# leopard Gecko Eggs - Dying when hatching



## Coolsox (May 3, 2008)

My Leopard gecko has so far laid 4 eggs, 2 where unfertile, but two where ok so I placed in my Herp Nursery 2 Incubator at 28*c (monitored by an independent digital thermometer).

The eggs where placed in a bowl containing moist (but not saturated) Sphagnum moss. All was ok, the eggs seemed to develop nicely then just one day collapse and shrivel up. I have now noticed that the shrivelled up eggs have got a small slit where the egg has been cut by the gecko inside, but the gecko fails to pull himself out. I have left the eggs alone in the hope that the gecko was just resting, but sure enough after a couple of days they start to smell bad.

can anyone explain where I might be going wrong? The temps seem to be ok to incubate for females and have remained fairly constant. I wouldhave imagined that had there been a problem with the conditions, the eggs would have deteriorated much sooner than at the point of hatching.


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## dazdaraz (Feb 23, 2008)

have you got the eggs covered?
it could be that they are taking up what moisture they can
but most of it is bein lost

i normally have my eggs in vermiculite or eco earth, or both sometimes, in a chinese food container type thing, and open it a couple of times a week to let some fresh air in.

someone else will prob be along soon to comment, this year is only my second year of breeding tho, so im no expert

Daz


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## South west geckos (May 15, 2011)

Hi there we are still learning as we go along and hopefully someone more experienced will comment.
We wouldn't use sphagnum moss as it dries out too easily and as daz has said they would take all the moisture then run out. 
You could monitor more and help them out but we wouldn't really reccommend it as you can cause more harm than help. We would suggest you change your medium to vermiculite and make sure it is mixed with water so just a drip squeezes out. Hopefully this helps a little bit.
Zee 
South west geckos


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