A Slow Start

Yesterday Val put a smile on my face when we were candlelighting our whopping two eggs. Our newest egg has veins in a bullseye and the older egg is glowing nice and pink. We were really happy to find this because we've been having a slow start this season (many infertiles). We thought we would try and start a little "early" the beginning of December, but we've only gotten two good eggs since. All of our females are first timers so they're not very reliable yet. In fact, the majority our colony are first timers. I know this is 100% expected with them, but it's just a little frustrating when you're so excited to have some little hatchlings running around.

Hopefully with these good eggs we'll continue to have fertile ones from those two females. Hopefully everyone else will get the hang of it too and we'll have waves of good eggs soon. We're pretty excited about our first egg. It's from a Tang x Mack, so maybe we can start our season with a cool little co-dom or even a tangish co-dom. The only downside, it's not due to hatch until the middle of April...sigh. Also, our newest egg is from a tang albino pairing (Paul you'll be happy, it's a Brite egg!).

Anyways, thanks for reading.

I am having the exact same problem. I just got my first two good eggs yesterday. We just have to hang in there and hope for the best.

I've been having a funny season, my best two producers this season are both first year females who have been paired with a first time male. So far they have given me 10 hatlchings between the two of them and another 6 eggs still in the incubator.

My proven breeders have been slow, had a couple of premmies, which are more heartbreaking than infertile eggs, a couple of "water ballon" eggs and several infertiles. I still have 18 eggs in the cooker right now and a bunch of girls gravid but again, its weird the ones that are producing. I couldn't be happier mind you if they keep giving me babies that look like this....



I'm sure your year will start rolling soon Ryan, and I can't wait to see the animals you produce, I'm sure they will be stunning when I look at the breeders you have there!

I'm right there with you, Ryan! Only my '04 girls are breeding now. Three of them were too small last year, so this is their first year. My two '03s from Albey will be through quarantine in a couple weeks, though! My second year breeder gave me two good eggs while I was on vacation (safely tucked away by my gecko-sitters). Two of the other girls have had two clutches each - one laid only one infertile egg in the first clutch (right before I left on vacation so I could worry about whether there was another egg) and then laid 1 good/1 bad a couple days ago, the other had what I thought were two infertile eggs, but I'm hoping one is actually fertile (or else it is just decomposing....) and then laid a split 1 good/1 bad clutch the other day. Unfortunately, breeding seems to be taking its toll on her. She's lost weight and had to be isolated. I'm cramming as much food into her as I can! My last female that is breeding has yet to produce any eggs. She hasn't been with her male for that long. They had a little tiff and both ended up with minor boo-boos and have been separated, so I hope he did his job! It does seem that the eggs are coming faster all of the sudden, though. I'm so anxious for hatchlings! Some of my fertile eggs are from Tremper x Tremper het and Tremper het x Tremper het, so 2-3 are potentially little albinos - my first!

Beautiful baby, Cory!! Getting big!

That is one gorgeous baby you have there!!!! Is it just the photo or are the eyes really all black?

so far they are really all black, with just a hint of color at the iris, been that way since she was hatched 5 weeks ago...



Sorry Ryan for hijacking your thread

Good to hear Ryan! Sorry about the early frustration, but I know ya'll are excited about the good ones. I bet you'll end up with some awesome hatchlings...and you'll quickly forget about the infertiles. We started in November and we're up to 63 eggs, 17 of which have been infertile, but now that the females are really going strong I hope our intertile percentage goes way down I'm glad Brite finally worked things out! Shoot me a pic of that baby when it hatches...watch it be a crazy calico (the first ever...lol) I wish.

At least you guys got some eggs, I got 15 breeding females ready to go but the guys don't want to "put out" *ahem* :P When does THAT happen!?!?

I feel your pain Ryan. I am working with almost all first time breeders, either the male or female in a group are first timers. So far, a guesstimate, I think about 75% of the eggs I've gotten are infertile. I have a few fertile eggs in the incubator, but a few weeks ago I lost electricity for 15 hours, and it was COLD here (I line in the N.E.). So, hopefully they hatch without deformities.

On a good note, I looked in on my Fat Tail eggs last night, and it looks like one of my Tang Striped Amels eggs is sweating, so hopefully I will go home to find a baby fattie waiting for me! Of coarse, I am not banking on it. I have been fooled once already this year, was expecting an egg to hatch from a Mack x Ghost, and the egg went bad a few days before it was supposed to hatch.

This is my first year breeding Cresteds, and I have had good luck with them. I have hatched out about 10 or more babies so far, with at least 10 more eggs in the incubator and a female that just laid her first 2 eggs, so I can expect many more