Breeding successes and failures this year.

[GlasgowGecko]

Hi guys,

After a bit of an up and down year, I'm curious about how everyone else has been doing. In general I have several theories as to why my own breeding season has been affected, but I would be really interested in hearing your thoughts.

So I'm looking for a few things:

1) Species name
2) Number of breeding pairs
3) Number of eggs laid
4) Number of eggs hatched
5) Number of hatchlings survived
6) Which breeding season (eg first season...)

General pair information would be good if you think it is relevant.

Bonus questions...

- How does this compare to previous seasons?
- Can you attribute incubation/ hatchling failure to anything?
- Were all hatchlings 'perfect'?

This is really just an out of interest, but it would be nice to see if 'failures' were person specific, or there was a general trend.

I'm hoping for a really good response from this guys, don't let me down

Andt

[SleepyD]

Originally Posted by GlasgowGecko

After a bit of an up and down year, I'm curious about how everyone else has been doing. In general I have several theories as to why my own breeding season has been affected, but I would be really interested in hearing your thoughts.

So I'm looking for a few things:

hi Andy ~ any specific species or just in general? Have still got the soft copy of this season for my leo's if it's any help ~ haven't transfered it to hard copy yet so will take a while to sort it into readable format

[GlasgowGecko]

I was hoping you'd pop up! I guess my expectation was that the info would mainly cover the very common species, however I'd like to see what people have.

The good thing with breeders like yourself, is that you will have records from previous seasons, which can be a good judge of change in success over time.

Thanks,
Andy

[SleepyD]

Originally Posted by GlasgowGecko

I was hoping you'd pop up!

lol some people run the other way and hope I don't

I guess my expectation was that the info would mainly cover the very common species, however I'd like to see what people have.

The good thing with breeders like yourself, is that you will have records from previous seasons, which can be a good judge of change in success over time.

ok hun ~ right this season with last season in brackets for comparison ....
1) Species name ~ Eublepharis macularius
2) Number of breeding pairs ~ bred individually - 2:5 (2:3)
3) Number of eggs laid ~ 69 (47)
4) Number of eggs hatched ~ 67 (47)
5) Number of hatchlings survived ~ 66 (46)
6) Which breeding season (eg first season...) ~ 2 experianced; 3 first-timers (1 experiance; 2 first-timers)

General pair information would be good if you think it is relevant.
I let all females ovulate naturally with no brumation; all females over 18 months old and rested for between 6 months to a year between breeding; males kept seperate until bred then removed with no re-introduction.... if the females stop after a few clutches then they stop ~ I don't go for quantity. Females kept either singly or pairs ~ no large groups

1a) How does this compare to previous seasons? ~ Compares about the same with no duff eggs from new breeders
2a) Can you attribute incubation/ hatchling failure to anything? ~ losses this year ~ two eggs invitro down to incubator power failure; single leo lost after hatching with no visible reason. Last year ~ lost one hatchling from an older breeder (now retired) causes unknown and no visible reason
3a) Were all hatchlings 'perfect'? ~ this year two hatchlings with 'stumpy' tails due to incubator power failure but otherwise all good

have got older records but they're all filed away on paper hun ~ either way hopes this helps some ~ anything else (feeding, weight records, temps etc) I'll try and dig out and pm you ok hun?

[GlasgowGecko]

Cheers Sleepy D, this is exactly the sort of information I was looking for. Out of interest, did the loss of a single individual last year influence your decision to retire the mother?

Would you say that your success with first time females was attributed to their age when breeding (I think you wait a little longer than most if I recall), their weight at breeding or something different?

Also, come on the rest of you!

Andy

[SleepyD]

Originally Posted by GlasgowGecko

Cheers Sleepy D, this is exactly the sort of information I was looking for.

no problem hun

Out of interest, did the loss of a single individual last year influence your decision to retire the mother?

no ~ the hatchling was the last egg laid with all others being fine ... however the reason I retired her was she laid too many too quick (clutches between 9-10 days apart) this was also her first breeding season with me (she was already a full adult when I got her) and unlike my other girls she lost condition and went into what I call a 'breeding crash' so now she's in what I call 'pets corner' ~ she won't be bred again and won't be sold either.

Would you say that your success with first time females was attributed to their age when breeding (I think you wait a little longer than most if I recall), their weight at breeding or something different?

lol don't know about waiting a little longer ... try a lot longer I know not many others do the same as myself and my views aren't exactly popular with regards to breeding age but I've found that by not breeding the females until they're between 18-24 months old I not only don't have the problem of duff eggs (which a lot of people reckon is standard with first-timers) but I found the females recover weight/condition quicker ~ thats if they actually lose any in the first place

[James D]

Hi Andy,

Mine aren't very commonly bred over here but I thought I'd join in anyway...

1) Species name - Strophurus williamsi
2) Number of breeding pairs - 1
3) Number of eggs laid - 12
4) Number of eggs hatched - 4
5) Number of hatchlings survived - 3
6) Which breeding season (eg first season...) - First season


- How does this compare to previous seasons?

This was their first season so I can't compare it to anything.

- Can you attribute incubation/ hatchling failure to anything?

I had quite a bad year with these guys and had eggs incubate full term then fail to hatch as well as having eggs fail early on. There was an incubator failure which killed 6 eggs (temp. spike of 54C). However, I have a couple of ideas as to why the other eggs may have failed to hatch....

1) The adults were still fairly young
2) The adults were not cooled prior to breeding
3) The female didn't have great calcium stores when I first purchased her (already gravid)

- Were all hatchlings 'perfect'?

Other than the one that didn't make it, all (3) of my hatchlings were perfect.....just ask olivine for the proof!

I'll be interested to see what difference there is next year in my results. The adults are being cooled as we speak and the female has a great calcium store on her head. They'll also be a year older so fingers crossed I'll have a better year with them next year.

[GlasgowGecko]

Cheers for that mate.

I have to say 54C is pretty good going! Out of interest did you let the eggs which were subjest to this temp increase go full term? At what stage did it happen?

I have always been a little sceptical of temp fluctuations causing problems (not in this case obviously...), I would really like to see some data which give more details on what level of fluctuation is negative. I give my P. grandis eggs a +/- 2C fluctuation, a is it reputed to be beneficial.

Andy

[James D]

It was very warm indeed. I woke up in about 2am and looked over at the incubator to see it displaying 54C on the LED display. I immediately opened the door of the incubator but feeling the heat I had a strong feeling the eggs were gone.

I did let the eggs go full term at which time they would sweat and then collapse. The clutches were at different stages of incubation from newly laid to days away from hatching. When opened (after collapse), each egg was at the stage you would have expected them to be at when the temp. spike occured so they had obviously failed at the same time.

It striked me as odd that all of the eggs went full term and started to sweat despite being dead. Do you think that the egg shells have a specific 'life span' at certain temperatures?

I do agree with you about temperature fluctuations and the problems they allegedly cause. All too often a photo of a deformed hatchling is posted up and everybody automatically says it's due to fluctuations in temperature. I'm sure I started a thread about this before in the genetics section but it's late and I'm too tired to go searching for it. Lol

[GlasgowGecko]

I remember the thread you mention, it is a little unfortunate that we are restricted ethically by what we can try (actually this is not strictly true, but as hobbyists anyway).

It is interesting you mention about the aborted eggs sweating. I too have observed this phenomenon in Leopard gecko eggs that have terminated very early. I suspect it has something to do with the egg shell beginning to deteriorate. Interestingly infertile soft shelled eggs will absorb a lot of water if incubated, just as you would expect. This increase in pressure inside the egg shell may also be the cause.

Andy