[Geckoz]

Hi everyone,

haven't been online much since I recently moved and switched jobs, sorry.

Yesterday I moved my Felinus female into another bigger viv since the exo-terra she was in didn't stay humid enough.
We had eggs once before back in april but she hadn't been with a male for at least a year (maybe even was a virgin) so they weren't fertile.
We thought she might have laid some more so we carefully digged out all the earth after we moved her out.
We found one more clutch there .
She has been with a male for 2 weeks back in april (after she laid the 1st clutch) but we don't know wether they mated or not.
Is there a way to tell wether the eggs are fertile? Does candeling work and how long after they have been laid?
Do all eggs collapse / mold when they're not fertile.
I have no idea when the eggs were laid so I put a measuring tape (in centimeters) next to it in case anyone want to take a guess

Any info would be great, would be so cool if they're fertile

here is the clutch of eggs:


Thanks,
Brenda

[Geckoz]

anyone?

[Riverside Reptiles]

Hey Brenda, sorry, I didn't see your post earlier. You can candle the eggs. No way really to tell how old they are. As long as they look good (which they do in the pic), I'd just go ahead and keep them incubating and see what happens.

[Geckoz]

Hi ethan, thank you for your reply.
yeah they look very good to me. I very genly felt and they are firm but elastic as well (don't know how to call it, but a bit the same as leo eggs)
They have no dents at all I just really hope I haven't accidently rolled on over during the search for them.
Only time will tell I guess I'm very excited really don't want to get my jopes up but they looked so good and would love to have some little felinus babies.
I'll go candle them after dinner and see if I can tell they're fertile.

[mat.si]

They look good to me as well.
If the shape is right and the substrate is attached to them uniformly, they are usually fertile.
I had left an unfertile felinus egg to incubate for about 5 months (the other one hatched in 3 months), before I threw it away, and it didn't get moldy at all.

It's the same with C. elegans eggs. Some infertile eggs just continue to look good, even past the supposed hatch date. But when you candle or open them, they are clerly not fertile.

If they look pinkish or dark when candled, they are definitely fertile.

PS: Yes, if they were already late in development, they might actually look a bit rounder.

[Mikhail F. Bagaturov]

Hi!

Looking like You have fertile recently laid nice clutch!

[Geckoz]

thank you for the replies !
I just candled them and they look fertile. It's not too easy to see because of all the humus on them but they look pinkish and I thought I could even see a very thin tiny vein on one of them! This is so not what I expected and so much more than I could hope for!
I didn't have much Felinus experience before I put them together like Ethan already knows (helped me out a lot thanks again for that )
And they have been together for only 2 weeks several months ago. I was even afraid the male wouldn't be big enough for the female lol
I will keep you updated and hope for the best. Does anyone have any important incubation advice they'd like to share?
I keep them on a shelf in the gecko room right now in a closed tub with vermiculite and perlite and am planning to air them out once a week very shortly.
Does anybody know what the temps are that will kill them, as in too low/high?
Because the winter is slowly starting to come, the weather here has been really bad this year so it could be a cold winter this year.
I do have a incubator for my leo eggs which is set at 26 Celcius but I read steady temps aren't very good. Any advice is, once again, greatly appreciated

[mat.si]

These days I incubate most of my geckos' eggs on fluctuating temps in my room.
Felinus eggs are incubated at about 21 to 26 C and hatch in almost exactly 3 months.
I think fluctuating temps might be better, specially for some species and even sex ratio.

I incubte them in small boxes in vermiculite (1:1).
I always punch 6 small holes total in the sides of the box with a needle. That way, the humidity is high, there's no need to add water and there's still some air exchange.
I don't feel right about closing the eggs airtight.
They might need very little oxygen, but I'm often very busy and I don't really trust my memory to open the boxes every week.
I still open the boxes from time to time to check on eggs, add new ones, take out babies...
This has worked very well for me for years.

Matjaz

[Riverside Reptiles]

I incubate mine pretty much just like Matjaz does his. Experiments with higher temps has yielded results of faster incubation times but weaker hatchlings with much higher death rates.

[Geckoz]

thanks for the advice both of you , and we definetely don't want weaker babies.
We'll just keep them where they are and put some holes in the lid. Let's hope winter doesn't come too early because we don't have heating in our house yet, but the gecko room will stay warmer because of all the heat mats and lamps.