Yurgh, I just had an abortion and it was twitching

[Soup]

Found a pair of new eggs from one of my females, went to pop them in the egg bin and what on earth is that hanging out of that 58 day old egg?

That is a tail. and a pair of rear feet.

Oh dear.

I really gently pick up the egg and it's obvious this happened a bit ago. The limbs are translucent and filled with blood that can't be circulated. The tail is twitching. The back legs twitch ever so slightly when touched. I gently open the egg, hoping for the best (because there's no patching this one) and... no, the embryo's detached, the lungs aren't fully formed and everything is still visible within the gecko. Dorsal coloring is just coming in. You can see the eye sockets in the eyes still. They're huge and fixed and there's absolutely no blood moving within the animal.

This was out of one of two tiny eggs somebody laid and I suspect the eggs just aren't large enough to allow the geckos to go to full term, but I decided to give them a shot anyway. There's stretch marks just 58 days in and I don't have high hopes for the other one either. Anybody want science! pictures if the other one aborts too?

I'm bummed, don't get me wrong, but this kinda stuff happens when you raise critters.

[Akamaru]

Sounds interesting. I've seen pics of jelly bear geckos like that before. Poor buddy, at least he didn't feel anything. So by abortion, did you purposefully abort the incubation and pop it open out of the egg, or did it explode accidentally?

[Soup]

It popped itself. Usually you can repair small holes, but this slit like it was trying to hatch. Only it was the completely wrong end =(

[savannah blue]

Sounds interesting. I've seen pics of jelly bear geckos like that before. Poor buddy, at least he didn't feel anything. So by abortion, did you purposefully abort the incubation and pop it open out of the egg, or did it explode accidentally?

I would call this spontaneous abortion by the embryo itself.

[JumpinJewels]

You mentioned that the eggs were tiny. Is there any reason you think the female laid such small eggs? Also curious as to what your incubation temperature is. This is my first season having hatchlings and want to understand as much as possible. Thank you for sharing, sorry for the loss...

[Soup]

My incubation temps are around 75 degrees due to the area I live in. I honestly think the eggs just aren't viably large enough to deal with the hatchling stretching it. As to why? I haven't the foggiest. She eats the same as everybody else, is in perfect health, weighs 42 grams, is active and was checked by a vet just to make sure she wasn't having an issue. Calcium sacs are in great condition. Sometimes it's just one of those things.

[Soup]

The other egg's goop ruptured through the shell the other day. Just a tiny bit, but enough to start it molding and screwing up the shell, which started deflating.

So I decided to hack it open today and see what happened.

Inside, an angry little eye glared out at me. A fully formed little gecko writhed and squirmed and hated me like crazy. Fully closed, fully detached from everything. I popped it open and checked on the little one.

It's definitely going to be touch and go for a while. I have no idea if it will survive. It's breathing on it's own and squirming whenever I come near it. It's managing to more or less get around the tiny box I have it in. We'll see.

[Akamaru]

Wow he must have been ready to hatc

[Soup]

Possibly not. I went in and gently touched it. The baby's back barely managed to arch. It was having a lot of problems moving. I wouldn't be too surprised if it doesn't make it through the night. If it does, maybe tomorrow at the latest. It always sucks when you lose them but all I can figure is that these two just weren't gonna make it.