Draco volans pics! Dailup warning!

[Intense Herpetoculture]

Here are a few Draco volans pics; they are doing great.

Male Draco volans on oak branches.

http://www.intenseherp.com/images/Draco_volans_M.jpg


Dewlap of male.

http://www.intenseherp.com/images/Draco_volans_M_dewlap.jpg


Ventral side of males wing.
http://www.intenseherp.com/images/Draco_volans_M_wingunder.jpg


Dorsal side of wing.

http://www.intenseherp.com/images/Draco_volans_M_wingabove.jpg


Female Draco volans basking on ground.

http://www.intenseherp.com/images/Draco_volans_FM.jpg

Dewlap of female.

http://www.intenseherp.com/images/Draco_volans_FM_dewlap.jpg


Ventral side of females wing.
http://www.intenseherp.com/images/Draco_volans_FM_wingunder.jpg


Dorsal side of females wing.

http://www.intenseherp.com/images/Draco_volans_FM_wingabove.jpg

Now who doesn't love wings on lizards?

[aliceinwl]

Very cool, good luck establishing those guys.
-Alice

[Intense Herpetoculture]

Thanks, they really are an interesting genus. Hopefully I'll get them going good, as well as aquire a few more species. Planning on putting them outside this summer in large screen cages. I have a feeling natual light and temp varations will do them wonders. Guess I just have to wait for it to warm up a little bit.
Thanks
Justyn

Very cool, good luck establishing those guys.
-Alice

[Karen Hulvey]

I hope you can get some babies from those guys. I love those lizards but I've always heard they don't acclimate to captivity very well. Keeping them outside is probably the best thing you can do to get eggs. Good luck and keep us posted as to their progress.

[Intense Herpetoculture]

Yeah, they are very difficult to acclimate. Over the years I've learned more and more on how to keep them successfully every time I tried. I was a slow process but I am thinking it is going to pay off this year. My goal is to produce about 1000 of these guys anually, which means I think I'll need about 50.300 breeders. If I keep them in large outdoor cages I don't think it would be too difficult to keep such a large number. The main problem I'm going to run into is a food source for those many outdoor cages. I'm either going to have to perfect my cricket breeding skills, spend alot with my circket supplier, or find an easier source of food to raise. I guess I should start tackling that problem now, before I get there. Not to mention that if I use crickets, one I introduce them into the outdoor cages they will likely bepreyed on by ants. I wish I could train these dracos to eat out a bowl, I have my doubt's about that though. Then another problem with outdoor cages is finding the eggs. I would have to restrict the area in which they can lay their eggs, and/or make the earthen bottom an ideal incubation medium in terms of temps and humidity. That way I could just collect the babies out fo the enclosures as I see them. This would likely mean I would get a lower amount of hatchlings, but perhaps they would be genetically stronger? As you can see I still have a ton more issues to tackle w/ these guys. I'm always up for using my mind to figure things out, so this should prove interesting over the next few years.

I hope you can get some babies from those guys. I love those lizards but I've always heard they don't acclimate to captivity very well. Keeping them outside is probably the best thing you can do to get eggs. Good luck and keep us posted as to their progress.

[aliceinwl]

Maybe the dracos will eat the ants ;)

-Alice