Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm sorry, but everytime I post something I always find more questions to ask afterward. I will try to ask all of the rest of my questions now.

1. Is it possible for alligator lizards to mate(for about a day!) and have the female still not become gravid? I ask this because my female is still eating a lot, but she is not gaining as much weight as I would expect. Although she was fairly small and skinny (although she is an adult) when I got her so that may be the cause.

2. Do the eggs need to be incubated in a container with holes at the top to let air in, or with no holes at all to keep moisture in?

3. Do I need to mist the egg incubation cage at all if I use a 1:1 ratio of vermiculite and water to start with?

4. Does the incubation cage need to be fairly large so that when the babies hatch they will not be crawling over each other, or will they not move for a few hours after hatching?

5. How many hours or days do you think it will take for the hatchlings to be interested in food?

6. Is it bad to feed a mostly meal worm diet (with some crickets but about a 20 meal worms to 7 crickets a day for the gravid female supplemented with calcium and vitamens)

7. The research I have done says that the mating season for alligator lizards is in may, but everyone on this sight seems to have them mate during the winter (of course I could have interperated wrong...) I am wondering if mine mated later than most because they mated in April and it says they lay from may to june which seems soon.

8. How many times a day should I feed the hatchlings and should I use paper towels as a subsrate?

9. I have heard that they will sometimes eat eachother, how can I prevent this?

Thank you all so much for putting up with all of my questions. I am not trying to annoy you, I just really want to have these baby alligator lizards, I have become fascinated by them and want to research the young gators. Thanks again, all of you have been a big help to me, especially you Alice.
Thank you

Wow that was quite a list

It is possible for alligator lizards to mate and for the female not to become gravid or produce viable eggs. Males can get pretty amped up and when the female is smaller than he is he may overpower her and mate with her whether she's ready or not. Females can also retain sperm so she may not ovulate and lay eggs until further into the season. I've had lots of als lay in mid to late June.

I incubate my eggs in a container with damp vermiculte and no holes. If you open the container to check the eggs on a weekly basis, this will provide sufficient air exchange and you will not have to add any additional moisture to the substrate. The incubation container can be fairly small since all the eggs from a clutch will usually hatch within 24hrs of each other. If you're incubating multiple clutches, you may want to use separate containers or put a small dot with a sharpie on the "up" side so you can re-orient eggs if they get jostled by a hatchling.

All hatchlings should eat within about a week of hatching, some will take food a bit sooner than others. You can start offering food a couple of days after they hatch.

I've been feeding a lot of mealies, but I think that I'm going to switch back to primarily crickets as some of my als are looking a bit too plump. Other than the weight issue though they seem perfectly fine.

I usualy start observing mated females in the wild starting in April and continueing through July. If the als are captives though, breeding will probably be initiated whenever their owner brings their temps back up.

I like paper towels as a substrate for hatchlings becuase if your keeping a group together you need a substrate that can be misted and changed regularly. I feed my babies once a day. Cannabolism happens when some babies have different growth rates and the big guys eat the little ones. To prevent this, set up a second tank and separate any babies that seem to be lagging growth wise.

Hope this helps,
Alice