Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have now 2 gravid Uro's, and no body has helped me out on my previous post.

If you get eggs I would use vermiculite at 5:1 ratio and temps around 84-87 deg. A hovabator isnt much help if thats what you plan on using. i built my own incubator and insulation is most important to keep temps from fluctuating much.And a good thermostat (Ranco)wired in. Total cost for this was about 150.00 to build. (dont build small) 4'x3'x3' min. Incubation is trial and error no matter who helps you. Alot depends on your husbandry, that = egg quality. A healthy female promotes strong eggs, embryos more likely to mature and hatch. And a note "Dont mess with them after they are incubating" Leave them alone, install a window in the incubator.
Good Luck,

I have incubated turtle eggs, snake eggs, leo gecko eggs before, just not uromastyx. The way that I have incubated them is in my closet, keeping them temp between 78 and 82. We are working on building a large incubator, I'm not sure if we can get it finished before the eggs come though! I have a hovobator that I was planning on using, but you don't recommend it? Why? What should I do if I can't get the incubator finished in time??!

Something i learned the hard way. Always be ready or be ready to lose eggs. I would build faster. Hovabators arent very accurate and drop your chances of success a very great deal..
Let me know how it turns out.
Robert

make sure you have a good laying box for the uros. If it isn't just right they won't drop the eggs, they'll just become egg bound. That's why the overall best setup for breeding uros is a burrowing setup with at least a foot of good soil in it. Uros are a bit pickier when it comes to laying. At least that's what I've decided from research I've done on the subject (not a lot).

Pro Exotics is actually experimenting with having their uros lay their eggs right in the enclosure and having them incubate there. Their cages are 10' diameter circular troughs with around 2' of good soil in it and retes stacks that bring the basking spot as high as over 150 on the top stack. The assumption is that the uros will know the best place in the enclosure to lay the eggs (they'll find the best humidity and the best temps), and then once the eggs hatch, they just have to snatch all the little baby uros out.

As I said it's all in the experimental phase right now, but I think it's interesting and i'm excited to see the results.

That will be interesting, but not likely to work. What a Uro may do is settle for a right spot but may not be good enough for incubation. It has been tried with other species and with very limited sucess, very limited...Not being negative I Hope to see good results.
Robert

I have just hatched varanus acanthurus brachyurus (yellow ackies) with the good old hovabator. I filled both bottom chambers with water, used perlite/water for incubation medium and a see through box with 6 very tiny holes in the top. I opened the box once a week for gas exchange and 88 days later I had monitor babies. I had a humidistat inside the egg box and an external probe for temps. The hovabator is nothing fancy, but obviously it works! Here is a picture of a few of them. Good luck with your eggs!!

Pam

I found I had a much higher successful hatch ratio when the incubation temps were in to the mid 90s. Last season My female saharan laid 16 perfect eggs (breeding only occured after a brumation period of 80days at 56-61degrees). Out of the 16 eggs 15 hatched. All were healthy. I used a rubbermaid box with 6inches of dampened play send for the nest box. She dug around in there for a couple of days before laying. I removed the eggs promptly. During the incubation period it's very important to monitor the humidity. DO NOT allow water droplets to form on the eggs.
Good luck!
Rhonda Causton

Take a look at the following care sheet. Doug Dix has had several successful egg layings. He's one of the top breeders of uromastyx in North America.
Care Sheet from a pro

Here is a picture of the cage and laying box.... I just added the tube. I do hope they like it enough to lay their eggs in it. How will I know if they become egg-bound? They are bother still eating and acting normal right now.