An interesting day with taylori

[mat.si]

Well, I've had an interesting weekend. :biggrin:
On Saturday I did a little digging around and found these:
http://www.geckosunlimited.com/community/aussie-geckos-others-including-diplodactylus-strophurus-saltuaris-phyllurus-oedura-etc/36557-little-gift-my-wyberba.html

On Sunday I've had a rather exciting day with my Hemitheconyx taylori.
My group has been in captivity for about a year.
They have all grown big and fat, specially females.
About a month ago I introduced my biggest male to my biggest female and I saw them mating the same night.
About a week ago I noticed she was getting rounder and rounder in the belly and her tail was getting a bit thinner. She looked like she was going to burst at any moment.

Here's the result: :banana::banana:
(Photos are rather crappy. I guess I was so excited my hands were shaking. )

I gave her a nice dark laying box, but of course she didn't use it.
She laid the eggs in her shelter where she couldn't bury them completely, because the sand was not deep enough.

:shock: Just look at the size of these suckers. :shock:
Each egg is about 5 g. The biggest gecko eggs I've seen, specially considering the size of the animal.

They are incubating now and I'm really hoping for the best.
One more female seems gravid as well.

Matjaz

 

[MattL]

You lucky son of a ......
Congrats and good luck (not like you really need it right now!) with those eggs!


Matt

 

[Hilde]

I agree with Matt ... you lucky ...
Where do you buy your supply of lucky horse shoes?

 

[DDReptiles]

Those are some huge eggs, they look like leachianus eggs!!

Congrats

 

[Supreme Gecko]

Wonderful looking animal. She looks so healthy!
Is she guarding the eggs? Do you still have fingers left after taking them?

 

[mat.si]

She actually got quite thin after she laid the eggs, but she should gain the weight back quickly. She's a very good eater, so I'm not worried. Her tail was really fat, before she got gravid.
The eggs were laid in her warm shelter where she usually sleeps, so I can't really tell, if she was guarding them or not, but she was a bit agitated, when I removed the eggs.

 

[Tariq Stark]

Congrats Matjaz! Those are very big indeed! Please keep us posted!

Tariq

 

[PassPort]

only in my wildest dreams.......
lucky you!

 

[mat.si]

all part of the plan, all part of the plan... :biggrin:

 

[tanala]

thats awesome. cant believe my eyes how big they are. Do you know the weight of the female?

 

[mat.si]

Well, it's been quite a long time since I've taken their weights. They have all grown quite a bit in the meantime.
I would really like to do it more often with all my geckos, but time doesn't always allow.
Keeping them well fed and healthy always comes first.

 

[tanala]

well it wouldbe interesting to know. With eggs of that size, reproduction effort must be pretyy high. I wish you a successful breeding season with them.
may i ask what the minimum temperatures are (in winter nights)? Are they sensitive to cold temperatures?

 

[Graham_s]

congratulations! I hope they hatch good healthy animals
Very pretty gecko as well

EDIT: She looks like she has a beard!

 

[Geckos and Goannas]

WOW!!!! you are sooooo lucky!!!!!!!! Keep us updated on the progress with the other females and how the neos do! just out of curiosity how many times have taylori been bred in captivity?

 

[mat.si]

I know of two people (in the US) who have produced F1 CB H. taylori.

They are supposedly sensitive to low temperatures. I never kept them under 20 C or so at night.
I usually have localized heating turned on 24/7 and they will often lay at the warmest spot at night (Probably in the upper 20s C.). They are most active in the evening.
By day the temperatures go up to over 30 C on the warmer side and are around 25 C at the cooler side.
I cooled them down a bit in November and December by turning the heating off at night, so the temperatures dropped down to 20 C or so.
I turned the heating on at the end of the year, when I started introducing the males.

I will eventually get their new weights, I just don't want to bother (potentially) gravid females at the moment and the one that laid eggs needs to gain some weight back.

 

[combadao]

Congratulations, very impressive.

 

[Uropl@tus]

Hello

Thats really great to her that you' ve eggs laying of this difficult geckos....hope the best for you....

Best Regards Patrick

 

[frilled1]

Awesome!!! Congrats keep us posted

 

[Ira]

Yeah from what I've heard, especially from Jon, keeping them warm is the key. Please keep is updated. Getting these guys successfully reproduced would be nice.

 

[mat.si]

And another....

Well, I have a little update for your drooling pleasure.

Just last night another female laid a pair of eggs. (She was very obviously gravid for the last couple of weeks or so.)
She ignored a nice laying box as well and laid the eggs inside her shelter.
At least she had enough moist sand to cover them completely this time.

Here she is with her clutch already dug out by me, wondering what the hell is going on. :shock:

Eggs were a little bit smaller this time, but still huge. (Both together 8.7 g)

First pair of eggs has been incubating for 12 days and still looks good.
Hopefully both clutches are fertile.

For the more curious among you, I have weighed my animals this time.

Adult females are +/-40 g and adult males are +/-30 g.
The female that laid the first clutch has already gained most of her weight back and is already almost 40 g again.
The female that just laid is now a bit over 31 g. (Together with eggs she would be 40 g) It's quite amazing that the clutch of two eggs makes about one quarter of her weight.