I've been wondering this for a long time and I really want the input of all leo breeders... novice or advanced. I've been breeding leos steadily now for going on 5 years in May. There is however a catch. The first year I had one female and managed to hatch 4 babies with the rest of the clutches going bad. (6 more clutches as a matter of fact) The second year was a horrible year because my leos started breeding right as I was moving and again the next season the same thing happened. Both those years I only hatched out 3 hatchlings from 2 female's worth of eggs. 8 clutches apiece for each female both years. Anyway, this year has been my best year so far but still not as good as I thought it would be. Its getting better though most of my females are still too young to breed. I have 5 breeding females at this time... next year that will increase to 12 depending on what I keep from my hatchlings this year to go into my projects. I've bought at least 4 more this year as well to add to it... but I still have a problem. 3 of my females have laid probably near 30 eggs so far between them. I have hatched out 8... and lost 2 of the hatchlings. One to a ruptured abdomen from where his egg absorbtion didn't complete before he hatched and he pulled his intestines out tugging against the egg yolk still caught in the egg and another to aspirating a bit of jumpstart I was giving it due to the fact it didn't absorb any of his yolk and was weak from the start. To me this seems like a very low ratio of successful hatching but its been better this year than preceeding years. I modified some of my incubation issues so that has a bit to do with it. I've gotten a hovabator to finally hold a steady temp by running it through a rheostat.. constant power heating the coil even when the light isn't on..



To my point and enough rambling. I'd like to see what kind of ratios others get who breed here. How many healthy hatchlings that live past 2 weeks per number of fertile eggs recieved, since all my eggs have been fertile save for 3 that I've lost. Many are usually a month into incubation and aren't disturbed in the least save for regular air exchange in the incubation tubs, when they start molding though this year its been different. They don't really mold they just start to collapse and shrivel or turn transparent and die. I cut open each egg that does this and there's always a small embryo in it...My other hatchlings tell me its not really my incubation thats doing it or humidity problems since I have all those readings for each small tub of eggs that are in the incubator.



So, the point of this poll? For all the breeders out there, I'm asking the question, how many successful hatchlings do you get compared to number of eggs lost during incubation, not counting the ones that were never fertile. (Fertility of course dependant on being able to candle the egg and look for the bullseye shaped embryo after they've been laid or within 3 days of such) I'm not really looking for exact numbers. More like a general ratio or percentage.



Thanks for the input to any and all who answer this. I'm curious... and rather trying to figure out what my own problems may be.



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Lucien



1.1 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)(Sutekh and Isis)

5.11.Leopard geckos (1.2 Blizzards (Caine, Phoenix, and Mirage), 0.2 Tangerine Albinos (Tequila Sunrise ...Tiki for short, and Casper), 1.0 Tremper Albino (Mycah), 0.3 Poss. Het. Albino (Annika, Lace, and Aris), 1.1 dbl. het blizzard x tang albino (Malice, Malfeas), 1.0 Full Stripe Chocolate Tremper Albino (Discord), 0.1 pastel (Raven) and 1.2 Normals)

0.1 Savannah Monitor (Kiros) (R.I.P. November 18, 2005)

13 rats (plus pups)

2 Dogs (Loki and Storm)

2 cats (Ashe and Hercules)

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