Eating the egg remnants?

[The_Greg]

I have heard that the L. Williamsi sometimes go cannibalistic on their young, but get this...

I had 6 eggs. Two are fairly old and I'm sure they're duds. Two others hatched completely and I removed the young. The other two ended up not making it, one was still half in the egg and the other died in an enclosure I had set up for them (so after removal). The next day i went back to clean the spot where the egg shells and stuff were, and it was all gone. The two oldest "dud" eggs were un-touched, but everything else was gone, with no trace of it anywhere in the tank. They definitely didn't just push it out of the bamboo pole, because its for sure not directly underneath it as if it just was pushed out. I've looked fairly extensively and cant find it... and there is a lot to go missing - three egg shells and a whole baby gecko that passed away.

A friend of mine not in the hobby suggested they ate it because there are a lot of nutrients associated with eggs and stuff.

This seems strange to me, but the only explanation. I live alone, so nobody else cleaned it out obviously. Is this common? Have other people experienced this?

 

[hexentanz]

This is quite common. As your friend has mentioned the shells contain a lot of nutrients (calcium, etc) , which the females need to recover after giving birth.

It is strongly recommended to provide females with a good amount of calcium during pregnancy and after. This can be done by crushing up remaining eggshells from prior hatchlings or by providing them with some cuttle bone scrapings and placing them in a small bowl.

What I do usually is make a mix of crushed eggshells & cuttle bone. That way the Gecko never gets picky in case I run out of something.

 

[zohariels]

Yes! Mine have never eaten an egg when its whole, but as soon as it's broken open or damaged they get eaten, with no trace it was ever there. As mentioned make sure to give them excellent calcium supplementation.