Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My last clutch of the season, 9 little fence lizard eggs, are commencing to hatch this morning. One baby has already left the egg this afternoon and is in the nursery tub on the front porch with a bunch of pinhead crickets.

The lizards are NOT snake food. Today I moved my six baby pyros into my ten gallon tanks and was most pleased to see that stubborn Number 7 had eaten her pink during the night. All these babies are now getting hungry and feeding is not such an anxiety provoking affair anymore. I do think I fussed over much about them eating; after all, in the wild they do not have the proverbial Jewish mother pestering them to eat.! LOL!
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Bob
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire
Keeping cats allows man to cohabitate with tigers. Keeping reptiles allows man to cohabitate with dinosaurs.

thats very cool Bob, those are some tiny eggs. thanks for showing. Dave.

What looked really funny in the incubator is several weeks ago when I had bull snake eggs, pyro eggs, and lizard eggs all in the incubator at the same time. The lizard eggs were in a separate little container but still one could see the size difference amongst the three species. Golf balls, olives, and lemon drops! LOL!

Eight babies have hatched and am waiting on the ninth and last egg, then can maybe retire the incubator for the year. Or not; the mama lizard is looking pretty fat again!
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Bob
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire
Keeping cats allows man to cohabitate with tigers. Keeping reptiles allows man to cohabitate with dinosaurs.

Both on the baby lizards and the stubborn pyro eating! While i agree with your statement aboyt them eventually eating, I do believe that some never catch on in time, and become food for others. Not just being eaten, but not having their hunger kick in in a timely matter. What if some where meant to hold out for some irregular weather pattern that nature may throw at them, like a very early freeze or something? Just my opinion. I have seen Corn snakes refuse every option possible while thier siblings ate fine. Some would say, I am doing something wrong, but I say those one or two individuals have some deviation from the norm that would probably have caused their demise even in nature. I hope I don't regret posting this, lol.
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King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
Jorge Sierra

My Site > www.Sierrasnakes.com

I think you are right; some never do get with the program in time.

This great big 14 year old pyro did not begin eating until it was 11 months old. It nearly starved to death, even with a lizard in its cage full time, which became it's room mate. In the wild this snake would have surely died, as it got very scrawny. Hence the anxiety to get the babies to eat in a timely manner. All my pyros have now eaten, fortunately.

I have noticed a curious thing with my baby pyros. The first one to have a second shed now eats pinks no problem. I have another baby that is in her second blue cycle and am looking forward to seeing if she too eats more readily after she sheds. I suspect that after two shed cycles they are more interested in feeding; have five babies to go on this theory. (I am repeating this part of another post as it is germane to this topic.)
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Bob
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire
Keeping cats allows man to cohabitate with tigers. Keeping reptiles allows man to cohabitate with dinosaurs.

Egg number nine hatched on day 54, the usual time they hatch. The other eggs all hatched a day or two earlier as the incubator temps were a tad warmer this summer. So nine healthy baby fencies; 100% hatch rate.
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Bob
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire
Keeping cats allows man to cohabitate with tigers. Keeping reptiles allows man to cohabitate with dinosaurs.

I have some similar looking swifts here where I live called Florida Scrub Lizards. I wonder if they would do well, in a terrerium set up? There very hard to catch though. They live in the Palmetto scrubs, also known as Saw Grass, those things will cut you up! They also are much smaller. Do you keep more than one male in there?
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King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
Jorge Sierra

My Site > www.Sierrasnakes.com

My breeder tubs. One male to one to up to six females. males are full of testosterone and will fight for territory and dominance so only one male can be in a tub. The females get along nicely. The tricky part of keeping breeding groups is one must watch the females for signs of being gravid, then when she gets thin again carefully excavate the eggs in the few inches of topsoil substrate. She will lay her clutch in a dry corner near where they sleep at night. The tubs need to be able to allow UV light in. Glass tanks are not good as the glass gets way too hot.
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Bob
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire
Keeping cats allows man to cohabitate with tigers. Keeping reptiles allows man to cohabitate with dinosaurs.

Nice set ups! I think glass also filters out some of the beneficial light? I caught a race runner today. I see them from time to time, but I have never caught one, they are lightning fast. I hope they do well in captivity? They remind me of green Amevas but much smaller. Now to find a mate!
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King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
Jorge Sierra

My Site > www.Sierrasnakes.com

Glass does filter out the beneficial UV. Also, the tubs must be modified with hardware cloth lids so the UV can get in. I use 1/8 inch hardware cloth. Window screen is too small and would block the UV. I don't use those UV lamps because my lizards hibernate in the winter. .
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Bob
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire
Keeping cats allows man to cohabitate with tigers. Keeping reptiles allows man to cohabitate with dinosaurs.

This is awesome! Hope you find a mate! The best bet might be to scope out where they are hanging out during the day, then go there very early in the morning and look for them under things while it is still cool.
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Bob
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire
Keeping cats allows man to cohabitate with tigers. Keeping reptiles allows man to cohabitate with dinosaurs.

I saw on TV, where they made a trap using a 5 gal bucket burried in the groun, and then they staked a long wall of plastic material, like those blue tarps, which leads to the bucket. Small lizards follow the wall and fall in the bucket. I have to find the time to set it up, ahhh another project, just what I need. But it may be fun? If it takes me too long to get it going, I'll probably release him.
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King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
Jorge Sierra

My Site > www.Sierrasnakes.com

Very cool. Did you breed the lizards or just catch a gravid female?

I captured the male and the female adults from different locations in early spring, then put them together in a big tub, and they bred. I have several yearlings I captured last year and this year that will breed next year. My new babies will be kept as future breeding stock. I first kept fence lizards in 2008 but after a couple of years (and a few clutches) released them at my friend's house as he has no cats. But then I missed having lizards so started the lizard project up again in April. This year I have been very lucky catching females, harder to find than males, as the females are more furtive. How I mainly catch the lizards is they climb on the wooden gate to the front porch garden, and I get them before the cats see them.

My original breeding group of one male and his harem.

A major part of keeping the lizards is keeping crickets so they have a constant clean food supply. I have three different species of crickets; gryllus assimilis (Jamaican field crickets), acheta domestica (house crickets), and another gryllus that is native to my area, black field crickets. The crickets are a lot of fun, too.
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Bob
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire
Keeping cats allows man to cohabitate with tigers. Keeping reptiles allows man to cohabitate with dinosaurs.