A.persica Hatchlings
- Thread starter robk
- Start date
spidergecko
New member
They tend to be tough to keep in the first couple of weeks. Spray them regularly and use your forceps to slowly remove the skin.
Try to increase the humidity in the incubator to about 50%. This helps them with the first shed.
Try to increase the humidity in the incubator to about 50%. This helps them with the first shed.
spidergecko
New member
robk said:
If you are getting mouldy eggs something isn't right at all. Even infertile eggs will not mould. Hard shelled eggs don't mould. You are incubating them dry, right? Describe your incubation setup if you don't mind. I am very interested to know how you got mouldy eggs.
The normal room humidity (especially in the summer) is usually perfectly adequate for Agamura eggs.
I am having a good year with respect to laying but the hatching was a little iffy in the beginning. The females produce regularly. However, I increased the incubator temps early in the season and the babies came out very, very weak. I have since reduced those temps and things are fine again. You'd be surprised how 1'F can affect the hatchlings. I'm just waiting on the females to lay their last eggs of the season.
I added two new blood lines this weekend and hopefully I'll add a few more by the end of the month.
Anyway, I could go on and on.
I have the incubator dry,the eggs are on sand. Currently im using a small incubator intended for lab use (i think). The only part of the egg that molds is the bit thats in contact with the sand.I have not had any mold recently so it may be that there was some moisture in the sand?
What temprature are you now incubating at just above 29c.
Im not expecting any more eggs this year as the females were looking a bit thin so i separated them,had more eggs since then though.
How many bloodlines do you work with?are they all cb?
My adults are Wc, but i have a nice cb female ive raised and hopefully one of my hatchlings will be male so i could have a cb pair by next year.
What temprature are you now incubating at just above 29c.
Im not expecting any more eggs this year as the females were looking a bit thin so i separated them,had more eggs since then though.
How many bloodlines do you work with?are they all cb?
My adults are Wc, but i have a nice cb female ive raised and hopefully one of my hatchlings will be male so i could have a cb pair by next year.
spidergecko
New member
robk said:
I find the mould issue very interesting. If you ever figure out how that happened I would like to hear about it.
Anyway, my incubation temps are about the same as the ones on the website. I keep them at 83-84'F (28-29'C). I have a high ratio of female to male hatchlings but I am hesitant to call it TSD since I haven't tried too much experimentation with varied temps.
I don't have all CB animals however I do not part with any geckos that are directly from a WC/WC or WC/CB pairing. I still don't agree with acquiring WC animals when CB are available, especially for just pets, however the bloodlines are running close together here in North America and especially in Canada so I wanted to spike mine with new blood. From a rough count, I have about 6 lines with varying degrees of mixing however I am very particular about mixing animals so I don't even mix grand-aunts with grand-uncles of different siblings (if that makes sense). Four of my lines are pure, the others are erroneously mixed so I have to be careful. I have one animal I held on to that I am unable to add back to the colony because she has blood from every line except for the WC ones (and I am reserving the WC males for the heavy, proven females). I thought of selling her but she is strange in that once she is moved off of paper towel, she stops eating and even moving. I doubt anyone would want to keep a spider gecko on paper towel all its life. If I end up with any extra males I might pair them and sell any offspring to people with animals from other breeders/dealers or with no interest in breeding.
Well you tricked me into gabbing away again. Let me know how things go. Your female still retains sperm and might continue laying eggs all the way into December. Keep her protein high with good fats. Well dusted mealworms are really good for this. I have a bony female that pops eggs out regularly so I wouldn't worry too much about yours being too skinny.
Thanks again Mike,its reassuring to have someone to ask advice.
Ive had a go using tweezers to get the skin on and it came away fairly easy. Any idea how far you can 'push' persica before theyll shed their tail?
This year hasnt been to good,but with what ive learnt im hoping next year will be more successful.
Time to figure out the helmeteds now :?
Ive had a go using tweezers to get the skin on and it came away fairly easy. Any idea how far you can 'push' persica before theyll shed their tail?
This year hasnt been to good,but with what ive learnt im hoping next year will be more successful.
Time to figure out the helmeteds now :?
J
JayS
Guest
you should be more worried about breaking their legs or back.You have got to be careful with them they are fragile when hatchlings.I have been breeding Agamura for about 8 years.
spidergecko
New member
As Jay said, they can be fairly delicate as hatchlings. I've had mixed experience. Some hatch out very strong; strong enough that you can drop them short distances with no ill effect. Others will break just by touching them a little too hard.
Regardless, it is pretty difficult to make them drop their tail. They don't drop it too quickly from non-physical stress. That means they probably won't drop it when you scare them. You can also touch their tails without them dropping. The tails fall when they are grabbed and held by another animal. Golubev and Sczerbak also mention the tough tails (but of course, they were trying to pull the tails off of dead spider geckos).
Good luck with them. It would be nice to get strong CB lines in the UK. I wonder how many of those WC imports from 2003 are still alive.
Regardless, it is pretty difficult to make them drop their tail. They don't drop it too quickly from non-physical stress. That means they probably won't drop it when you scare them. You can also touch their tails without them dropping. The tails fall when they are grabbed and held by another animal. Golubev and Sczerbak also mention the tough tails (but of course, they were trying to pull the tails off of dead spider geckos).
Good luck with them. It would be nice to get strong CB lines in the UK. I wonder how many of those WC imports from 2003 are still alive.
spidergecko
New member
robk said:
That's what we have been lead to believe based on info from one person. I don't actually believe it. The species is relatively easy to breed so I can't see how it would have all but disappeared from an entire continent. I think what most likely happened is that WC animals were imported in large numbers and started becoming common in pet stores; not because they were being bred. I'm sure there were successful breeders but no one who produced them in large numbers (for pet stores, etc.). The WC animals do so poorly in captivity.
That big shipment to the UK was last year, wasn't it? I know one person bragged about all the eggs he was getting from the 20 or so geckos he received but I have never heard from him again. I imagine much of his stock died off (if he was even telling the truth in the first place).
I know you are going to have some good luck in the near future. Just keep at it!