Hatchling not eating

[mcboyd]

I have a hatchling that is six days old. It is drinking water but not eating. It sleeps a lot and will roam around every few hours but it will not eat. It is very lethargic. I have tried fruit flies, pinhead crickets, tiny worms and nothing seems to attract it to eat. I have all of the habitat items suggested, has foliage, temp is between 78-85, has all the recommended lights and I mist it 3-4 times a day to keep it at least 70% humidity with some parts more and some less. I also have a humidifier constantly running in that area for my other lizards.

This is the only one of my clutch to hatch and they have been incubating since March 3, 2021. There are still 15-20 eggs that are plump and veined and look viable so I have just left them alone.

This picture with eggs was hatch day. The one on the stick was three days ago and the one on the ground is today.

 

[Herp_Lover26]

How is your hatchling doing?

 

[pocoray]

How is your hatchling doing?

hopefully its okay :'( poor little one. lets pray they update

 

[mcboyd]

How is your hatchling doing?

The older one did not make it. She passed about an hour ago. She never would eat. The younger one is still active and exploring but doesn’t eat either so I’m afraid he will suffer the same fate. He looks at the fruit flies and I can see his eyes following them but hasn’t tried to catch one yet. Not even if they crawl on him.

 

[Jpeff]

The cricket looks alittle big for him. Temps might be to high to for a baby. I kept mine at 78 degrees in basking area. When they are babies they dehydrate fast and won't eat. But I might have just gotten lucky I have another egg that I hope hatches soon

 

[Jpeff]

But that was only baby I hatched and raised so far. mine is about month old now

 

[mcboyd]

But that was only baby I hatched and raised so far. mine is about month old now

I have lowered the temps to low 70’s at the bottom and upper 70’s low
80’s at basking. He seems to be hunting the fruit flies and watching them but still not eating. He does drink droplets when I mist the cage. He is 5 days old now. The picture with the crickets was the first hatchling. The crickets were supposed to be pinheads but clearly were not. Sadly that hatchling passed last night. I had two eggs “pip” about a week ago but the hatchlings never came out and they dried up. They were very very odd looking with the heads and neck very large and tiny bodies. Another one started hatching this morning so we will see how that goes

 

[Herp_Lover26]

Good luck with your babies! It is not easy to keep them well if they don’t come out with some type focus and energy they can decompensate quickly. Did you say that you actually have them under a basking light? From my understanding, a THO is needed for UVB but they are far to young for basking.

 

[mcboyd]

Okay so for a while baby number #2 (Mike) was thriving, doing well, eating fruit flies, exploring his habitat and looking great. The past three days he suddenly stopped eating and drinking. He declined REALLY quickly. I have been worried and trying everything I could to get him to spark up to no avail. This morning I found him curled up on the bottom of the terrarium and I honestly though he was dead. I picked him up and as I was holding him in the palm of my hand one of the pieces of bamboo started to fall. As I went to catch it I held him a little tighter. He pooped a BUNCH for such a little guy. So I thought....Oh no he is gone for sure. Then all of the sudden he stretched out, rolled over and started crawling in my hand. I put him back in the terrarium and he immediately started crawling around and drinking. (I had just misted before finding him). Could he have just been constipated and I just accidentally gave him relief? I sure hope that is the case and that he will start thriving again. These tiny guys are really tough to raise.

Incidentally we have had all but five eggs start to "pip" without successful hatches. All of those babies looked weirdly shaped. They had big heads and tiny bodies. One of them that I thought was going to be good ripped the umbilical cord at his belly away and he did not make it past fully hatching. Four of the five eggs left are starting to sweat and one has a slit but has been that way for over a week so I don't think it is actually going to hatch. Do you guys ever do anything to help them when they get like that?

 

[kinyonga]

What are you incubating the eggs in? It looks very moist.

What temperature have you been incubating the eggs at?

When were the eggs laid?

Do you still have the mother?
Can you post some photos of her please?

 

[mcboyd]

What are you incubating the eggs in? It looks very moist.

What temperature have you been incubating the eggs at?

When were the eggs laid?

Do you still have the mother?
Can you post some photos of her please?

The eggs are in a plastic container with vermiculite and some sand (the mom lays her eggs in sand so when I scoop them out I try to carefully get them out without turning them so some sand comes with them. The guy I spoke to about incubating them told me to have enough water in the vermiculite to have some but not touching the eggs so that is what I have.
The eggs were laid between 3/1/2021 and 3/3/2021.
The temperature is around 70-73 degrees (our normal house temperature).
Yes I have the mother. This was her first clutch of fertilized eggs.
She has laid another clutch this week that I am digging out this week.

I am attaching a couple pics of mom and the remaining eggs

 

[kinyonga]

IMHO...they should have hatched around the beginning of November...so they're late hatching.
The eggs look an unusual color to me.
I think the substrate might be too wet too.
The vermiculite looks quite different than what I've always used too.

I'm just making observations...I've never had a clutch where the eggs looked like that and my substrate was as wet looking as yours is. I wish I could give you a solid reason why this is happening to the babies....but I would at least suggest that you set the next batch up differently.

The mother looks good. (I wanted to check her too to see if it had anything to do with the losses you're suffering.)

 

[mcboyd]

Yes Mom (Luna) and Dad (Randall) are both quite healthy. I was also expecting the eggs to hatch in Nov-Dec. And once they didn't I almost threw them out but they were still plump so I just left them alone. Then one day in January my son was like....Hey have you checked the eggs lately? And we opened the container and saw the first little gal!

I am ready to set up for the next clutch. So please tell me what to do differently. I don't want to leave these in the sand too much longer because it has already been over a week. I got the vermiculite from home depot. Is there a different kind? The container that it is in is a literal egg storage container with little dips in the bottom. I was told not to let the eggs get to dry by the guy in the pet store and that I should make sure that there was a layer of water and to mist the eggs every other week so that it what I did.

 

[kinyonga]

I uses coarse vermiculite. It looks like this bag does...
https://www.reptiles.swelluk.com/swell-premium-vermiculite-coarse

I use shoebox sized Tupperware type containers that I fill about half full with that vermiculite that is moistened so that when you take a fist full of it you can only squeeze out one drop of water.

I make dents with my thumb to lay the eggs in, in rows about one inch apart in all directions.

I dig the eggs up without turning them and without transferring sand with them and put them in the dents in the Tupperware type containers. I put the lid on the container and put it somewhere where it's dark and the temperature will stay at about 74F.

If the eggs shrink in a bit because they are losing moisture or if the inside of the container has no beads of moisture on the walls or lid, you can add a few drops of moisture around the edge of the cage or between the rows without getting it on or near the eggs to make up for what was lost. It doesn't need to be done as a rule...unless you keep taking the lid off to check and leaving it off for more than a few seconds.

Also...the sand in the laybin should not be soaking wet....just barely moist enough to hold a tunnel. That could be part of the problem too.