Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A neighbor girl gave me an alligator lizard that she snuck home from Big Bear. I have never owned one before but your previous messages have helped me quite a bit. She laid eggs last night, I haven't the foggiest idea what to do with them. What can I do with all these soon to be babies? Releasing them back where they came from isn't an option since we live in Las Vegas. Do they even sell them in pet stores? I am in need of some, any, help with this. Hope to hear from you soon.

First things first, hatch the eggs. then im sure there are some folks on this site who wouldent mind adopting them.

To hatch the eggs get a small tuperware or some type of plastic container with a lid. Fill the container about 2/3rds with a 1:1 ratio of water to vermiculite by weight (postage scales are cheap, available at most office supply stores, and work great for weighing). Be careful not to rotate the eggs and bury them about 2/3rds of the way in the substrate. Put the lid on the container, openning it weekly to check the eggs will provide sufficient air exchange. Put the container somewhere in the house where the temperature is relatively stable. If the eggs are viable, they should hatch in about two months.

Good luck!
Alice

Thanks so much Alice.She had a total of 12 eggs. I would have never thought about doing that.What type of substrate would you suggest? I have that repti-something in there right now, the stuff that looks like big grains of sand. I am getting her a bigger tank today, should I use that repti stuff or that african violet potting soil?

My method was a little different, though not necessarily better.
The method I will use if my female is in fact gravid is different than both my old method as a teen, and the method described here, though again - not necessarily better.

I use to incubate mine at ~ 82F - though I didn't use a regular incubator, I used a light bulb. I think I'm going to just try ambient temp this time if my female lays, a lot of people seem to report that working quite well, and it certainly is a simpler setup.

I also used 2:1 verm:water by weight, which is a little dryer. But I used a cup of water in the container to raise the general humidity. So the net effect may be the same.

Anyway -

One thing though that I've seen mentioned in other forums here - the more medium, the better. The reason sounds valid - in the wild, there isn't a lot of temperature fluctuation where the eggs are laid. Using a lot of medium means there's a lot of water in the medium resulting in more stable temperature for the eggs (water has a high thermal capacitance).

I've got a 3lb (washed well) Potato Salas tub I'll be using - the kind of Tub they have at the supermarket for a family size.

It will be about half full of my vermiculite/water mixture, with the egg clutch on top (I don't burry them at all) and suran wrap on top (to keep humidity high). Suran wrap will have holes poked with a pin, and a small cup inside that I will keep full of water. Every couple of days the saran wrap gets removed for a few minuted to allow the air to breathe (avoiding carbon dioxide buildup around the eggs).

If I find them when she has just laid, then I separate the eggs and make a small dimple in the vermiculite for them with a spoon but do not bury them at all. If the eggs are stuck together, they should not be separated. To be honest, I don't ever remember having alligator lizard (or fence lizard) eggs that were stuck together - so I don't know if they ever do (snake eggs do).

The purpose of separating is that if one dies, it will probably mold and the mold can spread to healthy eggs. But if they are stuck together already, they will be damaged if you try to separate them.

Anyway - good luck
Things can go wrong but it's not hard - the first clutches I ever got (10 eggs from one female, 5 from another a week later) hatched. For them, I used a sand/water mixture (no salt) and didn't even measure how much sand to water.

The babies when they hatch need to be fed pinhead crickets, and extra caution should be taken when handling because they drop their tails very easily when young. I prefer not to handle babies at all if it can be avoided. An adult that has _never_ lost its tail is a very beautiful animal.
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3.0 WC; 0.1 CB L. getula californiae
0.1 CB L. pyromelana pyromelana
0.1 WC Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata (gravid)

I successfully hatched 15 eggs (100% success rate) using the method Alice suggested. It's also very simple to set up.