repto

You can but you have to hand feed and wriggle it under their nose which is still time consuming,got heaps of locusts coming on so that makes it easy.

sick of feeding the buggers.

under natural light and day lenght I would say so,but inside under lights,heated plenty of food,not impossible?how many did you get?

you may be thinking of the green iguanas which were $5000?

it was on the cities list and it was sent back to its coutry of origin,somewhere in asia.As for the green water d`s,have never seen one up close and personal so can`t comment,this was what I was told from people that are more "in the know" than you or me!

then they miraculousaly(sp?) bred,yeah right!and the `babies` appeared on tm etc for $5000 each.The akld zoo bought some and had them tested etc,some had different dna(not brothers/sisters)and some had a strain of salmonella not present in NZ but only found in reptile collections in singapore or USA.Also no one has actually seen the parents????When they rounded them up to put them down some turned out to be not iguannas at all but chinese water dragons which look very similar.Thats the story that I have heard from a few different people(some that had them confiscated)What was dissapointing was they let the sales go on for some time and the people that bought them in good faith had checked with DOC or maF for approval beforehand only to have them taken and destroyed after they had been transported from one end of the country to the other.

just sent a pair down your way the other day(ch ch)sales have tapered off but not too many to handle now so not too bothered about shifting them.Alot more work than people think to raise good healthy un blemished babies ,mainly in regard to the huge volumes of live food they can put away.Raising your own food is pretty time consuming,when you have locusts,crickets and mealworms to feed.There are leopard geckos in private collections in nz,whether its another case of the green iguanas we will wait and see,Ti point and otorahanga kiwi house also had them,not sure if they still do as they were running out of females I think.

just for the record.

Yes you can overdo it with moisture!! Depending on what species you are doing.Redears can take a lot of different rates of moisture but in my early days I actually had one swell up and pop.Now I just mix the vermiculite 50/50 by weight with water and inside a closed icecream container have a damp paper towel over the eggs which are half buried. Check weekly, if the paper is dry, dampen again if not, leave it. Look at your eggs,if they are shrinking and fertile up the moisture if not wait till next week.Things like snake necks can sit and sit till they get a jump in humidity to trigger the hatch. Boxies can get really dry, almost caved right in and you can swell them up again with more moisture.Too much moisture usually goes with mould as well which will stuff things up big time in no time.

It can be as simple or complex as you like,you can get away with a lot more variance in temps than you can with birds. I have used everything from under the waterbed to hotwater cupboard and homemade incubators,floating containers in fish tanks and hovabator incubators. All will work but the professional made one takes alot of the worry out of it when you are trying to hatch out something rare and valuable. For $250 or so I would say a hovabator would be a good investment. goodluck.

shutting down as the bottom sediment can be quite foul.Wouldn`t fancy sitting in that for 3 mths ?

I forgot to say also, would not risk the reeves for this either, I know of one that died and it was plenty old enough?

I have been doing mine for years with no problems, I tell people to stop feeding at the end of the financial year(31st march) and resume on labour weekend,you can extend this time with experience but it is a good general rule of thumb to follow.As already said your turts must be in good health and condition beforehand,once the temps drop below 18 digestion is slowed and any further drop can stop it with food left in the stomach to rot and kill the turtle a result.The other thing is just leave them alone,you can`t be picking them up checking on them etc,trust nature to work,it does quite well and has for a long time.I used to check mine at night with a torch to see if they were still alive but nowdays are confident to leave them to it.They still come out to bask on sunny days and the males are alot more active than the females,some seem to go deeper into than others and you never see them even on a hot day.

in the first pic on the edge of the shell?looked a bit pinkish inflamed?hard to tell from the photos but the other just looks like shedding will fix it.Maybe he has been kept in a place with no sun and UV?people often buy all the right lights etc but fail to take into account they only have limitted life time even though they still go no effective uv rays are produced,12 mths would see most of them stuffed.Just keep him warm.,good varied diet,sunlight if possible and clean water.

instant results,but still keep offering it,grated dog roll and grated carrot is worth a try and also gourmet cat food,beef heart medley is enjoyed by mine.Even the beardies will go for this if you have the time to offer it on toothpick and wave it about.

what are you doing up at that time mincie?have you not heard of bed and sleep?Hows those beardies going?

in your first lot of pics it looked like the tip was bent but must have just been pushed onto the wood?What is your staple diet in the live food line your using?I have been pumping the locusts into them but its hard to keep the stocks up the way they are going,just about big enough for some mealworms so that should ease the pressure.

good to see there is a separate reptile forum.nice looking beardies,watch out for dominance and aggression,I see you already have one that is nice and fat and two that look a little thin and hollow?also one has lost the tip of its tail?They can major issues with dominance like this with one getting the best basking spot,most of the food etc etc.if you are not careful it can even end in death.They are real eating machines at this age and it can be a hard job to keep the food up to them.(I have 20 in a tank so know what I amm saying)I have separate housing all ready to go and it is almost time to split them up into ones or twos.Nothing worse than a maimed dragon with a short tail or three legs!good luck with them,they are the best of the reptiles we can get I reckon.

notoriously difficult and the only real way is if you catch one laying eggs its a girl.Often if you stick them in a different tank and watch them a male will often stick his wiggly bit out(ugly looking black thing)then you know you have a boy.

usually better if you have 2 -3 males to each female but worth a try,just feed them up on all the good stuff untill the female is plump and pinky round the vent area.turn the heater off for a day or two then give a 50% water change and turn the heater on.As the temp comes up they will spawn all over the sides of the tank,plants every where.Take them out when there are plenty of eggs to be seen or they will eat them.the babies are realativly big and will take fresh brine shrimps which you will know they have eaten them as their bellies will turn pink.don`t worry about the temp killing them as mine are outside in a pond and have been for years through frosts and winters.

1 teaspoon common(noniodised) salt per 4.5 litres water