I cooled my pair of amel GPRS this winter. Kept them down at 58F for 10 weeks before warming them up. While they were bromating, about the fifth week, the female shed. After warming, the male shed within ten days, but the female never shed. I put them together a week after the male shed and a few times more, but I never saw any reaction from the male. I was thinking that I would have to wait for her to shed again.



This whole time, I fed her very well, and she was looking fat and healthy. I tried to see if I could feel any eggs, but I couldn’t feel anything. She did finally shed about twelve days ago. Just before this shed, she was introduced to the male outside of her tank (on the floor in a hallway), and he was all over her. Because she was resisting, and about to shed, I separated them. My thought at the time was that she was at last starting to produce pheromones, and that the smell was coming from small openings in the old skin.



After her shed, she did something that she had not done since warming, refused a meal. Since March, she has always eaten more then the larger male. Most of the time, she would take three mice while the male would only eat two. Since she was so plump looking and was refusing meals, I replaced her hide with a nesting box. She stayed in the box most of the time for the next ten days. I still offered her food, but she was totally disinterested.



I kept checking the box every day, but there were no eggs. Today, on the 22nd of May, I checked again, and at last eggs. I wasn’t sure that she had finished, so I covered her back up, but I am thinking there were at least six in the moss. I will get some photos and post them later this week. That will make two clutches in the incubator. Black Rats are due on the 4th of July and GPRS on the 24th. It could make for a really great July. Wish me luck.

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