Please help. Time between Giant Day Gecko eggs hatching?

[GeckosForEverybody]

I have a pair of Giant Day Geckos (P.Grandis) that have been breeding and giving me eggs.
Their first clutch was a pair of two eggs stuck together, a couple of days ago the first egg hatched and I now have an adorable tiny gecko. My concern is the second egg still hasn't hatched, and I can't help but to worry about the baby gecko still in the egg. How long does it normally take the second baby to follow the first and hatch? I can't candle the egg to check to see if it's alive because the baby is filling up all the space in the egg and no light gets through now so I can't really see anything but darkness. I just hope baby #2 is ok, I have heard of babies dying either right before hatching or sometimes during hatching so I'm just worried. :sad:

 

[acpart]

Eggs usually hatch within a day or 2 of each other. Sometimes the gecko dies in the egg because there was something wrong with it that's not compatible with life. Some people open the egg to help the gecko out if it hasn't hatched by itself, but this is not recommended because by doing this a gecko may hatch that is weak and has congenital problems. It also leads to more heartbreak later on because the gecko often dies after the keeper has invested a lot of time and energy in it. Unfortunately, this is an aspect of breeding. In my early leopard gecko breeding days, I once checked the incubator to find 3 newly hatched geckos, 2 of which were dead.

Aliza

 

[GeckosForEverybody]

Thank you for your reply, I'm so sorry to hear some of your baby leos died. Losses are always hard, especially if you were really excited about them hatching like I was. You mentioned that happened in the early days, is there any thing you have done since then to improve your odds of successful hatches and babies? I'm pretty new to breeding geckos. About the unhatched egg, I had considered opening it to see if maybe the gecko was stuck and still alive. The thing holding me back is...I have heard of some babies hatching late. Up to a week or so after the first. So I'm hoping maybe he/she is fine and just late. So if I did attempt a rescue mission too soon it may harm the baby gecko, but at the same time If I wait too long then any chance I might have had to save him is too late. So it's hard to know what to do. If I were to try and save it, how much longer should I wait? On a side note, during incubation I candled them a few times to keep check of their progress and make sure they were doing ok. The first baby in the first egg was very active. Moved constantly, loved to move his little feet and tail. Was super neat to see. The other egg, on the other hand did move too, but not nearly as often and his movements were slower...like with less energy, could that maybe have been a sign of weakness?

On the brighter side of things. Baby #1 is doing well. Very active and drinking, and attempting to eat. Although I don't think he has quite figured out hunting yet. I'm giving him/her repashy and some tiny crickets and mealworms. I also have another egg in the incubator, a single egg, that so far is developing well.

Sorry I know this is kind of long. I hope you don't mind the questions.

 

[acpart]

I'm very fond of questions! I figure if you can hold off from opening the egg, then if it's late it will hatch and if it's really weak it's probably better that it doesn't hatch. I don't think the dead baby leos were due to anything I could have done. I bred geckos for 13 years (stopped after 2017 because my geckos are all crypto positive now) and had a number that just didn't thrive for no explainable reason. I did have some years about 10% minor defects, primarily in back legs and poorly formed eyelids but when I upgraded to a much better incubator that pretty much stopped. I had a disastrous season trying to breed L. williamsi and hatched 7 all of whom passed away within the first 2 weeks. I was consulting with an L. williamsi breeder at the time and neither of us could figure out what the problem was.

Aliza