Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I work at a small petstore and 3 to 4 months ago we got in 2 coneheaded lizards. I tried doing some research on them, only to find minimal amounts of info on their care. Anyway, I have set them up according to what I have found. They were together until about a month ago when I seperated them as one will not feed on its own. This one we hand feed, it eats well from hand but refuses to eat on its own. The other one is doing extremely well. She laid 5 eggs a week ago. I cannot find any information on incubating them or caring for the eggs. I have them at about 83-84*f in damp soil (not soaking wet, just damp) in about 70-80% humidity.

If anyone knows anything about incubatin these and/or hatchling care i would appreciate it! Thanks

I have kept coneheads for years now and successfully hatched eggs from them as well. I have raised quite a few from hatchling size to adult as well.

I incubate the eggs at about 80F (I say "about" because the method I use to incubate them leaves them somewhat open to the room temperature fluctuations, so it goes up and down a few degrees as the room temperature does. I use delicups which I have half filled (2" deep) with moist vermiculite to incubate the eggs in. The vermiculite, when you take a fistfull and squeeze, will only have a drop or two of water come out. I lay each egg in a small depression on the surface of the vermiculite. I punch a couple of very small holes in the lid and place it back on the container. I had 100% hatchrate doing it this way. I check the eggs about once a week and if they are denting in add a little water around the edges of the container...but I don't usually have to do this.

The females can lay 4 or 5 clutches of eggs in the season...so you may get another clutch.

I will be glad to give you hatchling care when you get to that point.

You said..."They were together until about a month ago when I seperated them as one will not feed on its own. This one we hand feed, it eats well from hand but refuses to eat on its own"...I'm glad to hear that you separated them under the circumstances. Do you know if its a male or female? Can you give me any other information about it?

I'll try to post some good care/husbandry sites later. I don't have time to look them up right now.

Do you know an average of how long they take to hatch? It would be helpful to know this. I already had set them up how you described, this is how I have always hatched leopard gecko eggs with the most success so that was how I set these guys up. She also had laid them on the cooler side of the cage so I assumed they didn't need very high incubation temps.

I do not know if the other one is a male or female. I had to put them back together recently as we got more reptiles in and needed cage space. Hopefully with hand feeding the skinny one will do ok. I do not think the female was happy to have it back in with her, she was bobbing at him and standing tall. She does look like she is going to lay another clutch soon.

Sorry it took me a few days to answer....my computer was off-line....so I still haven't had time to look up those sites I promised. I'll try to remember to do it after the weekend. Remind me if I forget!

ou said..."Do you know an average of how long they take to hatch?"...it was about 60 days at about 80F. If the eggs are spaced about 1" apart, they hatch almost individually.

You said..."I do not know if the other one is a male or female. I had to put them back together recently as we got more reptiles in and needed cage space"...part of my reason for saying to separate them was in case the one that wasn't feeding well was sick the other one wouldn't get sick too.

You said..."I do not think the female was happy to have it back in with her, she was bobbing at him and standing tall. She does look like she is going to lay another clutch soon"...I haven't seen much negative reaction between my members of my groups...and I've never seen any fighting. It might just be establishing a "pecking order"...not sure.

Hope all goes well with the eggs!

Thank you for all of your help!