I had a tragedy last week to report. I had smaller male Juarez holdback first time breeder male get killed and eaten by a first time breeder female. This is the first time this has ever happened to me in working with agalma. I had a female Santa Cruz zonata a while back try to eat the male any time I would put him in the cage, but never had any signs of that with my Juarez line or Martir animals. My routine is that I feed all the females, wait a day, and then rotate in the males during breeding season. So I came down to the garage to check on and feed everyone about three days since I last checked on everyone. When I pulled out her cage, the first thing I noticed was that the paper towel I have in the cage to help during feeding(so that shavings don't get stuck on the thawed mouse)was all balled up. Then a split second later I saw the last few inches of the male sticking out of the female! Holy I said. "You !" I was furious with her. I said their is no way I am letting you keep this male in your gullet and I started pulling him out of her inch by inch. I thought their might be a chance that the male was still alive but he was deader than a doornail. So sad. This was probably my best looking male I had produced and raised. Needless to say that now I know this female is a known cannibal, she will always have a chaperone looking on(ME)!) when a male is with her again. I'm hoping that the little male bred with her before he got black widowed so I have something to show from his genes.

On a brighter note, it appears that all the adult female Juarez(5) and both Martir girls are gravid. In fact a couple of Juarez girls have already started refusing food are deep in the blue for their pre-lay shed. Fingers are crossed for good fertility.
Juarez Wonders

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