Breeding successes and failures this year.

[GlasgowGecko]

Thanks for that Anna, although you say you didn't keep records, your summation is the sort of thing I was after.

Your crestie results are what interests me most here. It seems to be quite a common occurance that failure rate is high, although it doesn't get mentioned as much as you may expect.
Also, a great cautionary tale with the egg rolling!

I'm sorry to hear about the female G. luii, was there an under lying problem that went un-noticed?

Andy

[biohazard156]

Andy,

I suspect that the female is older perhaps than I bought her as, and even possibly WC though I have no real proof. I am sad that I didn't keep any of her offspring last year, taking for granted I would have some this year, so I am now looking for some nice babies that I can rear up myself so I know their past etc. She ate nothing different to the male, or to what I fed her last year when she produced just fine...so I guess its one of those things.

The cresties were by far the most successful this year, with most of my eggs being fertile, and just sadly that rogue gargoyle rolled almost a whole boxful...he literally dug some of them up...we thought perhaps it was a thing that happened in the wild, that to avoid extra competition, the first one out would disturb the other eggs... not sure, but it seems to be something that many of the new hatchlings try to do...

I paired from end of feb to start of september so the last 6 eggs I have had have been infertile, and I still have a few left to go. Have not had a deformed crestie hatch out as of yet, so I suppose that is a blessing!

Anna

[Big Red One]

1) Species name ~ Eublepharis macularius
2) Number of breeding pairs ~ bred individually - 1:2
3) Number of eggs laid ~ 19
4) Number of eggs hatched ~ 11
5) Number of hatchlings survived ~ 9
6) Which breeding season (eg first season...) ~ All 1st year

General pair information would be good if you think it is relevant.
Male Sunglow Bell was proven but not by me, paired with 1st time Bell Albino female. 1st clutch infertile, 2nd clutch fertile but had a stillborn (fully formed) and a tail kinked hatchling (v small - but has survived). 3rd clutch both fine. 4th and 5th clutches eggs failed to hatch (suspect sperm used up - only 1 pairing made).

Female Enigma gravid when I acquired her, low on weight at 44g initially but recovered post laying to 78g. 9 eggs laid, one infertile all others hatched. Same incubator used as for above pairing.
1 Normal and 1 Enigma hatchling died after hatching within a day or so (both had eye deformities and were v small) .

1a) How does this compare to previous seasons? ~ No data
2a) Can you attribute incubation/ hatchling failure to anything? ~ I have my suspicions that I may have suffered some temp fluctuations with the incubator earlier on, I also think there may have been poor air circulation from using sealed tubs, this is going to be changed for next year.
Also two first time mothers were maybe not 'set' properly.

3a) Were all hatchlings 'perfect'? ~ see above, 3 'deformities' - 2 eyes one kinked tail. Defects on generally 'poor' conditioned hatchlings.

*************************************************
Definitely some lessons learned, particularly on incubation methods I feel.

[_Jay_]

wow, an absolute gold-mine of information, knowledge and experience in this thread which is good to see! exactly what I joined for..


I'd like an expert opinion on my CWD eggs (first batch ever) female been introduced to my male for 5 months and laid 17th October. Never seen them mate until last week, she's always kept her distance.

All eggs were looking fine until 2 days ago when I noticed they are starting to collapse, temp has been very very steady at 29 Celsius.

Am very worried as I have a bright torch and have seen the veins and embryo inside and look very healthy but a few have very noticeable dints in them...


Your views are greatly appreciated..

(it's worth mentioning that the eggs have been getting bigger and bigger and have a nice chalky texture to them.)

[_Jay_]

oops, sorry...

[GlasgowGecko]

Hey Jay, the first question I have to ask is what is the humidity like? If they are collapsing very early, they this is likely the problem. Try and find that out, and we can then try to help further.

Kind regards,
Andy

[_Jay_]

Hum is at 90% constant.

They are 50 days old and were doing really well until this week when they have collapsed.

Nearly all have got some serious dents now.. any ideas? do they still look ok to you?