Your Reptile and Amphibian Resource and Information Site

Back to Alligator Lizards Forum   Forums   Home   Members Area  

Alligator Lizards Forum

Aliceinwl   PrinceSushi   William kimmy   Aliceinwl   Ameivaboy   OldSchoolCatcher   Aliceinwl  
 Member  Message

 #1753230


Aliceinwl
View Profile

 Madrean hatchlings

Of my 14 madrean alligator lizard eggs in this year’s clutch, 11 hatched successfully. Here’s the fist little guy to make it out (it’s too bad they don’t keep their baby colors):





Here’s one of his siblings from last year’s clutch:



Here’s mom:



06/06/08  04:58am

 #1754078


PrinceSushi
View Profile



   Message To: Aliceinwl   In reference to Message Id: 1753230


 Madrean hatchlings

11/14! Thats impressive!

They look gorgeous.
06/07/08  02:56am

 #1754767


William kimmy
View Profile



   Message To: PrinceSushi   In reference to Message Id: 1754078


 Madrean hatchlings

wow southern alligator lizard babies are very beautiful..i have a northern but the babies are just black and brown but yours is very nicely coloured...the babies have that colour at first so that it would have camouflauge when born...just like the wild boars.



06/07/08  11:40pm

 #1754839


Aliceinwl
View Profile



   Message To: William kimmy   In reference to Message Id: 1754767


 Madrean hatchlings

Thanks Sushi! One of the eggs never looked good and went bad early on, the other two had full term babies that tried to pip, but never made it out. I opened them, but was too late. I’m leery of assisting and forcing a premature hatch because they usually pip when they still have a big yolk sac, and open abdomens and just sit there with their nose / head sticking out for a day absorbing the yolk as the abdomen closes. It’s always a bummer to lose one, if I get a clutch next year, I may try assisting eggs that show signs of a baby trying to pip at the four hour mark rather than giving them the day.

William, these are madreans, Elgaria kingii not southerns, Elgaria multicarinata. I love the baby colors that these guys have too :o)
06/08/08  02:25am

 #1757290


Ameivaboy
View Profile



   Message To: Aliceinwl   In reference to Message Id: 1754839


 Madrean hatchlings

Impressive, it’s nice when I see people taking Elgaria and Gerrhonotus seriously. If you decide to sell some of those kingii shoot me a message :)
06/10/08  08:02pm

 #1767709


OldSchoolCatcher
View Profile



   Message To: Ameivaboy   In reference to Message Id: 1757290


 Madrean hatchlings

I know that I am new at this but do you guys catch them gravid, breed wild ones, or by them from the store. If you catch wild ones, please tell me about how hard it is to get them to mate and what the mating season is. Thank you.
06/20/08  03:54pm

 #1770242


Aliceinwl
View Profile



   Message To: OldSchoolCatcher   In reference to Message Id: 1767709


 Madrean hatchlings

My madrean breeders are a wild caught pair I acquired in mid summer 2006. I witnessed breeding that fall and the following spring the female laid a clutch of 8 fertile eggs and 1 dud. I kept them in a room where they experienced a natural photoperiod and I let the temperature drop in the winter. I tried to increase misting in the mid to late summer to simulate the monsoons they experience in southeastern Arizona. Although I did not witness it, they must have bred again in fall 2007 because the female laid another clutch this spring (11 hatchlings out of 14 eggs). Hopefully, they’ll breed again this summer. I am also planning to separate a suspected pair from the 2007 offspring and set them up identical to the parents, to see if I can get second generation offspring (F2s) as these babies are now as large as the parents were when I acquired them.

I house my breeder pair in a 10 gallon sized tank with a repti-bark substrate with several cork bark slabs for hiding and a water bowl which is always kept full. I have a black index card box with a small entrance hole cut about an inch up the side which I keep full of damp bed-a-beast. This is where the female lays her eggs. I don’t provide supplemental heat and temperatures range from daytime highs in the high 70s and 80s in the summer with night time lows in the low 70s to daytime highs in the high 60s to low 70s and night time lows in the low 60s to high 50s in the winter. I supplement with calcium with vitamin D3 at every feeding. I typically feed 3-4 times a week in the spring, summer and early fall and scale back to 1-2 times a week in the late fall and winter when the temperatures drop.

When eggs are laid, I remove them and place them in moist vermiculite (~1:1 ratio of vermiculite to water by weight). I incubate the eggs at room temperature which usually stays in the low 70s. The eggs hatch in about 2 months. Because I house the babies together, I feed daily to minimize squabbling and provide heat via a 50 watt bulb to promote rapid growth. As hatchlings babies are fed fruit flies and pinhead crickets (they are very small). I supplement them at every feeding with calcium with vitamin D3. Due to regular interaction with me from hatching, the babies are much bolder than the parents. Although hides are provided, they will often be out in the open and will usually come out in anticipation of food rather than hide on my approach.

I’m hoping to get another unrelated pair so that I won’t have to pair up siblings and can avoid inbreeding in the future. Getting my captive bred babies to breed successfully will be the real proof as to whether the above techniques are successful or need modification.
06/22/08  11:54pm


Back to Alligator Lizards Forum   Forums   Home   Members Area