. How do you think the eggs themselves look apart from the egg not showing any red spots.

Thanks in advance

 

[brillobee]

Looks ok to me. I've found in the few eggs I've gotten it takes a few weeks to see some red spots.