Hello all,
I've been away awhile. . .in case noone noticed. Anyway, I saw the post asking for other Aussie keepers so I thought it was time to reappear.
Over the past few years I have been trying to establish a breeding group of Australian water dragons. In 2001 and 2002 I bought 4 dragons each year, and in 2003 I bought 3 dragons, all directly from Bert, and bought at the Sept. MARS show. Of those 11 animals I have 1 female, and she is from last years batch. The point being, it's hard to get females from Bert. If you want a better chance of getting females, buy animals that hatch later in the year, as these are incubated at higher temps, which produces more females. The thing is, people usually buy the biggest (and hence incubated at lower temps) animals available, when females are the later hatched and smaller animals.
Now, can you imagine my frustration? So, in November of last year I have 4 adult males, 2 juvie males, and 1 juvie female (I already traded away the other four adult males).
Enter change of life.
In January I left my job of 12 years and started nursing school full time. So, for economic and maintenance reasons, along with the frustration, I sold off some cages and all my water dragons, except the female, and concentrated on other projects. I'll be getting another batch at the end of this year, (I'll graduate in December) so hopefully I'll be breeding next year as my female should be mature by then.
enough of my rambling for now, I'll go back to lurking mode.
Paul Kemes
