BackwaterReptiles
Avid Member
You may recall a pair of beautiful freshly-imported Yellow-lips I received about two months ago--I posted pictures of them, wondering if the female was gravid. I sold the male quickly, and long story short, the sale of the female never materialized.
She really looked gravid to me, so after a couple weeks I decided I'd stop trying to sell her and focus on keeping her healthy and strong in case she was indeed gravid. Well, starting about 2-3 weeks ago we could see the eggs in her, no need to palpate.
She worked her way down to the floor one day recently, something I hadn't ever seen her do, so I put her into a laying bin I had prepared. I had about 18" of peat moss and sand mixed, mostly peat moss. I figured she would need plenty of depth.
After about 12 hours, and just sort of scratching around on the surface, I put her back into her enclosure. A couple days later, she was near the bottom of the enclosure (but not on the bottom), so I tried again. No luck.
Then yesterday I noticed her deliberately climbing down to the bottom of the cage, very carefully, so when she got to the floor I gently picked her up and put her into the laying bin--it was early afternoon. When I left for the day, I kept the room lights on, but didn't have a light directly on the laying bin. I kept the bin cover on halfway.
When I came into the facility this morning, I walked over to covertly see what she was up to--when I saw her walking across the surface of the dirt, with wrinkly sides, I was excited to say the least.
I put her back into her enclosure, and started carefully digging. Contrary to what I had thought, I found the eggs, 63 of them, about four inches below the surface. They were hard-shelled, nothing soft. Not sure what healthy Parson's eggs look like, but to my eye most looked ok.
Here are a few pictures from what transpired:
Upon discovering the eggs...
A closer look...
Bin #1...
Bin #2...
Yesterday evening before I left for the day...
The female Yellow-lip right after I put her back into her enclosure...
Anyone who's successfully hatched these out, and would like to generously offer some pointers, I'm all ears. I have them in large plastic bins (perhaps 18"x14"x16") to help slow any temperature changes, in a temperature-controlled room that is automatically maintained between 68F and 75F, on perlite that's about 4-5 inches deep. I read that Ken Kalisch had 85% success on perlite at an average temperature of 72F, so that's really all I have to go on right now.
She really looked gravid to me, so after a couple weeks I decided I'd stop trying to sell her and focus on keeping her healthy and strong in case she was indeed gravid. Well, starting about 2-3 weeks ago we could see the eggs in her, no need to palpate.
She worked her way down to the floor one day recently, something I hadn't ever seen her do, so I put her into a laying bin I had prepared. I had about 18" of peat moss and sand mixed, mostly peat moss. I figured she would need plenty of depth.
After about 12 hours, and just sort of scratching around on the surface, I put her back into her enclosure. A couple days later, she was near the bottom of the enclosure (but not on the bottom), so I tried again. No luck.
Then yesterday I noticed her deliberately climbing down to the bottom of the cage, very carefully, so when she got to the floor I gently picked her up and put her into the laying bin--it was early afternoon. When I left for the day, I kept the room lights on, but didn't have a light directly on the laying bin. I kept the bin cover on halfway.
When I came into the facility this morning, I walked over to covertly see what she was up to--when I saw her walking across the surface of the dirt, with wrinkly sides, I was excited to say the least.
I put her back into her enclosure, and started carefully digging. Contrary to what I had thought, I found the eggs, 63 of them, about four inches below the surface. They were hard-shelled, nothing soft. Not sure what healthy Parson's eggs look like, but to my eye most looked ok.
Here are a few pictures from what transpired:
Upon discovering the eggs...
A closer look...
Bin #1...
Bin #2...
Yesterday evening before I left for the day...
The female Yellow-lip right after I put her back into her enclosure...
Anyone who's successfully hatched these out, and would like to generously offer some pointers, I'm all ears. I have them in large plastic bins (perhaps 18"x14"x16") to help slow any temperature changes, in a temperature-controlled room that is automatically maintained between 68F and 75F, on perlite that's about 4-5 inches deep. I read that Ken Kalisch had 85% success on perlite at an average temperature of 72F, so that's really all I have to go on right now.
