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History...puchased 8 mth old "male" MHD on Dec 14th for my 9yr old son from a pet store. Researched the MHD for 3 months prior (feeding, housing, care, not the sexing part!) Anyway, took for checkup the following week and vet says it's a female and she is free of parisites. Ok fine, she grew by the day. Started acting funny around Feb 1st. Son came home from school on Feb 9th and thought she was dead. I told him to leave her alone and I rushed home from work only to find that she is not dead, but she was laying eggs under there! She laid a clutch of 11 eggs. Best info I found on the net was FroggieB's care sheet - we live by it! So I get back on line and read what to do with the eggs. We carefully placed each one in the ice chest filled with vermiculite. Still not knowing if these were even fertile but had to try for my son's - this is his best buddy and PS2 companion! Two of the 11 turned bad after a month but the others hung on. To make a longer story short, four hatched out yesterday! We have them in a 10 gallon tank with a nice branch and shallow water dish. Moist papertowels in the bottom. I went last night and bought pin head crickets. We can't get them to eat but they are drinking and very active. My question is, how long does it take them to start eating? And for those who have had babies, what do your new hatchlings seem to like best. I have read "caring for hatchlings" by FroggieB but it does not mention about when they will start eating. We are still watching the 5 other eggs. When candled, they do show to be fertile...

Thanks for any advice. I would post pictures but not sure how. I can email them though....

111mom

How exciting! I doubt that the dragons was only 8 months old, but then most of what you are told when you purchase a MHD is hype. I am glad you had the check-up for parasites done. That is the number one cause of death so you are off to a great start!

So, the babies, that is the hardest part of the whole business of keeping these guys. The eggs are abundant and the babies are so shy. It is great that they are drinking as that is a very good sign. When they will start eating is a difficult question to answer. If there is still yolk sac when they hatch they may not feed right away. Even if there isn't they might not. Some though will eat right off by the second or third day. If they don't eat for a week they will probably still do fine as long as you can stimulate the feeding instinct. I find that many seem to be frightened by the crickes at first so I don't offer them as a first food unless I pinch off the back legs first. I usually start off with 1/2" mealworms. Unless you raise them yourself or know someone who does they may be hard to find. You can order small quantities pretty reasonably from reptilefood.com and they are usually there second day. Another good first food is silkworms. Again, 1/2" seem to be perfect.

You stated that what you have are pinhead crickets and they are really too small for the babies. Even though the hatchlings are tiny they seem to prefer food that is 1/4" to 1/2" in size. See if you local pet store has 1/4" crickets and pinch off the jumping legs and see if they will take them. If they do then raise up the pinheads to an appropriate size and you'll be ready for when the other 5 eggs hatch!

Congratulations and good luck. Keep posting!
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Marcia - FroggieB Dragons
www.froggieb.com/MHDHome.html

groups.yahoo.com/group/agamid/join
(click the link to join the agamid group on yahoo)

Thank you so much for the info. I will call all of our pet stores today to try and locate the worms you mention. We now have 4 active hatchlings, 3 eggs peeped in the night and I have moved those over to moist paper towels. Still waiting on the other two eggs. I will keep you posted.

Thanks again!

We now have 8 active babies (one egg has not peeped yet).
They are finally beginning to eat!
I will update again soon.

Thanks again for help and info!
111mom

Glad to hear you have them eating. That's always such a relief!

Congratulations and do keep us posted!
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Marcia - FroggieB Dragons
www.froggieb.com/MHDHome.html

groups.yahoo.com/group/agamid/join
(click the link to join the agamid group on yahoo)

You are doing better than I ever did (so far)
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Elizabeth (ecb)

Make this world a better and more beautiful place that You have been in it
*Edward W Bok*