Hi Frank!

Thanks for posting. I realize that witnessing a full life cycle may not be for every reptile keeper but I can now say without a doubt that you haven't lived until you've experienced mating, laying of eggs and maternal incubation (or the bearing of live young). Nature at its finest.



My female never struck at me while nesting but she lunged her body forward once, hitting the shield pretty hard, letting me know she didn't care much for my intrusion. She's always been as good as gold at being gentle, never striking or anything, but by golly, she was flat protective of them eggs. Ha!



Thanks for the "heads up" on thermometer accuracy. The one I'm using has a plus/minus 2-degrees accuracy rating. I've used two of the same model therms at the same time & they read within .4 degrees of each other.



This is the first time I've ever built an incubator of any kind so I just got lucky with it holding temps so good. It's been doing great, until late this afternoon, that is. For some reason the aquarium heater apparently hit a lull or something and the temp dropped down to 86.5 for almost 2 hrs while I was gone.



What are the odds the temp drop could harm the eggs?



Most definitely, if I breed again, I'll let her incubate full term. The only reason I pulled them this time was because I thought my misting was causing the eggs to go bad, but Kelly said that wasn't the cause. Now I know.



By the way, Frank, have you ever seen anything like my preemie?



Have a good one!

HH
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It is said that 1 out of every 4 people are mentally unbalanced. Think of your 3 closest friends, if they're normal, then it's you.

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