Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Two little Argentine reds came out of the same egg this morning! I've hatched twins with ratsnakes before but never lizards.
This was my first time hatching out red tegus and it was probably the breeding project I was most excited about this year.
(The cute little guys still have vermiculite stuck all over them)
Chris

fantastic !!

well done

carl

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How did you do it? I would like to breed my reds but am a little afraid of egg binding. Okay I'm a lot afraid of egg binding. Do you have an incubator? Did you build one? Thanx-1tegufan

I'm not sure if I'm the one to ask because I've had very limited success so far.
I live in FL and my tegus are kept outside (which I believe makes the whole copulation thing easier to achieve.) I cycle my tegus during the winter and usually observe copulation several times in early April. She layed her eggs in late May.

I got around 38 eggs in 2004 and about 35 this year. I lost all of the eggs in 2004 and all but 8 this year. Most of them looked fertile when they were first layed but I think my female waited too long to lay because she wasn't happy with the nesting sites I provided. Next year, I'm going to provide her with all the materials to build her own. I actually observed some really cool nesting behavior this year. After she became frustrated with my nesting sites, she actually took materials from different nesting sites and pushed them into her burrow with her front legs to create her own. I believe that I wouldn't have lost so many eggs if she hadn't waited so long to lay. (She seemed very uncomfortable for a few days before she finally constructed a nesting site that she was happy with.)

I incubated the eggs at 84F in a Natures Spirit incubator w/ a Helix thermostat. Like I said, I'm definitely still learning with these guys but I'm very happy to have had even limited successs.
Chris

Your tegus are certainly beautiful. They look fantastic. Are you going to keep and raise the babies for breeding also? thanx-1tegufan

I haven't really decided yet but I'll probably keep one or two. If they have the personality of their parents they'll be hard to part with
Chris

That is neat. They look good.

Mike B

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