repto

all you need is a few straegically placed pieces of raw spud,carrot or apple etc that is accessible to the mealworms and beetles.They are happy to travel to get to the moisture source.

you need the permit before the lizards.They inspect the cage etc before you get the permit and they lean towards outdoors/natural lighting etc.No one can pass anything to you without seeing your permit.

I would ease back as in hold the food ,if they get caught with a bellyfull and it turns cold you can have problems.I see you are up north abit and i know how warm it still is generally.They should slow down naturally as days draw in and nights get cooler ,sun loses heat,etc.

the mating itself can become abit of a fight and is quite violent at times,a good way to tell the female is the bite marks on the back of the head/neck???

not really,we just put a male and female together and they do that stuff themselves?

welcome to the forum.I am also older than 14 but still like to act like one(14 yr old).

she looks fine to me?as much as you can tell from a pic?They seem to slow down a bit regardlss of heated tank or whatever in response to shortening day length?just keep an eye on her for signs of harrasment by an over excited male?they seem to be only too keen to take advantage of a dormant female.

they won`t breed untill in the beetle anyway?what I have read on the net the superworms don`t pupate unless put under some form of stress?one site said something along the lines of locking a worm in a film canister for a week or 2 to make them change?

Whats happening out there in the reptile world?older tortoises have stopped eating even though still warm days and mild nights.Babies are going for it.The dry conditions seem to have curtailed a bit of activity??

not much of a `watch` on tv anyway?

don`t they eat the egg sac/placenta for their first meal?

no,just the same size.

they were joined by the umbilicus and have since separated as it dryed up.they seem fine other than being a little smaller than normal.Have had twins before but usually just a little dryed up one on the end of the cord of a hatchling or one dead and one alive.Actually once there were two dead hatchlings,they maybe still in the depths of the freezer?

and another.

another shot

had these hatch the other day,have some more pics but a bit out of practice at posting them,multiple shots beyond me at the moment but may get it right or I will do them one by one?

well loved and escaped don`t really go together in my book??

hi there,welcome to the forum.Hibernation in auckland is possible but depends on location and your knowledge.You can get away with alot of things with an adult tortoise that you may well come unstuck with juveniles,which is more than likley what you will be dealing with?Anadapted fridge or winecooler etc is definatly worthwhile looking at,proper hibernation is a must for good health and longevity and you can pretty well forget about breeding without it.I know of a case in point of an adult female hermanns for example that never ever looked like laying an egg,being receptive to a mating or alot of other typical tortoise behaviour,following a controlled fridge hibernation all this changed to normal behaviour. pyramiding is a whole differnt ball game and I htink it would be safe to say overseas breeders are years ahead of us?We have only had any regular breeding for the last 5 years or so with just a few lucky people with adult females and the knowledge to hatch and rear? I have seen for myself the benefits of using a damp high humidity sleeping area for hatchlings and think this has more of an impact than diet.Lets face it in the wild what does a walnut sized tortoise do to survive?Hides in the top layer of soil under roots etc where it is a bit damper than out in the scorching sun even the adults stay out of the really hot sun.pyramiding seems to be more of an issue with spurthighs than Hermanns and there are some horric walking handgrenades out there. one on its own is fine and if you did have two adult males together they would spend most of their time trying to dominate one another or engaging in homosexual activities?my male is kept in segregation for 10 months of the year?people humanise them but in the wild they are solitary and mate on chance encounters,males attack each other on sight and drive the weaker one away.Good that you are doing your homework and remember its a long term thing,if you care for your tortoise it will outlive you.

with beardy`s the male bobs and the female waves as a sign of submission.mine did anyway?

looks like a carrot to me? do a google on spider mite,are there fine traces of web there?

I would suggest if you want to go dry as you say to avoid mite infestation,which may be a good thing?You should try and work out a mesh grill system in your lower trays to let the eggs and other debri fall through away from the adult beetles.If they are done hard on the moisture they eat eggs and young larvae.If you could separate the eggs and newly hatched young away from the adults you would hopefully get higher numbers of mealworms in your culture?I did this once by accident when I removed the beetles from a culture and must have fluked this coinciding with a mass laying of eggs as within a few weeks the old culture, minus the beetles was a seething mass of young worms.I know when I get lazy and neglect offering carrots/spuds to my cultures there is a corresponding lack of worms coming through??

red spider or two spotted mite??sulpur dust will fix them?

once upon a time they were the b all end all of live food in this country(unless you wanted to catch or grow your own)not all that long ago either??

from those pics? No,sorry.

it may seem shady,but they can easily move to the sunny spots?they use the overhanging trees for cover from above attacks.You will be hard pressed to find a more alert lizard??