First clutch Hatchies!

Hey guys!

Rockys first clutch started hatching yesterday (11th November)
Last night I noticed a little face popping out of an egg.


Then this morning there was 8 out! I placed them into their temp enclosure, and a ninth one hatched! Still have 17 to hatch any day now, many on the way! Here are some photos:

This is Rocky, the Mum.

Breeding Journal, Clutch three.

Today Rocky laid her third clutch!

5/11

At around 2pm I placed the laybox in her enclosure, I came back 15 mins later to find her digging.

after 1 hour and 40 mins of digging, she started to lay at 3:40

At 5pm i looked into her enclosure to see her covering up the eggs (making it very difficult to find)

All together she laid 23 healthy eggs, and one Slug, Her first slug ever.

I placed 19 eggs into one container, and the remaining four into a second container.

I then dissected the slug to see what the inside was like, all tham came out was a yellow Yolk.

That is a total of 75 eggs so far.

The first clutch are due on the 17th November, Second clutch on the 7th December, and this third clutch is due on the 4th January. (give or take a week)

If you are interested in some of the hatchlings, I am located in Sydney, and I am taking orders. The parents are Rocky and Balboa (you can see them in other blogs)

Contact me at cam.laing@hotmail.com

Snake Ranch - First Python.

After reading some of my blogs, you all probably realize I don't own any snakes, Only dragons.

Next year my reptile collection should be expanding, and I have already began this by putting down my deposit for my first Python. Some other reptiles I plan on getting are Ackie Monitors, Rick walker beardies, thick tailed geckos, and possible more pythons!

I have decided to go with the Centralian Carpet Python, (Morelia spilota bredli)
A few reasons why i chose this python is because I heard they aren't too picky with feeding, they are good handlers, and I think they have some great colours.

I have chosen the classic instead of Hypo, as I like the black outlines on the patterning.

I decided to go with Snake Ranch for the Bredli, as they are highly reputable, and I know I will be getting a healthy quality python. The only downside, is that it is my 18th present, Which is in 3 days, so I have to wait until March!
I took advantage of their 20/20 offer, which gets you 20% off. We sent off the order forum last Thursday, So now it is time to do some more research on Bredli's and set up a click clack!

Breeding Journal, Clutch two.

What an awesome day it was, I thought that rocky laying 26 the first time was a fluke, but she did it again!


6/10
Rocky looking to be gravid again, can feel some eggs, and once again, she is digging like crazy

8/10
Rocky started to dig in the laybox I gave her again today, I had to dig a starter hole like last time, but it did the trick! Exactly 20 days after laying her first clutch, and she has laid her second. There is 26 eggs also in this clutch, Not one slug. It took her approximately 2 hours to lay these ones. I thought Rocky had finished laying, so I moved the laybox out, then I saw her lay an egg on the floor of her enclosure (which was bare at the time). Now I have read that if a Bearded dragon lays an egg some where that it is not comfortable with, or it is not the right environment, they eat the egg. At this time, I saw Rocky quickly spin around, lick the egg and then try to bite it, luckily I grabbed her in time.

I have decided I will keep that beardie, Named him Lucky already.

29/10
I decided to candle the second clutch, Every egg is fertile once again, can see veins and little air sacks. All the eggs are fattening up and looking nice and white.


The incubator is now completely full, I had to make a shelf just for the second clutch, my drama now is that Rocky looks like she will lay again any day now, and with the first clutch still 15 days away from hatching, I am unsure of what to do.
I will sort something out.

Breeding Journal, Clutch one *UPDATES*

Hey guys,

The eggs from the first clutch are going great, they are looking nice and plump now.
Just a few updates:

21/9

All eggs looking good, degrees at 30. All are nice, white and big.

24/9

I am getting a fair amount of moisture in two of the containers, I have heard that too much moisture can lead to getting mold on the eggs, in end killing them, so I have switched to containers with dryer vermiculite.

26/9

I candled the eggs on this day, Candling eggs is when you hold a torch to the bottom of the egg, carefully to prevent rolling, and then you can see what is going on inside of it. At this point, every single egg has veins and an air sack, meaning ALL ARE FERTILE!!!

Dropped small torch into the eggs container, rolling 5 eggs, the eggs were marked so I could see which ones they were if they died. -- Rolling Dragon eggs is a big NO NO, as the embryo attaches itself to one side of the egg and creates an air sack, if an egg rolls, even once, it can kill the embryo.

5/10

The 5 eggs that were rolled are fine, no affect on them at all. All of the eggs are now looking nearly double the size, nice and fat.

29/10

I candled the first clutch for a second time, at this point I can actually make out the bearded dragons tails and a bit of their body, some of them were reacting to the light, wiggling and moving about, extremely fun to watch.

3/11

With approx 2 weeks to go on this clutch and no death, this could not go smoother, it is her first clutch, no slugs. Perfect!

Breeding Journal, Clutch one.

I will have a series of blogs, documenting the Breeding season this year.

The two Bearded dragons I have bred this year are Rocky and Balboa, For pictures of them, please refer to previous Blogs.

10/8
First put Rocky and Balboa together in Rocky’s enclosure

21/8
Separated them, after 11 days.

23/8
As I had not seen any mating in the 11 days, I decided to get them both out for 10mins or so and put them in the lounge room, where I witnessed a successful Mating display.

28/8
Noticed Rocky is looking a little bigger, at this time she was feeding on meal worms and getting regular sun.

12/9
Both Rocky and Balboa ate their first pinkie mice, rocky to fatten up, Balboa to also fatten up as he was off his food.

14/9
Rocky looking bigger and bigger, 80% sure she is gravid.

16/9
100% sure rocky is gravid, can see and feel eggs through her stomach.

17/9
Rocky is digging every where like Crazy, jumping every where. Have not put lay box in enclosure, as the incubator is not ready.

18/9
I made a laybox for Rocky, as she was going crazy, it has dirt from a pot plant in it, with water, so that it does not collapse in on her when she is digging.
I also completed the incubator after a quick trip to get a thermometer.
I placed the laybox in the enclosure and put her in it, but she was not very interested in digging, I had read on www.aussiepythons.com that if you dig a diagonal hole and place them in the hole head first, they can start digging. So I did this and it worked.

Rocky started digging at 2:30pm, She reached the bottom of the laybox at 2:35, after over 2 hours of digging, at 4:55, she started laying, finishing at about 6:50, the laying process took around 2 hours.
She laid 26 healthy white eggs, She did not lay one slug, or one off looking egg. The eggs were in the incubator by 8pm, at 30 degrees. This first clutch is due on the 17th of November. (60 days)

Rocky's Stomach the day before laying:


Digging:


Dirty after digging:






All 26 eggs of the first clutch:


In the incubator at 30 degrees:

Breeding Information

In this blog will be some notes and information on the breeding of bearded dragons, There will be videos and pictures that I have learnt from.

Here are some of the notes I have gone by in the past:

1. First of all, you need two bearded dragons, a male and a female.
2. Keep them in separate cages. Their cages should be 150lt(4ft) or larger.
3. Introduce them to each other, let them get used to each other and make sure they don't try to get too aggressive.
4. Let the male move in with the female (just for a while) until they are done mating.
5. Put the male back into his cage. the female should lay the eggs within one month. Make sure she has lots of sand for digging, and possibly a hiding box to lay them in. Look for lumps in her abdomen.
6. After the eggs are laid, carefully remove them with a spoon. Discard any eggs that are yellow or extremely dented. Bruised eggs are healthy eggs. They are fertile. She should lay any where from 10 to 35 eggs.
7. Keep them in an incubator at 28-31degrees Celsius with humidity around 50 percent. The substrates for the eggs could be vermiculite.
8. The eggs will hatch between 60 and 80 days. Most of the eggs will live, however, some may die or be infertile.
9. After the eggs hatch, put the hatchlings in two separate containers or glass tanks approx 40-75lt(2-3ft). They should be like the big storage boxes.
10. Divide the hatchlings into groups: large and small. This will help prevent them from biting off each others toes or limbs.
11. The babies should not be sold until they are at least 6 inches long.

A few tips:
• You should -NOT- breed until you have researched all you can about space requirements etc. Most hobbyists have "racks" they use for the young beardies. "Racks" mainly consist of Rubbermaid containers filled with the correct substrate etc. on a rack.
• Beardies can have up to 30 babies! Be ready for LOTS of crickets/roaches/worms!
• Watch your bearded dragons closely when mating. The male can get very aggressive.
• Females can also be aggressive toward each other.
• Give the hatchlings lots of food a day. Make sure they have lots of greens and give them powdered vitamin supplements.
• remember to give the babies 10.0 UVB Lamps from Zoomed and a 75 watt basking/heat lamp and basking rock.

This link leads to a video showing the males “head bobbing” behavior, and the whole mating ritual, it is fairly rare to see them mate: Beardie Head Bobbing!


Freshly laid eggs: