Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

Cleef · Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 5:54 pm Post subject: Egg Marking

Hello all,

I have a fair few leopard geckos eggs at the moment, with more on the way. I want to make sure I know exactly what morph should be hatching from each egg so marking the eggs with numbers would be very helpful so I know which female laid them and who she was mated with etc.

I have read about breeders marking eggs with sharpie fine point permanent markers, I'm just wondering if this is 100% safe to do and won't affect the eggs in any way. Would a blunt soft pencil be a better option?

Please let me know what your experiences with egg marking are,
Cheers Very Happy

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herp_boi · Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 9:53 pm Post subject:

i use a pecil when marking eggs. Just incase the marker slitls it. Or the ink seeps into the egg Shocked

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Dracowoman2 · Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 11:05 pm Post subject:

The ink would be my concern with sharpies as they are alcohol based.

Personally I just write a little label on plain paper and sellotape it to the outside of the tub, with female x male laid on etc, seems to be working so far, mind you I put 2 eggs to each invubator tub so I know which female they came from anyway.
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Cleef · Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 11:30 am Post subject:

Yeah the marker seeping into the egg is my conren also, best not risking it I think. I will probably just set up a few incubation tubs and label them
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DrAdam · Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 11:33 am Post subject:

I have a tub for each female and a record on the outside of each incubator what is due from each tub and when
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Dracowoman2 · Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 11:42 am Post subject:

I'm using a similar method DrAdam, only I've got a diary that I'm using to record when laid, which female, number of eggs, approximate due date etc.
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"Life without animals isn't life, they give much and take little"

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DrAdam · Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 12:15 pm Post subject:

Yeah thats it Claire..... I'd be scared of putting the pen tip straight through the shell Crying or Very sad

Even if it is alcohol based it would soon evaporate... if not you'll have a drunk gecko Laughing

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Dracowoman2 · Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 12:22 pm Post subject:

Never mind the geckos, I think I'll draw all over myself today with one, I could use some alcohol!! Laughing

I have tried both methods previously, and the only reason I marked the eggs was so that i could make sure they stayed the right way up. Other than that I suppose you could use sharpie cd markers and write on some of those white plastic markers for seeds you get in garden centres, and then when they hatch you can use the eraser pen to clean the marker off and write the next batch on, this method would allow using larger tubs and putting multiple clutches in them as you could mark each clutch Very Happy

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"Life without animals isn't life, they give much and take little"

Claire