Lesson Learned: Take Inventory.

Tonight I was doing the rounds misting everyone and checking layboxes, etc... pulled out the one in Liebchen's cage and saw the end of a beauty (eggs feel almost like pearls or something to me when I find them)! Got so excited, set the laybox aside to do when I was done, and finished misting. Then I got everything set up to candle and mark the eggs, and brought the laybox and incubator into the bathroom to do so. Peeked at the bottom of the box (it's clear) to see where I'd seen the egg was, and started carefully digging into the moss (I use long-stranded sphagnum).

Uhh...... saw egg.... saw leg of moving gecko. CRAP. Liebchen was still in there and not finished. :( I felt horrible. I didn't see another egg (though I wasn't looking I was too busy trying to get her covered back where she was)... so she may have still been in the process of laying. That or she was just resting a bit before burying them. That really should have been my first hint - cresties bury the eggs very well and the fact that I was not seeing two eggs side by side clearly in the bottom of the laybox should have tipped me off. But I let my excitement get ahold of me.

So lesson learned? Always inventory your girls before going in for eggs! There are a ton of hiding spots in Liebchen's tub and I don't always see her, so I just thought it nothing out of the norm. But once I saw that egg I should have popped open hiding places to make sure she was out of the box.

Now we wait, and cross our fingers AND toes for two eggs. I will be horrified if I disturbed her so badly that she holds onto the other egg and binds up or something. But really I just uncovered her butt (frogbutt) and a foot, so hopefully she didn't think too much of it. She didn't come out of the box at least, and I didn't hear or feel her moving when I was taking the laybox back to her tub.

Will update tomorrow when she's out of there! Lesson learned, sorry Liebchen.