Reptile & Amphibian Forums

For the first time my female Rio Fuerte dug a nest and laid all 21 eggs within a 12 hour period. This is really cool because in the past she would string the eggs out for a couple of days and usually alot of them were fertile but dead when she laid them. I think [my theory] is if they do not have an acceptable nesting site they will string out the eggs because they are holding them to long in their quest for a suitable nesting site. When provided an acceptable nesting site they will dig a nest and lay the eggs within one day just like any other lizard would. So far all of the eggs look good, I hope to hatch all of them and finally get to see the full spectrum of this amazingly patterened and colored bloodline. Last year I hatched out 4 eggs from this same female and they turned out really nice, Having sold 2 of them to Dr. Seward is a great quiet way of getting a compliment from one of the worlds most experianced heloderma breeders. A couple of the eggs in the photo have a dimple in them but thats only because they were set up in dry vermiculite overnight, already after being in the 1:2 ratio of newly mixed vermiculite for a day the dimples are going away slowly but hopefully surely.

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Congratulations! What a clutch, how old/big is your female and what did you allow her to nest in? Was it an outdoor enclosure?
Cheers
brett

Brett, The female is a 1996 offspring from Gregg Norths beautiful group. She did lay 22 eggs a few years back which was her biggest clutch to date but most of the eggs were no good.This time I had her set up to her desire and it paid off. I know many heloderma breeders and very few ever seem to get all the eggs in one day. Myself I believe if the conditions are right they will lay in this manner. I truly believe anything but this fashion of laying all at once is probably abnormal but readily acceptable by many heloderma breeders. I have bred many other species of lizard and I dont know of any that string their egg laying out like the helodermas do in captivity. For years I have tried the sphagnum moss to no avail. I cant beleive it works for other people.Heck sphagnum moss has to be one of the most unatural substrates you can use, I dont believe this moss occurs in the exasperatums home range or the gilas homerange. I use a well drained soil with sand mixture. The moisture level also has to be within a givin window of acceptance. Mix it the same way you mix the egg incubation medium and that is what I do.

Hi Bob,
Sounds like things I have read in the past, eggs over a couple of days is generally not a good thing and must be an artifact of captivity or poor nesting options. Nesting over several days would likely be a bad thing and leave the female vulnerable as well as the eggs. Did she nest outside in an enclosure or did you have a large chamber set up in her enclosure? Good luck wiht the eggs, thats something I dream of seeing one day!
Cheers
Brett

This was all done indoors