Meet Mara Jade....

[melble68]

Look who the nice Fed Ex man dropped off at our place this morning. Meet Mara Jade Skywalker. She settled in in no time and drank right off the bat. Offered her some dusted crickets, and blammo... She even nailed two at a time. We're all excited about our new addition. Next year or so, Luke is also going to be very "excited".

BTW, Eric from Chameleon by Eric sent her to me. She's gorgeous and arrived in great shape. Thanks Eric!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[NHenn]

Very nice! She looks great.

 

[jannb]

Congrats on your new female! Mara Jade is a pretty little thing. How old is she? She's already showing color on her cheek.

 

[melble68]

Not sure of her exact hatch date, but I believe she's just shy of 6 months old.

 

[melble68]

she's preparing for a shed....

Mara Jade did not like the camera at all this afternoon, and I think I just noticed why. She's appears now to look like she's going to shed tomorrow. He are the pics of her showing some attitude this afternoon. Grumpy little girl.

 

[melble68]

She's getting a little bigger...

well she gained about 11 grams in a couple of weeks. her appetite is rather large right now. she's interested in everything i offer. loving the little purple she's showing.

 

[Kath44]

She's real pretty. Kath.

 

[jannb]

well she gained about 11 grams in a couple of weeks. her appetite is rather large right now. she's interested in everything i offer. loving the little purple she's showing.

Such a pretty little lady!

 

[Leslie11]

Mara

Beautiful, baby!

 

[melble68]

pictures don't quite show the color..

I love how her warm colors are coming in. My iPhone camera doesn't quite show the robust oranges showing thru, but wow its so cute.

I'm enjoying her colors way more than I thought I would. I knew I was going to have fun w/ a female, but not by getting so excited about her colors.

 

[zsazsa85]

I really like her colors! Congrats!

 

[melble68]

some sun and a shed...

Mara Jade had a great time in the big ficus tree the other day. She then proceed to get real grouchy and do a nice full shed the next day. She's up to 77 grams.

 

[lovelychams]

She IS giving you the hairy eyeball in the shedding picture. lol.

 

[melble68]

22 eggs and a lot of stress for me.... Mara Jade did great...

So I haven't been around much recently but that doesn't mean nothing has been going on around here. Mara Jade and Luke both have been enjoying the warm spring (ok HOT) weather here in Tampa. She's been gaining weight and was at 72 grams in December, slowly crept up to 77 grams in feb, stayed around 80 until April, and then by May did a big spike to 90 grams on the 13th. I got into egg laying bin mode including my wireless network PTZ camera. She did pretty good w/ the exception of eventually plopping most her eggs over the side of the laying bin. She really started paying attention to the bin around tues the 25th or wed the 26th, by Fridays the29th she dug what I thought to be a pretty nice tunnel, and I started to notice randon eggs showing up on my network camera that I was watching on from work. She put 3 or 4 in the dirt, and the hung her *** off the side of the bin and dropped a bunch right on the bottom of the enclosure. I hope she got them all out. She has been eating and drinking again. Keeping my fingers crossed. Didn't get Luke into this action this time. On the 30th she was back down to 72 grams, and the eggs weighed 12 grams in total.

 

[jannb]

Welcome back! Congrats on the eggs. I hope Mara Jade will be ok. Eating and drinking in a good sign.

 

[Fireofmarajade]

Loveeeee the name!!!!

 

[melble68]

At this point I've permanently brought her inside. Being outside on my covered patio where Luke Skywalker stays during the summer is just to warm for her. She is currently starting to dig again in her egg bin. This is the 3rd time this summer. I noticed her gaining weight on my monday weightings, so I've been expecting this for a few weeks. She refused food today, but ate yesterday like she normally does. I had her barrier up and my wifi network camera running 24/7 so she won't see me checking up on her. I hope she gets business taken care of here in the next couple of days.

I did have to re-do her plants when I brought her inside. One of the sheffleras didn't have my gnats prevention measures done to it. For all my plants that I keep inside, I do a custom potting mix, weed barrier, sand layer, and rocks to keep the dinky little gnats for invading our house. My wife isn't a big fan of random bugs in the house. I mix 50/50 organic potting soil and perilite. Then I cut weed block material around the stalks of my plants, cover with an inch of playsand, and then cover with a nice layer of washed river rock. Wa la, no gnats!!!!

 

[melble68]

She heard me sit down at the computer and came to the side of her enclosure that isn't covered right now. I recently put two enclosures together. You can see in the 2nd pic where I removed the screen between the two and laced them together w/ 50# mono.

 

[melble68]

She went butt first into a hole yesterday morning....

Mara Jade laid her infertile eggs yesterday. Today it was all about her. She got a nice long misting, ate an assortment of feeders, and spent most of the day hanging in the warmth of her basking light. This entire past week, she was pretty much so dark, but today her colors came back in full force. Here she is just after her light went out tonight. Tomorrow I'll check her weight and see how many eggs she dropped.

 

[jannb]

Beautiful girl! I'm so glad that she is ok after laying her eggs.