One Of My Female Bearded Dragons Laid 18 Eggs In Her First Clutch



The male is the one strutting his stuff next to one of the females. The
other female is hard at work laying eggs under the laying box. Note the
male's stub tail and the missing toes on the right hind foot.

She sure looks like she is down to serious business.

I got two free female bearded dragons awhile back from one of my son's friends. Wasn't thinking all that much about breeding them although I had toyed with the thought of buying a male to join them. Then, a few weeks back, on July 1st, I got a free adult male. They were not in the tank together very long before he started mating with them.

Click on it to enlarge it and look closely, you can see three of the eggs.

One of them dropped 18 eggs tonight. I put together a nice laying box for her, full of a mixture of potting soil, sphagnum moss (long cut) and black garden soil (consisting of composted weeds, grass, leaves and such). She dug in it a few times, then decided she wanted to dig out the sand from under that box and lay under there. Go figure. Luckily the box did not slip down onto her or the eggs after she dug out enough sand to make a nice laying chamber.

All done laying, she is coming out from under. Once
out, she turned around and used her snout and front
legs to start pushing sand back under the box and over
the eggs. I took them out before she finished and put
them into an incubator for proper temps and humidity.

I am guessing, since she laid tonight, that the other one can not be more than a few days to a week from doing so herself. Time will tell. I did not palpate either one to feel if they were gravid but she, like the one that laid tonight, put on a some weight and heft so I imagine she is also going to drop soon.

I foresee there will be thousands of 1/8 and 1/4 crickets, chirping away in my basement, in my near future - about 70 days. Hopefully, I will sell or trade them all before I have to move up to 1/2 inch crickets or larger.

All the best,
Glenn B

Reprinted, by the author, from:
http://ballseyesboomers.blogspot.com/2013/07/one-of-my-female-bearded-dragons.html

The Tale Of The Sea Turtle That Would Not Go To Sea

Sometimes things don't turn out as we expect. Take the example of Caton, a Loggerhead Sea Turtle, that was stranded on a Georgia beach back in 2009.

She was rescued and well cared for by the Georgia Sea Turtle Center and after some months of care, she was released back into the wild on a beach. She would not budge. Months again, after the first release attempt, she was put into shallow water but merely swam back and forth and wound up stranded on a sand bar. Then, last October, she was released off shore and it seemed her reintroduction to her natural habitat was a big success. Well, at least it seemed that way for a week; after that she showed up again stranded on the beach at Jekyll Island, GA.

What did her refusal to go back to nature earn her? She wound up with a full time job as an ambassador for her species at Sea World. For more on this story, see:

http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/20/studentnews/georgia-sea-turtle/index.html

All the best,
Glenn B

The Tortoise Had To Drop Out Of This Year's Race With Hare...

...due to a strained carapace. Luckily, chelonia  of the world will not be left unrepresented in this age old competition as Mr. Pain Ted Turtle has vowed to step up to the starting line and give Harry Hotfoot Hare a run for his money. 

Once again, a hat tip and my thanks to Deb H for another fine herpy pic.

All the best,
GB

We Can Use LIHS Member Support

I just checked the Site meter stats for the LIHS blog. We are getting, about 4 visits per day over the past 30 days. Out of the last 100 people to visit the LIHS Blogger, we have had 30 visitors to the blog from Long Island (that is pretty pathetic),  61 from the rest of the USA and 9 from foreign (from places as far away as Meycauayan, Bulacan in the Philippines and Bucharest, Romania ).

Yet, we could and should be doing better especially among the LIHS membership. We could be attracting more of those who are not members but are potential members. The blog is, in part, a way to boost the membership and interest in the society. Anything that you, as an LIHS member, can do to help would be appreciated so why not take a few minutes to help us out. If you have a blog or a website, please link to the LIHS Blogger at:

http://lihsblogger.blogspot.com/

If you have pictures of your herps and their set-ups, of herps from field trips or other excursions then I encourage you to share them on the blog - just email them to me. If you have a story you would like to tell to go with your pics, or a story with or without photos about keeping or breeding herps please submit it to me. Likewise, send them to me if you have a herp related story from a field trip or a vacation or if you find something of interest in the news.

So far, to date, I think I have had one person, other than myself, submitting material for the blog and she may have submitted more material than I have done. That would be Deb H to whom I am very grateful. Let's all help keep the society alive and thriving by attracting more folks, through the blog, to boost the membership ranks.

All the best,
Glenn B

LIHS Auction In Photos

Wow, is it July 15th already. I often call myself The Great Procrastinator and my having neglected to post photos from the LIHS annual auction, that took place on June 9th, just goes to show you that the name fits me. Oh well, anyway, here are some photos from the event.
 


There were a good number of items up for bids...



 
 

Everything from feeder mice complete with breeding bin...



  

...to mice eating snakes like this Ball Python, to...

 


...snake and lizard enclosures...



 

...tee-shirts, artwork, lighting, more tanks...

...to books, herp light bulbs, a microscope
(no ladies John H was not up for bid) ...

 

 

...to bird cages (great for outside time for Bearded Dragons)...

  

...and even feeder roaches with which
this young lady seems engrossed.

 

 

The auctioneer, Vin R going through the motions...

 


...and here getting some help from his faithful assistant.



 

You may not think it to look at the bidders
but there were a few bidding wars...

  

...and maybe even a very savvy bidder or two checking the Internet
to see the value of an item before making another bid ;>).

We raised over $1,500 for the LIHS. Thanks to everyone who participated, in any way, in this year's auction including the board members who set it up, other volunteers who helped set it up or run it, anyone who donated items to be auctioned off, anyone who placed a bid (especially those who had the winning bids). Without you folks there would be no LIHS. 

If any other LIHS members have photos from the auction, or from any other LIHS event, or even of your personal herp collection, that you would like to see on the blog - please send them to me in an email.

All the best,
Glenn B

This Frog Photo Stinks...

...and while you might think I mean because the picture is not that great in quality, you would be wrong. Maybe I should say it this way - the frog in the picture stinks. This frog probably picked up a bad odor by way of being an opportunist and hopping on the first thing that floated by it.

Once again, the photo was submitted by Deb H for use on the blog. Photo source: http://imgur.com/r/WTF/P8W3JgJ. Thanks Deb.

All the best,
Glenn B

The Golden Toad

Deb H sent me the accompanying photo for publication in the blog. I was pretty intrigued after seeing it because I had never before seen a toad that looked like it. I figured it may have been a photoshop type job. After some searching around on the Internet, I found what was pretty much the same photograph (the one here is cropped somewhat from the other). It was labeled as a Golden Toad. I had seen golden toads, at least their pics, before and this one's coloration did not look like any I had ever seen previously. It may indeed be a photo of a golden toad but my guess would be one in which the colors have been enhanced. If those are the natural colors of the particular toad in the photo all I can say is WOW!

A little info on the Golden Toad (Bufo periglenes): Sadly, it may be extinct and it has been listed as such. According to a Wikipedia article on them, the last individual of the species was last seen in 1989 in their native Monteverde Region of Costa Rica. Their decline is believed to possibly have been due to spread of the chytrid fungus. My guess is there were no breeding captive populations due to such restrictions as those of CITES. Too bad, it may not have gone extinct had it been widely available in the herp trade. Of course, there is always hope that there are still wild populations of it that have remained undiscovered.

All the best,
Glenn B

Addition of a Bearded Dragon Is Headed Toward Multiplication

Got an email a couple of days ago, forwarded to me from a couple of friends, who like me are Long Island Herpetological Society  members. Seems that someone was looking to adopt out a male bearded dragon. Seems I was thought of as a likely candidate to accept it since I already have two females and kind of have been looking for a male to join them. I knew where I could buy one or three adult males but I figured why bother with one for sale and why pay the expense when I knew that sooner or later one would wind up showing up, needing a home, and being offered for free. As it was, I also was not looking to hurry up the inevitable events that would result by adding a male to the enclosure with two females already in it.

I contacted the lady about the male bearded dragon yesterday and arranged to pick it up today. When I got there today, the woman recognized me immediately and I thought she kind of looked familiar. As it turned out, I had already met the lady and her family; they had come to visit the LIHS exhibit at Reptile & Amphibian Appreciation Day at the Cold Spring Harbor Fish Hatchery & Aquarium on June 1. When they were there, they had paid a lot of attention to my bearded dragons that I had on display. Her husband and daughter were home (son was at day camp) and we had a nice talk. Then I left with Seamus or Shamus - I hope I remember the name right.

Once at home, I put him into the tank with the two females and all I could think was that they are going to need a bigger enclosure for the three of them. No problem, I have one on hand that is big enough for them all. I decided that it would be best to keep them all fairly calm until they were used to one another and I figured feeding them would do the trick. I gave them a good amount of Blaptica dubia but only the females ate. For some reason, maybe because he was in a new home, or maybe something else, Seamus did not even look at those delectable six legged, inch and a half long, roaches. It certainly was not because he was ill or anything like that. He was obviously well kept by the people who gave him to me regardless of him missing a couple of inches of his tail (an injury that was preexisting relative to them getting him).

Anyway, all three remained calm in the BD tank. They all sat around taking turns under the heat lamps. Every now and again one would move and another would take its choice place under one of the bulbs. It went on like that for hours, I got him at about 1100, had him in the tank by 1230 or so, and nothing changed much until just a few minutes ago, at about ten after 7. That's when I noticed the male bobbing his head while displaying his beard and that was coal black and spread as wide as he could spread it. It wasn't long after that display that he did one of the inevitable things. He mounted one of the females and mated with her. She did not object. Now another seemingly inevitable event is almost sure to take place. In about 4 to 6 weeks, as I understand it - if the mating was successful - another inevitable will take place - she will lay eggs. Time will tell if the mating was successful. Of course, him having done it once does not mean it will end there. He will likely continue to mate with both females as long as they are together and so long as the gals do not rebuff his advances.

The reason I was in no great hurry to get my females a male was because of the inevitable breeding and all that comes it. The first time I bred bearded dragons, my female laid 26 eggs. I think almost all of them hatched and maybe it actually was all of them. Anyway, a lot of them hatched out. That meant I had to take care of and feed a lot of babies. I have two adult females now and if both lay that many eggs each, I will likely wind up with a lot of babies. Then what? I sure don't want to have the expense or pain in the butt of feeding them for any amount of time. Thus, I will have to try to get rid of them without giving them away. (I may give some away though.) That could mean trading them or selling them. My guess is that I could easily get about $20 apiece for them, if not more. If any hatch out and have desirable coloring hey will go for more. Even if drab and regular, and if the market is slow, I think I will be able to get at least $15 apiece and they would sell quickly at the lower price. It would be a decent chunk of change to help foster my hobby. Of course, if I really get lucky, I will find someone willing to take the whole lot of them and trade me something that tickles my fancy - like ammo. Of course, I am not counting my baby lizards before they hatch, I'm just pointing out possibilities and potentialities.

All the best,
Glenn B