My first Mourning Gecko eggs + questions on incubation and rearing

[Aquarimax]

A week or so ago, I caught a rare glimpse of one of my two mourning geckos up against the glass. I could clearly see what appeared to be eggs within her. This morning, I was excited to discover two eggs in the left front top corner of the vivarium! Here they are:


They were laid just under the screen lid (luckily, they have been attached to the tank frame, rather than the lid itself.) I imagine it would be risky to try to move them. Therefore, unless it is advisable to do otherwise, I will incubate them in situ and hope for the best. At least it will be easy to check on them. Being rather distant from the lights, that corner is not the warmest part of the enclosure, varying from about 68 F at night to mid 70s in the daytime. (My temp gun aimed directly at the eggs just registered 75 F.)

Question #1: At those temperatures, should I expect them to hatch in 2-3 months, or longer?

Since most keepers seem to advise against keeping the hatchlings with the parents, I am contemplating how to best set up an enclosure for the hatchling geckos.



For hatchlings, I have seen enclosures as simple as deli cups with a stick and a paper towel substrate.

I could set up a sweater-box style vivarium with a screen lid, so that I could provide a UV lamp. ( I know that they're not strictly necessary, but certainly beneficial.) I would like to use a bioactive substrate, as it has proven incredibly easy to maintain. I certainly have plenty of springtails and isopods!( I maintain separate cultures for 3 species of isopods and another for temperate springtails.)

Question# 2: Should I go the simple, spartan route, or to put together another naturalistic vivarium, or somewhere in between?


I am also hoping to set up the juveniles' enclosure to facilitate handling a bit more, so that they become less secretive than the adults. If it weren't for the frequent (but pleasant) nocturnal chirping and rustling of leaves, I would hardly know I had any geckos. If anything, they have become more secretive over time. . My hope is that once I have a fairly
large population of geckos in my 20 high viv, there will be more activity during the day.

Question# 3: are there any enclosures that facilitate handling/taming/viewing?(for example, my vivarium opens from the top. Do the geckos interpret my hands above them as predatory activity, and would they be more active during the daynwith a vivarium that opens at the front? )

 

[acpart]

Congrats on the eggs. I haven't bred these guys myself, but my gecko partner has and I've helped out with the care from time to time. He let the babies hatch in the enclosure (I think they're gluers, so you can't really remove the eggs) and then removed them to a tall deli cup with some sphagnum moss and a branch. Currently, his remaining mourning gecko is in with his dart frogs. I think the eggs should hatch in a few months at 75. One thing you could try is to get some floral tubes (at a craft store, the thing you put a single rose in) and tape one to the back of the cage near the top. It's likely that the gecko will go in there and lay. Then you can take out the entire tube and put it in the incubator.

Aliza

 

[Aquarimax]

Congrats on the eggs. I haven't bred these guys myself, but my gecko partner has and I've helped out with the care from time to time. He let the babies hatch in the enclosure (I think they're gluers, so you can't really remove the eggs) and then removed them to a tall deli cup with some sphagnum moss and a branch. Currently, his remaining mourning gecko is in with his dart frogs. I think the eggs should hatch in a few months at 75. One thing you could try is to get some floral tubes (at a craft store, the thing you put a single rose in) and tape one to the back of the cage near the top. It's likely that the gecko will go in there and lay. Then you can take out the entire tube and put it in the incubator.

Aliza

Thanks Aliza, I love the idea of the floral tubes...I have to try that!

 

[Josh2]

Congratulations on the eggs! Please do keep us updated with how things are progressing!

 

[Aquarimax]

Nearly two months after I discovered the first two eggs, I spotted eggs # 4 and 5 today. I hue read that Mourning geckos' first clutches are often not viable, but at this rate I'll have plenty of eggs soon...

 

[Aquarimax]

Congrats on the eggs. I haven't bred these guys myself, but my gecko partner has and I've helped out with the care from time to time. He let the babies hatch in the enclosure (I think they're gluers, so you can't really remove the eggs) and then removed them to a tall deli cup with some sphagnum moss and a branch. Currently, his remaining mourning gecko is in with his dart frogs. I think the eggs should hatch in a few months at 75. One thing you could try is to get some floral tubes (at a craft store, the thing you put a single rose in) and tape one to the back of the cage near the top. It's likely that the gecko will go in there and lay. Then you can take out the entire tube and put it in the incubator.

Aliza

What kind of tape would be safest for the geckos?
I've got seven eggs now, and just found a local source of floral tubes .

 

[acpart]

I use Nashua tape --it's like aluminum foil with adhesive backing. It works fine and, if taped down thoroughly, will not be a problem for the geckos or the moisture in the cage.

Aliza

 

[Aquarimax]

I found some Nashua tape, and have installed four floral tubes near the sites the females have been using. fingers crossed the next clutch will be deposited in one of the tubes. thanks for the idea!

 

[Aquarimax]

My geckos seem rather contrary...since I provided the floral tubes, they have laid 4 more eggs...none in the floral tubes...two of the eggs were attached to the screen lids and were damaged as I was moving it.... The other two are just under the lid, but seem to be ok. None of the eggs have hatched, and six of them were laid more than two months ago...too hot?

 

[Josh2]

Thanks for the update. Sorry nothing has hatched yet...Could be too hot... What temps are you at?

 

[Aquarimax]

It gets up to about 85- 87 F in the heat of the day...when I lived in Hawaii, though, it got quite a bit hotter than that, and the mourning geckos hatched out just fine...

 

[Aquarimax]

Good news! One egg of the first clutch my Mourning geckos laid hatched yesterday evening,, 4 months and 19 days after deposition. The tiny gecko seems happy and healthy. I have to admit I was a little surprised. You see, that egg had had quite an experience prior to hatching. A couple of months after it was laid, it and its clutchmate had accidentally been knocked loose from their corner when I opened the lid and fallen to the floor of the room, a 3+ foot drop. The other egg was cracked in the process, although there appeared to be no development at all, so I guess it wasn't viable anyway. I carefully picked up the intact egg and placed it in a small plastic lid on a bed of paper toweling. I then placed the plastic lid on another layer of paper toweling within a deli cup, to which I had added a small ventilation hole. I set the cup on a shelf in my bedroom. A couple of times a week I would mist the sides of the deli cup very lightly, avoiding the eggs themselves.

The egg that eventually hatched had looked a little discolored for the last couple of months, and I had almost given up hope. Almost. However, I had remembered reading or hearing somewhere about crested geckos, (Gecko Nation Radio, maybe?) that the eggs can sometimes look really bad late in the incubation period, but they sometimes hatch out into perfectly healthy geckos. I guess the same can be said for Mourning geckos as well. I am quite pleased, and it gives me hope that my growing number of unhatched eggs may yet be viable.

Pics coming soon!

 

[Aquarimax]

Here's the hatchling, just an hour or two old, May 26, 2014.

 

[Aquarimax]

Two hatchlings now, the first a couple of weeks old, and both going strong.


WHAT I HAVE LEARNED FROM MY FIRST TWO HATCHES

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. 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 of the vivarium 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.

 

[thatgeckokid]

How much would one of these cost because I want to start working with them.

 

[Aquarimax]

They typically go for $20-$30 each. Most breeders prefer to sell them in small groups, because they are so social.

 

[Aquarimax]

Two more have now hatched, and two more clutches were just laid...this time in the floral tubes.

 

[Aquarimax]

Quick update: 10 hatchlings have now hatched. Caught one in the act of hatching on video:

 

[acpart]

Very cool, I like the music.

Aliza

 

[Aquarimax]

: ) thanks for watching!