Jobi,

I am always eager to enchange ideas and that is something I have been missing ever since my fellow breeder 8 years ago got out of working with these creatures. Most of the people I deal with now are newer and have only started to breed, like Bonnie who is learning very quickly.



I have always kept my vivs in the 75-82F range during the breeding months, with the exception of my little guys, the ones you call crucigera, who laid their eggs during December during the cool down period. At that time I was keeping the room in the 72-76 range and the first clutch of those eggs hatched at approx 158 days which is about the same period I get with the ones bred during the warmer months.



I incubate in the low 70s only because any eggs that have been incubated highter than 75 have perished. The babies have used the yolk very early but not fully formed. Any that did hatch have been very small and thin, too weak to fully hatch. Most have perished only half out of the shell and those that did hatch fully have only lived a few hours. This has been experienced by myself as well as other breeders.



For this reason I have opted to incubate at lower temperatures and doing so I have experienced 100% hatch rate most of the time and have very few losses of hatchlings often raising 100% of the hatchlings to a sellable or breeding age depending on whether I keep them or not.



The shortest incubation time I have experienced was 126 days. I don't recall the temperatures right off. I have all of that information on my shop computer.



Again, I am not trying to contradict your statements, only to present what I have experienced. I do believe that there may be other ways of doing this and by all means the animals can show us the way. I am open to learning. If I had enough animals to be able to set up several groups in different tanks with different temperatures and substrates I would love to do so just to see the results. However, I am starting over from scratch right now with my capra. I have 1.5 armata and 2.2 of the little guys, crucigera or lepidogaster, whichever they turn out to be.



As for the heat, I will confess that I have finally caught my armata basking! I had to find the right angle and placement for my light. The coolest bulb I have is a 60 watt and I had to angle it so that it wasn't too close to the branch. Once I got it right the largest female was right there. Later the same day I saw anohter in the same spot. So, I will be leaving the light for them. It does make sense that the brighter colored animals would be more inclined to bask.



Anyway, I do look forward to further enchange! This is interesting.
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Marcia - FroggieB Dragons

www.froggieb.com/MHDHome.html

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