Axanthic Lilly White Hatching on Camera

I was filming a cage build in the lab, and between takes I went into the baby room and looked in my incubator. An axanthic Lilly White was hatching, with its nose just peeking out as it slit the egg open. I filmed it on my phone.

This was only the second one I have hatched. I think there are only five in the world, maybe six or seven at most: a handful on the planet. Seeing one come out of the egg is one of the most exciting moments I have had with geckos, probably tied with the first visual axanthic I hatched.

Trying to hatch the clutch mate

Eggs come in pairs, so a clutch mate was still in the incubator. Every once in a while, when one clutch mate hatches, gently handling or massaging the other egg makes it hatch right away. I don't usually do this, and I let my geckos hatch on their own, but some keepers try to force hatch a clutch mate once the first one is out. To try to get a second one on camera, I gave it a go.

The technique, once the eggs are far enough along in incubation:

1. Hold the egg gently.
2. Run your fingernail very lightly down the top of the egg.
3. Or rest one finger on the egg, with no pressure at all, and roll it back and forth.

The idea behind it: in the wild, two eggs are buried together. When one gecko hatches and digs its way out, it leaves the other egg exposed to the weather and to predators. The theory is that moving the egg simulates the sibling digging out, which tells the second gecko it is time to hatch too.

How it went

It didn't work this time. The second gecko stayed asleep in its egg, so I kept an eye on it through the night, hoping it would hatch on its own.