Varying incubation temp leads to birth defects?

[Morgan]

Howdy guys I have a couple of questions for the well seasoned vets. I have a hovabator and the temp varies maybe 2 degrees once I have it set. Well I went ahead a purchased a thermostat to zone it in to the exact temp that I wanted. I hooked it up and left it be. Then I forgot all about it and carried on with a hectic week. When I finally got a moment to check it out my temp probes were telling me that the temp was fluctuating by 6 degrees or more the entire time. So the temps were dropping below 80 degrees all the time. Needless to say all the eggs that were in that have hatched have had deformities of some kind. Most of them are just eyelid problems but I had one leo hatch without an arm. However before this problem I hatched out about 10 perfect leos. Basically my main question is what do I do with all of these defective leos? I don't want to sell them so cheap that they are mis treated but at the same time I don't expect someone to pay top dollar for an animal that has no eye lids.

Opinions are welcome

Thanks for your time.

Morgan

 

[trizzypballr]

a gecko with no eye lids eyes would dry out, sounds to me like they would be in pain, and probably couldnt see. Sounds to me like ones without eye lids should be put down. The 1 without an arm, can he eat fine and get around fine? If he can live happy and healthy he will be ok.

 

[van_veen456]

Needless to say all the eggs that were in that have hatched have had deformities of some kind.

Why do you assume the deformities have something to do with the fluctuating temp?

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

I am very sorry to hear your hatchlings are deformed. This can be a very sad and and tragic thing to deal with. Yes, temperature fluctuations are believed to cause birth defects.

What type of temperature controller are you using? If it is not proportional, meaning it cuts and turns on power in increments, your a probably better off just using the standard wafer controller the Hovabator comes with. On-and-off controllers can have as much as 2-3 degree variation before turning the heater element on and off.

Eyelid deformities are the most common type of defects, and can also be due to improper supplementation... especially Vit. A. If your hatchling cannot close their eyes, they will go blind from their eyes drying out and risk serious infection. If this occurs, you will have to make the determination whether or not you are willing to hand feed them for their entire lives.

 

[Morgan]

Thanks Marcia for your input.

I'm going to go ahead and put down a few of them today and hope this is the end of the deformities. Since I caught the problem I went back to the hovabator wafer system which is much better at keeping the temperature where I want than the thermostat I was using.

I've been supplementing the food I've been feeding my breeders and alternating calcium and vionate in their cages so I'm pretty sure it was just the incubation temps.

Thanks again

Morgan

 

[Leopardbreeder]

To put them down, you are going to take them to the vet or use another humane method, am I right. I have seen too many and talked to too many people who in-humanly do this. Please take them to a professional.

 

[justin-branam]

To put them down, you are going to take them to the vet or use another humane method, am I right. I have seen too many and talked to too many people who in-humanly do this. Please take them to a professional.

on the above note, just call a vet and see if they will make a deal with you. it is very easy to put down a baby gecko. if using beuthanasia (a normal euthanizing drug), it takes less than .2cc per gecko, and they just have to be injected into the abdomen rather than trying to hit a vein, so it is very quick for the doctor to do and uses a very small amount of drugs, therefore not costing the vet much in terms of supplies or time. Im sure if you are nice and explain your situation, they will work with you.


As far as the defects themselves, i also had the same problem. i didnt get my thermostat until over a month after i ordered it, and by that time i had 4 clutches of eggs already in the incubator dealing with temp fluctuations. Of those 8 eggs, i had 5 defects and 1 healthy baby hatch, with 2 eggs not hatching at all. Since then, i have had 6 babies hatch perfectly healthy, that were not in the incubator until after the thermostat was setup. so i am a true believer in that temp fluctuations will cause defects.


also since you are using a hovobator, you need to set it like you would be incubating atleast 6 degrees or so above what you will be setting your thermostat for. otherwise, since you are having temp swings like that, even though the thermostat tells the incubator to click on, it may not if the wafer inside thinks it is already warm enough. i just turned my hovobator as far as it would go, and then set my thermostat. no problems in the past 3 months. good luck!

 

[CoolGecko]

well if you ask me i have temp problems all the time. On time it spiked to 88 and 90s when they should be at 86-87. This happened all season for me BC i dont have a Incubator yet. And mine just hatched last night and there are no problems. I'm not sure where ever one is getting these temp spikes and stuff that causes problems. I think more around 5-6 degrees difference would maby have this problem. but mine where jumping crazy i couldn't control the temps even my g-ma tried to help me control them. Checking ever other Hr. or so . I'm not sure about this if you ask me.

 

[Leopardbreeder]

I have found that a great place to keep a havobator is the basement.

 

[okapi]

I was lucky enough that my incubators temps were fine, but I had humidity problems (its a water heated incubator and I put air holes in the containers).

As for the "E request" it cost the vet roughly $1.75 per CC. The abdomen is where all small animals are injected. Im sure a baby leo would take very little to go down. But since its impossible for the vet to perform a heart stick on a leo to confirm death, I would ask that they inject twice as much as the math equates to. I agree with everyone, go to a vet. It is the most humane solution.

(as for heart sticks, they arnt as bad as they sound. The vet injects enough to kill the animal and waits for all signs of life to stop. Then to make sure that the animal is dead they stick a needle in the animals heart and watch for faint movement. The hearts job is to bring you back even if the rest of you shuts down, which is why death is pronounced at the second that the heart stops. It is possible for the heart to stay alive just long enough to bring the body back (with some brain damage) so everyone in the medical feild human/animal makes sure that the heart has stopped before getting rid of the body.)