Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I tried posting this about a week in the Spiny Forum with no response so Im hoping this will get a few responses. Anybody familiar with breeding the big texas blue spineys? How long to brumate them for etc.....Any advice would be nice. Thanks...Travis

Can't give you much info as I didn't really work them that
diligently Travis,

I picked up a 2.3 group of blue spinys a few years ago.
If I remember correctly, I lightly cooled them for about
a month or so. During the nicer spring weather they were
put in an outdoor cage. I never saw any courting and never
witnessed any breeding attempts to speak of so there was
no live birthing cage set up for them as I had no clue that a
couple were gravid.

One mid summer day I saw what I thought were blue bellies
on the exterior of their cage. I remember thinking to myself
that they were probably visiting the spinys. The western
fence lizard is plentiful in my area as are the southern alligator
lizards so I didn't think that much about seeing some small juvie
fence lizards on the exterior of one of my outdoor cages.

As I walked closer I realized that they were in fact baby blue
spinys and not fence lizards at all. Not realizing that one of
the spiny females was even gravid I never gave it a second
thought when I put them in the outdoor unit which had 1/2"
wire mesh throughout most of it. These babies were simply
walking out through the 1/2" mesh with ease! Good thing I
put casters on this roll out unit as I was able to slowly and
carefully roll the unit into the garage before any of the babies
fled. With the garage being dark and with the help of a pen
light I was able to catch each of the babies as they just sat
motionless there in the dark.

After those were collected from outside and inside the cage
I moved that female and her babies inside to a more secure
enclosure. She continued to pop out another hand full of
babies in no time at all. A few days later a second female
would also give birth to another dozen or so but this time
she was in an indoor/secure enclosure.

I sold the babies and soon after the adults as well. These guys
are fun to watch but really flighty and after having them for a
couple of years they just didn't seem to change much.

I will say that experiencing live birth from a lizard was a first
for me and quite interesting. Besides, I can't say I missed all
the incubation time/worry ... lol.

John

Very cool. Thank you much. I have a trio right now that has been cooled down and is just starting to become active. I dont know if I will have the luxury of moving them outdoors as all of my outdoor cages are consumed with chuckwalla projects but they are in a 75 gallon aquarium so maybe it will work. Yea I really just purchased them because I have never dealt with live birth and thought it might be kind of neat. Something new. Time will tell. Thanks again.-Travis