Reptile & Amphibian Forums

On 1-14-06 my female FINALLY laid her eggs, 11 total, I now have 10 incubating. I was wondering if someone who has successfully hatched a clutch could answer a few questions for me. My first question would be are basilisks among those that are temprature-depandant sex determined? Because for the first 5 weeks they have been at a perfect 84 degrees, now they’re at 87.5 - 88. Also, all I can do is assume that within the next 3 weeks I should have some hatchlings, from everything I’ve read 8 to 10 weeks seems to be it, could this take longer? And another thing, how will I know they’re going to hatch, what should I look for? I would love to hear from anyone who is going through the same thing or has in the past.
Honestly the suspense is killing me...any information will ease my mind, thanks.

Hi,

no, sex is genotype and not temp dependent in basilisk species. Temp fluctuations can be problematic for plumifrons eggs and may even cause egg death. In many cases temp shifts or variations during incubation result in kinked tails.
At the temps you use, you should expect hatchlings after 8-10 weeks, not significantly later, and with the temp shift you included, you may find some babies with kinked tails.
Take care to significantly lower humidity now.
If humidity stays high when hatching is close, many hatchlings die during or shortly before hatching.
I keep may basilisk eggs almost dry for the last two weeks or so.
About one day before hatching, eggs loose pressure or "sweat".
You have to leave the eggs alone during hatching. Otherwise, the babies jump out of the egg to early and can carry a very large yolk sac. If they are left alone, they resorb most of it before hatching.
Anyhow, till their belly is full closed (after 3-4 days) they should be kept semisterile on moist paper towels.

Good luck

Ingo

Well, good news, and, from what I read, bad news. Good news is that I candled the eggs today and I saw movement in every single one, bad news is that I think I'll have some kinked tails.
My situation is that I care for the reptiles of a privately owned pet store, and ever since I started working there we had a pair of basilisks that I grew to love dearly-long story short my boss sold them, this is why these eggs are so precious to me.
As I mentioned before this is my work place and not my home, so I couldn't exactly spring for an incubator. I'll describe the contraption I'm using: Styrofoam fish shipping box (think huge ice chest) a 4 gallon container of water, an aquarium heater and a nice high end thermometer w/ a probe. Every other day I would open it and inspect the eggs as well as let some fresh air in, hence my concern about kinked tails. Here is my new problem; due to the method I'm using to incubate, how do I keep the humidity low prior to hatching? Set up another box w/ an under tank heater, thus keeping humidity to a minimum? My babies are alive and kicking, I'd like to keep it that way...NOW I'm worried!

Hi,

opening the egg boxes for a short time normally does not affect the eggs.
Also kinked tails are not a must -just a risk.
So do not worry too much.
Which substrate do you use for the eggs?
I do use moderately moist vermiculite.
After 7 weeks or so, I transfer the eggs to a container with almost dry vermiculite which then is placed in a larger container with moist vermiculite.
So substrate is almost dry, but relative air humidity stays high.
This works best for me and gives hatching rates of 100 or almost 100%.

I keep my fingers crossed

Ci@o

Ingo

You were so right !!!! Only this morning did I have a chance to change the bedding, I changed it to almost dry bed-a-beast, and by the time I left work this evening I had one egg sweating !!! I can't even describe how happy and excited I am.....