# should you cut open a leopard gecko egg



## imza (Mar 9, 2009)

hello

ive already posted one thread about this but no one is looking and im worried, so ive posted with a more controversial title.

i have a clutch of 2 leo eggs, one has hatched and is fine, the other has collapsed a bit and there is fluid from the egg leaking out of it. it has been like that all of yesterday and so far today. 

ive just read a thread where someone was going to cut the egg becuase perhaps the baby is stuck. 

has anyone had this with an egg before? the egg is of good size and you can feel what i assume to be the lizard inside, im just worried it cant get out or something. these are the first eggs ive hatched n im worried that because with the first one there was an egg, then there was no egg and a lizard, im expecting the same again and not really knowing anything.


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## Ssthisto (Aug 31, 2006)

I personally wouldn't cut the egg. If the baby isn't strong enough to make it out on his or her own, then you might be in for heartbreak further along the line - and you run the risk of finding out the reason the baby didn't come out is because it's severely deformed.

I have one corn snake egg that I thought was fertile, was going to hatch - but it never pipped. I would rather not know why it didn't hatch, it's enough for me to know that for whatever reason, it didn't make it.


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## oobernoob (Jun 4, 2009)

I would leave it and 'wait & see', can understand your frustration though knowing that you could help if it's struggling, but may harm it if you interfere :|
Hope you get some help with this!


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## leopardgeckomad (Feb 2, 2008)

right all i can say is...DO NOT CUT OPEN THE EGG, i have done this before and it was fully formed and alive but died after i cut it open i was so gutted. 

you should leave your egg in the incubater and if it grows mould all over it and smells bad then freeze it then throw it away but i have had a egg hatch yesterday which was mouldy .

theres always hope so goodluck


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## eddy (Feb 24, 2009)

personally, i WOULD want to know, so i can work out if it's something i did wrong. BUT i have to agree with ssthisto, if the gecko isnt strong enough to get out of the egg on it's own, it is likely to be too weak to survive properly if you assist the hatch. I'd therefore be curious, but for the good of the animal, leave it alone.


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## fran2491 (Oct 10, 2008)

i would also leave it if its ment to be it will be hun, if the baby cant make it out of the egg on its own there will be a reason, if you go messing with it you could do more harm than good:flrt:


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## imza (Mar 9, 2009)

is the white stuff coming out of it normal? theres quite a big hole at the front end of the egg. it hasnt collapsed much, its more just wrinkly, because its leaking i guess. 

there was one person on here who cut open a crestie egg that looked very similar to my egg and that lizard was fine. 

another thing, when 2 infertile eggs i had went all mouldy and stuff, there were loads of little white bugs, really small in the soil. i saw one of those just, is that anything to worry about because i have some other eggs which'll hatch next month in with the weird egg.


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## jools (Apr 4, 2009)

Please don't cut the egg. If the baby is alive then they are so tightly packed into the egg that the chance is that you will damage the baby when cutting. It is not too late for it to hatch naturally - if it is going to - clutch mates can hatch several days apart.
Are you incubating on soil / compost? If you are then the insects could be springtails which are harmless - difficult to tell without seeing them.


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## imza (Mar 9, 2009)

jools said:


> Please don't cut the egg. If the baby is alive then they are so tightly packed into the egg that the chance is that you will damage the baby when cutting. It is not too late for it to hatch naturally - if it is going to - clutch mates can hatch several days apart.
> Are you incubating on soil / compost? If you are then the insects could be springtails which are harmless - difficult to tell without seeing them.



cheers that put my mind at ease about the white things, yeah i use soil. yeah im gona leave it, its just the fact that its leaking out.

its also putting a downer on the fact i hatched one yesterday and shes wicked, very alert and healthy. even tried to bite me! 

this probably sounds stupid but how do the geckos breathe inside the egg?


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## funky1 (Jun 18, 2008)

As far as I know, there`s an extemely fine network of veins that surround the inner side of the shell - with the shell being porous, the oxygen seeps in allowing the blood vessels to transport the oxygen to the embryo. That`s what i`ve always believed anyway!
Regards your egg - just leave it. As said, if it`s fit and healthy it`ll hatch of it`s own accord. I had an egg the other week that sweated and then sunk so I thought `good stuff` - however, it stayed sunken for a few days so I knew someat wasn`t right. Turns out the hatchling inside the egg was slighty under-developed/deformed and it was nature`s wish that it wouldn`t make it - it`s clutchmate is fine. I`m just thankful that I didn`t cut the egg open as I was tempted to do, at least the deformed one died peacefully in the egg, and didn`t have to suffer the trauma of being alive when I cut the egg, and having to suffer whilst it desperately clung onto a life that it was never destined to have.


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## wacky69 (Apr 8, 2008)

Personally I would never cut an egg, even if the egg is dented it could take a few days to hatch!

Unless the egg is flat and smelly I would incubate anway!


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## James D (Nov 17, 2008)

Can you see any part of the hatchling through the hole in the egg? If you can then it may just be absorbing what's left of the yolk inside. A lot of hatchlings will do this and will often remain with just their nose poking out for several hours.
If the egg is simply leaking fluid (as in more than usual sweating) then it doesn't sound too good.

Either way, I would leave it and see how it goes. Hatching is possibly one of the most traumatic events for keepers.....even seasoned pros often start sweating around a clutches due date so don't worry, you're not alone


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## imza (Mar 9, 2009)

ive moved all the soil from around the hole and ive tried lifting the skin to have a look inside the hole but cant really see anything. no gecko nose or anything like that. what do u mean by sweating? 

how long do they normally take to get out of the egg? lol, i thought it was well easy when i opened the egg box the other day and a lizard was in there, but youre right this is intense. lol


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## fran2491 (Oct 10, 2008)

i had a beardy take 5 days to get out hun, some just take longer than others,then on the other side of the coin i had one hatch in front of me in 2 mins,as for the little white bugs are the like little specs what sub are you using in your tubs, if i was you i would put them in new tubs with fresh vemi just to be sure the bugs would cause no harm, but then agen iv always been a bit extreme :flrt:


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## pythonattack (Mar 14, 2009)

*don't cut the egg!*

Today i had an egg that hadent hached with the other one and it had been 4 days, it had shrunk and gone mouldy, i cut through it only to know the baby was dead, it made me very sad because i wanted my female to have all her eggs to hach the first tim round but the one that did hach is ok but it has got a defomed foot but it seems to be ok it can cach food, i would advise not to cut it, its sad to see a tiny baby gecko curled up dead.


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