fat tail rack housing

reptirus · #1 11-11-2009, 12:16 AM

I am considering breeding fat tails, I wanted to make sure to gather all the info I need before making a final desision though.

I am assuming they can be kept in racks? individually in 15 qt shoe boxes?

What substraight do you prefer when housing fat tails in a rack setup?

Do fat tails need to be brought down in temperature and then back up before breeding or is that not nessessarily needed?

Approx how many clutches do fat tails lay a year

BlackIrisReptiles · #2 11-14-2009, 03:04 PM

I don't breed them myself either, so I'm going to answer tentatively, but hopefully it'll bump your post up so someone more experienced will correct me if I'm wrong.

- Yes, lots of people keep them in racks. You can go to theurbangecko.com and check out their facility photos, it'll give you a good idea of how to house them. I personally think 15 qt is a little small, but not a lot of people agree with me. I would go for sweater boxes that might be 20-32 qt if you don't have a lot of breeders, and smaller boxes for the babies, but that's just my personal preference.

- Most people like paper because it's sanitary and easy to clean. And then they provide a tupperware or plastic shoe box with a hole cut in the lid full of ecoearth or some other loose material that can be kept humid for them to hide in and lay eggs in.

- I don't know about a drop in temps. Hopefully someone who knows can answer that.

- If I remember correctly, a typical female will lay 5 clutches of 2 eggs. So about 10 eggs on average. However you'll get a super female that can lay more and some that won't do as well.

I hope that helps!

Saille · #3 11-14-2009, 10:14 PM

I use shoeboxes and a good UTH for mine, (the hatchlings) I don't have a rack set up.
I did brumate my fatties, and they did the rest.
It was my girl's first season ever, I made sure hr tail was literally obese before I put the two of them together, and I did introduce them on "neutral territory", i.e. a clean cage that neither had been in previous.

I got 5 clutches, 10 eggs total, and 6 healthy hatchlings. not bad for my girl's first ever breeding season!

BlackIrisReptiles · #4 11-15-2009, 01:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saille

I got 5 clutches, 10 eggs total, and 6 healthy hatchlings. not bad for my girl's first ever breeding season!

Nice!

My first season last year sucked, with 6 eggs and not a single hatchling lol. Hopefully this one will be better!

Saille · #5 11-16-2009, 02:03 AM

What was your set up and what was your girls' weight, prior to breeding?
What did you use to incubate, temps and incubation medium?

BlackIrisReptiles · #6 11-16-2009, 08:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saille

What was your set up and what was your girls' weight, prior to breeding?
What did you use to incubate, temps and incubation medium?

Everything was fine, until FPL shut off our electricity by accident! We went 2 days without power and the eggs in the incubator didn't recover. And by freak conincidence all our friends were at home during a break, so there wasn't anyone here to take the incubator while our power was restored.

Hopefully this year nothing goes wrong. We have our pearlite, our incubator, and all the girls at healthy breeding weights of over 50 grams. All we have to do is wait for the "season" to start in a couple months.

frilled1 · #7 11-26-2009, 12:31 AM

I set my fatties up just like leo's just mist them a few more times a week.

I keep mine in rack setup with paper towel substrate. I cool my fatties just like leo's.

as far as how many clutches it varies from female to female. Most lay around 6-8 I had a few produce 14-16 But on average fatties dont produce like Leo's..