[tombo46]

What would be the perfect humidity for Tokay eggs? I use an automatic misting system so I can keep humidity at a nice constant and wanted to keep it at whatever is best for the eggs. Any advice much appreciated as I lost more eggs than I'd have liked last breeding season.

[thehotchik1000]

I keep my eggs exactly as I do the adults. Normally the humidity is around 70% in my tanks. I do a nice soaking once a day and then it has the rest of the day to slowly dry out. Tok eggs are super easy to care for I wonder why you lost many last season. The rule of thumb for me is to do nothing special with the eggs. You use an auto sprayer? Any way the eggs are getting too wet? They can handle a fair amount of moisture but too much water on a consistent basis could be a problem. Another mistake many people make is to have two females in an enclosure. That can also cause issues as compeating females will destroy or eat each others eggs. You didn't say what was going on with the eggs but I just thought I'd throw out a couple of main reasons why people do lose tok eggs.


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[Riverside Reptiles]

The eggs that I leave in situ obviously get the same amount of humidity as the adult animals. The eggs that I take out get whatever humidity is in the room. Tokay are very adaptable as are their eggs. Usually the tokay eggs that I remove have been laid inside of bamboo or pvc tubes. I simply cover the ends of the tubes with a plastic bad and a rubber band and let them sit at room temps until they hatch out with pretty much a 100% success rate. They really don't need anything special.

[tombo46]

Thanks for the replies. All my Tokays are housed seperately and only ever paired up for breeding. Once the female lays her first fertile clutch I remove the male and let her get on with it. The misting system is great and doesn't spray directly onto the eggs. It is a very fine mist too so isn't wetting the eggs at all. I keep humidity between 60 - 80% and aim for 70% with the misting system. The seperate enclosures vary between eachother slightly but always stay between 65 - 75%. I have 36 Tokay enclosures so it saves me a lot of time having to manually mist all the time.

I'm not sure why I lose so many eggs last year (probably around 70% success rate). It may have been down to me messing with them so much. I used to move the cork bark they were attached to every week or so to see if any had hatched.

I mainly wanted to see if anyon had found an idealistic humidity for the eggs to thrive so I could replicate it but if 70% is right then I've got it spot on.

I've replicated Michael Billewicz' laying sites this year so hopefully will have some success : )

[Riverside Reptiles]

Moving the eggs around can drown the embryo if you do it much. That may well be your problem.

[tombo46]

Originally Posted by Riverside Reptiles

Moving the eggs around can drown the embryo if you do it much. That may well be your problem.

Thanks Ethan. The problem is not being able to see the eggs. I'm always scared hatchlings will die if not found so rather than wait until I've spotted them I check the eggs to see if any have hatched.

How long can hatchlings live in the viv without any food? How do you get around this? I was thinking of chucking a few smaller livefood items in the viv to keep them going until I spot them.

[billewicz]

I've been amazed time and time again how these little guys figure out how to eat even when I do not know they are there.

So, I leave my eggs and hatchlings in with the parents. As soon as I see eggs, I post a date on the enclosure and 90 days later I start to pay a bit more attention to that enclosure during my nightly flashlight walk through. Once I see Toks I mark the hatch date and start including 1/8" or 1/4" dusted crickets along with the usual 3/4" load for the adults.

I usually see the newbies within a day or two of hatching, but sometimes its a week on the long side. Having said that, I just discovered a 4 month old juvie last night. What I thought were the first set of eggs are just about due so I've started to look in more often. It turns out this girls' real first single egg was laid at the base of the cork down in the mulch some time ago. Obviously, I never saw it. (I've seen this once before where the first egg(s) are down in the mulch at the base of the cork bark.)

What is interesting is that he was never given tiny feed items. Just the diversity in cricket sizes that happens at any given load.

This brings me to another point. My hatchlings that are left in the enclosures grow much faster than any that I have separated out which do not normally get over-sized crickets.

It's going to be an interesting year in the Tokay world. I can't wait to see what we all create.

Enjoy!

Michael

[thehotchik1000]

Michael,
I also put smaller crickets in my enclosures for babies. But it's always really funny to see a little tiny baby snatch up one of the parents crickets and smash it against the wall a few times and then eat it. I use 3/4 as well but I've seen a little one go after a 1". I gently tried to take that one away from the little guy. He really really wanted it though. He ended up making off with the 1" crickets head and then ate a smaller one. So they will definately do what they gotta do to survive. Whether or not they have teeny tiny crickets in there to eat. Sometimes their eyes are bigger then their stomachs. Lol


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