Well, I'm hardly a nurturing person, but I've found that these creatures tend to respond better to physical contact as opposed to just being left alone. There are exceptions, of course, because personal preference does tend to factor into it, but for the most part actually touching the thing rather than just keeping it with the rest of your belongings does help.

These creatures are more intelligent than we give them credit for; I'm capable of communicating with three of mine on a very basic level. They're rather aware of what you're doing to them. So you might as well see what increased physical contact does in terms of getting that thing to hatch - you don't really have anything to lose in doing so, after all.