Reptile & Amphibian Forums

At what temperature, and about how long does it take to incubate Black Throat eggs? Also, are there any really good sources of Black Throat breeding on the internet? Thanks

84F will hatch out good eggs. takes forever. there is no specific Blackthroat breeding info online, or in any book. terrific monitor husbandry will get you 90% there.
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

I see 84 degrees as a standard for hatching monitor eggs. I do understand they take a long time reguardless of temp, but would a bit higher temp shorten the wait enough to make it worth it? Or would this cause problems with the young ones while in the eggs? I'm sure someone's experimented with this. Just curious.

Quig

actualy to gain rapid growth an embreo needs a rest period, as with all vertebrates most of the growing is while sleeping.

87-90f will alow a high metabolism, however its in the 75-78f range that embreo grows, therfore a NTL is important to all eggs.

incubating at constant temps like advocated in most literatures is wrong.

Rgds

What is the gestation period for Blackthroats? Previously, I have only had experience breeding bearded dragons, and their gestation is about 4 to 6 weeks.

Is this similar with Blackthroats? I've been doing basically everything the same, cycling, and so on, and have witnessed copulation between the Blackthroats, and now the female's belly hangs down pretty plump, however I can't feel/see clearly defined egg lumps yet (like I would with the dragons).

So how will I know the female is ready to lay? Will she start digging around drastically like my dragons? Usually what I would do with the dragons is wait until she looks pretty plump the frantic digging, then separate here and start a den for her by hand. She would then finish my pre-started den, lay eggs, then I'd take her out into a separate enclosure and let her rest while I carefully fish out the eggs, then get them in the incubation medium, then get them in the incubator. Should I expect a similar situation here?

Also, as discussed earlier with egg temps. I would also incubate my dragon eggs at 84 degrees F, but I would keep them at a stable temperature and it would take right around 3.5 months for them to hatch, with practically no eggs lost (hovabator). Should I cycle the temperature when/if I get eggs?

Thanks for any response.

Normally they hatch around 4 1/2 months in the mid-eighties.

The gestation of our captives is directly related to stress, no suitable site stressful! New cage surroundings stressful! Wrong temps-hydration stressful! Unsupportive diet stressful! Human disturbance stressful! Presence or absence of mate stressful!
Its your job to analyse and make correctives to ensure she’s well and unstressed, all these and your regular husbandry affects not only gestation time but also egg viability, 4 to 8 weeks gestation is ok.

It is not normal for any lizards to dig franticly in several places, this is the sing of poor nesting options.
When provided with good nesting lizards go down nest and be done with it all in one try.
I see 2 type of nesting (the savannahs) and (the tropical jungle) what’s the difference? Sun exposure!! Savannah lizards use termites or deep nesting to avoid overheating and dehydration, they have a 12/12 temp cycle. Jungle species are shallow nesters, these nests have little 1 or 2h a day of sun exposure, they are well hydrated throughout incubation, these tolerated temp fluctuation better.

My view is that steady temp yields for full term dead or week babies. The eggs incubated at steady temp are fragile to disturbance, there immune system is weaker.
Rgds