Rosie Molted so no babies!

A quick update to those who have followed the progress of my G. rosea breeding project.

I bred her last November 09′. She was getting larger and larger and was due this month! I checked today and she had freshly molted. So it seems I won’t be getting an egg sac after all. Instead I get a fresh molt, what a trade-off.

She is gorgeous though. It’s probably a good thing she molted. Since I had bred her, my roach production and business has skyrocketed. So I wouldn’t have had much time now anyhow, so all is good.

Incubating Bearded Dragon Eggs!

When I was breeding my dragons, I would keep the temps inside the incubator at 84F with humidity at around 80%-90%. I no longer keep or breed bearded dragons. They are in my opinion one of the most awesome species of lizards out there. If your new to the hobby and are thinking of breeding your bearded dragons, follow these simple steps for incubating and you too could have 100% hatchouts.

First, when you know your female is ready to deposit her eggs, get your incubator setup. Weather its homemade or commercial, you need to have the temps and humidity ready for the new eggs. Incubating the eggs is simple, the hard part is the long wait and anticipation to hatching.

Okay, after you have your incubator setup and ready to go, your waiting for your female to drop those eggs. In the meantime take a plastic container with a lid about the size of a sandwich holder or larger, but small enough to fit in the incubator. Add vent holes on the side, then fill half way with damp vermiculite (Walmart). I would use vermiculite cause it is bacteria free, doesn’t promote mold or fungus and is better for the eggs.

Now, your females has deposited her eggs and your ancious to dig them up. Don’t dig them up in front of her, place her back into her enclosure or separate container out of site of her eggs. Locate and uncover the eggs very carefully. Use a spoon to pickup the eggs one by one and gently set the eggs on top of the vermiculite in the same position the mother deposited them.

Gently mist or squirt water over the eggs to wash them off. Place the lid on container firmly, date and set in incubator. Periodically check to make sure your temps and humidity are good and also do a visual on the eggs to make sure there still good. When you first put the eggs in, they may collapse slightly, this is normal and they will fill out again after a few days.

If the eggs are good, you’ll see them grow slightly over the 2 month period of waiting. Bad eggs turn yellowish brown, remove if you see these. When its time to hatch, they all should hatch out within a 3 day period. They generally won’t start to eat until there 3rd or 4th day of life. Once they start eating, you better have plenty of food.

I fed baby roaches, both B. dubia and B. lateralis nymphs. If your feeding crickits, you’ll need 2 week old crickets (1/4″). My newborn beardies would eat upwards of 5-10+ roaches a day each plus there mustard greens. They would grow an average of 1/2″ a week on roaches. In six weeks they would be ready to sale at 6″+. If your thinking of selling them, wait till at least 6 weeks of age. At this age there stong enough to handle shipping overnight. Following the info mentioned above and you should have healthy baby dragons.

Valid comments on/about/experience are all welcome. Spam, hate, offensive, etc… will be ignored/deleted. Your welcome to share videos as long as it is doesn’t violate any terms. Thanks for reading, Greg Hagedorn.

P. lugardi Slings Update!

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This is an update to my Pterinochilus lugardi (Tanzanian Blonde Baboon) slings that hatched August 19th, 09. After separating and molting to 2i, I ended up with 39 active healthy little babies. There about 3/8″ now and some are eating. There climbing and webbing up there deli-cups.

When they hatched, there were between 80-90 babies. When I went to separate them into deli cups (1st instar), I noticed bout 25 or so had died in the original enclosure they hatched out in. A few days after separating, I lost another 21. I don’t know the reason. They just swelled and died. Everything was right from what I have read and viewed on breeding and rearing slings.

The whole process was awkward from the beginning. Most breeders pull there sacs at around 25 days. I think because I had kept the mothers environment somewhat moist because of the eggs, along with high temps caused the eggs to hatch early, approx. 20 days.

I never pulled the sac, instead pull mom. Made sure the substrate was moist for high humidity. When I separated is when I noticed most of the dead had got stuck under the substrate and webbing. One interesting thing I noticed is that when they are 1st instar, they can’t climb very well if at all and they don’t start eating or webbing until 2i.

I raised many slings before, but this is a 1st from egg. I always planned on breeding tarantulas in a few years, but this female P. lugardi was shipped gravid, possibly unknown to the seller. It’s been a great learning experience.

If I have any left after existing requested orders, I will post them on my website here. If you have any questions regarding my experience with raising slings from eggs, comment and I’ll help where I can.

All comments need approval before being posted, so spam, hate, offensive, etc… will be deleted. Thanks for reading, Greg Hagedorn.

Pterinochilus lugardi egg sac hatched!

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Gravid mom in july 09.

Story first…I received a P. lugardi about 3″, unsexed, back in May 09. It had been eating normal, webbing up, etc. A couple of times while my son was feeding my Ts, it wouldn’t except and food. So were thinking, pre molt. A couple of weeks went by and my son checks in on the P. lugardi, and says, “this thing looks smaller”. I asked him if there was a shed skin in the container, and he replyed, “no”. So I looked at the setup and right below where it, now “she” was sitting, I could see a faint orange color below a thick web mat. I told my son, “she” layed an egg sac, and I pointed it out. You can see the original video I posted on YouTube here. If you look close you can see the color. She never rolled the sack up, just covered it and sat there.

Mom after laying eggs sitting on sac...8.2.09

She layed the sac between July 29th and August 2nd. I had dated to pull the sac today, the 19th. I went to do so, and to my surprise, there were about a half dozen cute little orange cream colored slings walking about. I am so unprepared. This is my first encounter with baby Ts. I would have to guess the ones I saw walking around are 1st instar, correct me if I am wrong. I plan to post a video of the babies later today when I get my camera back. So I will update you all later as to there progress.

I pulled mom from babies and hope none of the new borns escaped through her air vent holes. I put the container in a larger container just in case of any escapes. So far it looks to be about 50 or so slings.

Newly born P. lugardi slings...8.19.09

Newly born P. lugardi slings...8.19.09

DISCLAIMER: Information contained herein represents various resources and my own personal experience with this particular species. Valid comments on/about/experience are all welcome. Spam, hate, offensive, etc… will be ignored/deleted. Thanks for reading, Greg Hagedorn.