Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just went to your site to check out the pics, and noticed that the clutch sizes got progressively bigger. What has been your experience with the number of viable eggs out of such a big clutch. My female laid 45 on her first clutch but less than half were viable. I'm wondering if this has something do with their abilbity to retain sperm. Or maybe her age.

From what I understand, females have a sperm sack. As long as this sack is filled up, she can lay viable clutches without breeding again.

I'm wondering if the reason why only half were viable is attributed to that sack only being partially filled up. I remember that I took her out of the males cage after thier first breed. I should have left her in there to keep breeding until she showed signs of stress.

Anyways, I'm curious as to how many out your clutches remained viable. I'd like to see more viable eggs in the next clutch.

Thanks.

Hi-

Yes the clutch size has grown lager after each clutch. It looks like she will lay 40-50 eggs per clutch now. My female is WC, not sure about yours or if it makes a difference when it comes to egg numbers.

So far every egg she has laid looks fertile, none have molded yet. With the 4th clutch it will be a few weeks before I will know on this clutch. The eggs are growing and developing well. Just have to see what the hatch rate is when the time comes. The first clutch should hatch in the early months of next year. These last three clutches are from retained sperm, the last two have been incubating for months now.

Different females will allow different amounts of breeding. Some will show gravid colors right after breeding some will not show for days to a week. The more breeding the more sperm they hold the more eggs/clutches they will lay. I would leave the female with the male until she is not interested in him and becomes gravid/stressed if your female is only producing a small number of good eggs. This can be anywhere from 1 day to a week. I will not leave females with males over night.

The photos I posted are recent photos of all the clutches. So far none of the eggs have molded and all look to be developing quiet well. Hope this helps!
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John W. Lucas

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