Angulifer eggs breaking

emavi · #1 07-24-2010, 11:54 AM

Hi!

I've had my angulifer pair together for the summer and everything else has been going great except that I can never get the eggs out without them being broken. She has laid eggs three times now and everytime the eggs have just too many cracks and bumps to survive. The last time I dug out the eggs a little earlier (first thing in the morning) than the first two times (usually the next evening) and they looked better but wen't bad anyways.

The pair is living together now (but I don't think the male is digging and stomping on the eggs as he seems to keep a distance when the female is digging). They have sand on the bottom, about 1-15 cm deep depending on where they have been digging (the eggs are buried on the bottom with about 10-15 cm deep layer of sand on top of them). The warm end is about 33 celsius and the rest is room temperature. The female always lays the eggs in the warm end. I try to be very careful when digging out the eggs, I've used a painting brush to move the sand

Does anybody have any ideas as to how to get the eggs out without them breaking? Should I just stay awake the whole night when I see that the female is digging for the eggs and wait for her to lay and take the eggs out right away? Should I take some of the sand away so she can't bury them so deep? Should I try to get her to eat more calcium/vitamins if the eggs are just too fragile (I keep a dish of calcium powder in their terrarium with some meal worms in it to make sure she eats it and I powder the crickets about twice a week with vitamin/mineral mix) ? Or anything else that comes to your mind would be really appreciated.

David · #2 07-24-2010, 06:14 PM

Hi Evelina,
everything sounds ok, but I think you should try 1 time vitamins mix and 1 time pure calcium per week.

Chondrodactylus · #3 07-25-2010, 10:04 AM

What i do with ALL my Pachydactylus eggs as well as C.angulifer when i see they are about to lay ( a day or two before) i move them into a smaller tub which i line with grease proof paper( used for baking) and lay the sand on top of that( to avoid the eggs being stuck to the enclosure base).

making it mush easier to firstly locate the eggs, also much finer grain sand so you can blow all the sand away without digging with your hands which makes it much easier to break the eggs.

When trying to pick up eggs i use

Use the bent end to gently scoop under the eggs and lift them not actually squeeze the eggs.

Supplements are also very important.
Hope that helped a little.

Good luck.

emavi · #4 07-27-2010, 10:29 AM

Thanks for the comments! Sounds like it could be a good idea to actually just stay awake when the female starts to dig around for the eggs and get them out as soon as possible.

Chondrodactylus · #5 07-27-2010, 10:59 AM

Technically not.

As the eggs are at the most fragile as you try pick them up they will break.

Gecko'sPal · #6 07-27-2010, 12:28 PM

I'm no breeder, but I suggest daily calcium on food, plus a cap or something that works as a small dish with your suppliment.

David · #7 07-27-2010, 12:35 PM

yep, the eggs need to harden some hours before you can take them

in theory with angulifer, when you have a great layer of sand in your tank, it decreases the chance that the animals break them after the laying, and other similar accidents

it's why I just think that you may increase the calcium supplement

also if it is the first year breeding of your female, maybe you just need to wait.. are you sure the eggs are fecund?

in all the hard shelled layers I had the luck to breed, angulifer were the most tricky when time to take the eggs is coming, the shell of their eggs is very thin

emavi · #8 07-27-2010, 06:11 PM

Thank you again all!

I was thinking of getting the eggs out earlier in case the female has been breaking them. She has always been digging around in a few places quite close to each other and that's why I though that there might be a chance that she breaks the eggs herself accidentally. So it wouldn't be so likely if I'll be watching and waiting.

I'll see what other calcium products I can find, but the calcium powder seems to be working also. I have seen her licking the powder straight from the dish and also she eats the mealworms from the dish. That is why I haven't powdered the criskets with calcium but with the vitamin/mineral powder. The powders don't seem to stick very well to the crickets so I've tried to do it twice a week. They also got a UV-lamp (Repti Glo 5.0) as I've seen them (or the female mostly) sometimes basking under the lamps directly.

And yes, this is her first year. The first eggs might not have been fertile as they were not laid so deep and they had a much more yellowish hue. But the second set of eggs looked fine other than that they were crashed (by me or the geckos) and the third set was even better, but still had some cracks and bumps.

I'm just so hoping to get this to work and see some angulifer babies.