Rookie Breeder Question

This is my first attemp at breeding my leos, and so far it took a lot longer then expected, but I my first clutch was laid yesterday, and I have a lot of questions.

1) If it's a females first clutch, can they hold onto the eggs longer then normal? It seems as if my gravid female had a fat stomach for longer then normal.

2) I've heard that the female will start to refuse food when she's close to laying, but I'm wondering how long before she lays does this happen. It seemed as if my female, eat nothing but calcium a couple of weeks before she laid.

3) I cleaned out her cage around 11 pm, and the next morning around 9 - 10 am found the eggs. Did I find them in time?

4) She laid one egg in her warm hide, and the other in her humid hide. Is that ok?

5) The eggs felt like small cool\cold water ballons. One of them, the coldest of the two eggs had a slight dent, on the top of the egg. But the dent only appeared after i touched it to put the egg in the perlite.

6) I used Albey's method for incubation medium, but ther perlite seems really dry. I guess I was expecting it to be a little softer. What should proper perlite feel like when incubating?

Thanks in advanced for any help.
-Jason

congratz on the eggs! I had a question that related to this, which one did they find aspestos in, vermiculate or perlite? think it was vermiculate, but my memory sucks, so I dont trust it.

Vermucilate

Originally Posted by -JayDog-

This is my first attemp at breeding my leos, and so far it took a lot longer then expected, but I my first clutch was laid yesterday, and I have a lot of questions.

1) If it's a females first clutch, can they hold onto the eggs longer then normal? It seems as if my gravid female had a fat stomach for longer then normal.

2) I've heard that the female will start to refuse food when she's close to laying, but I'm wondering how long before she lays does this happen. It seemed as if my female, eat nothing but calcium a couple of weeks before she laid.

3) I cleaned out her cage around 11 pm, and the next morning around 9 - 10 am found the eggs. Did I find them in time?

4) She laid one egg in her warm hide, and the other in her humid hide. Is that ok?

5) The eggs felt like small cool\cold water ballons. One of them, the coldest of the two eggs had a slight dent, on the top of the egg. But the dent only appeared after i touched it to put the egg in the perlite.

6) I used Albey's method for incubation medium, but ther perlite seems really dry. I guess I was expecting it to be a little softer. What should proper perlite feel like when incubating?

Thanks in advanced for any help.
-Jason

#1 - yes, I have a lot of frirst time females this year and some are taking much longer to lay than others.

#2 - all females are different, I have some that will not eat for a day or 2 up to a week before they lay and others eat even the day they lay the eggs

#3 - probably, if they were not dried out they should be fine and she may have just laid them before you found them. I checked mine the other day around 9am and went back at noon to fill up the water and found eggs that weren't there at 9

#4 - should be fine, Ive even had some lay in the dry hide (a pain cause I had to use the hide to incubate) and some laid on the paper towel

#5 - they may be infertile, quite a few 1st timers lay an infertile clutch or egg with the first batch, just candle them in a few days and see if you see veins, if they are fertile you will see the little veins and if they are infertile they will glow solid yellow

#6 - it does feel dry but you don't want the eggs too wet just humid, mix the pertile 1 to .8 perlite to water and go by weight, so if you use 50 grams of pertile you will spray 40 grams of water on it to get the right amount of pertile to water ratio.

Just curious, whats the Optimum Humidity in an incubator?

85%? I think thats it.

I keep my humidty at 80%

OK jason, here's my answers:

1. yup. happens all the time. a lot of females will mate before they are really ready and wait a little longer. even 2nd year

2. mine stop anywhere between never and abouit a week or so. I would think if it was more than 10 days or so, she really ought to be eating. try offering a pinkie the day after she lays.

3. who knows? cook 'em anyway and see.

4. see #3

5. no problem

6. i use vermi

good luck! and expect another clutch in 10 days to several weeks

oh yeah, and my humidity runs 80-90%. i use about a 1:1 vermi. and it works!