Reptile & Amphibian Forums

He’s 5 month old and almost sexually mature! Lime helped me improve my incubation and feeding regiment, because of him better options will be provided to all his decedents.

It because of him that I am talking your ears off about temps and crickets and bla-bla!

I am already holding out much information that sometimes I feel the need to share a little, I know and understand that most would prefer that I don’t disturb there husbandry methods, I really try not to do this.

I guess I am only trying to keep your interest high.

rgds

He's a beauty and I must say that compared to my 6-mo-olds he is quite adult looking! Mine are definitly babies by comparison!
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Marcia - FroggieB Dragons
www.froggieb.com/MHDHome.html

I agree on his beauty and size. The crest and horns are bigger than my 1 1/2 year old girls. Are male crests generally taller than female?

Bonnie, In my experience the males do usually have taller spines and crest but this isn't always the case. I have had some males that don't develop and have had the exceptional female with exceptional crest! But the norm is that the male has showier crest & horns and the female has showier colors. This of course is only my experience. I don't know if this might be different with Jobi's accelerated raising technique!
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Marcia - FroggieB Dragons
www.froggieb.com/MHDHome.html

I hope you aren’t confusing fast growth and accelerated growth.

I want to explain this so all can understand, all I do is to provide my lizards with optimum temps and
humidity this accelerates there metabolism and therefore they feed and drink a lot more.
The danger is if you as a provider do not provide enough.

You see most keepers will once in a while skip a feeding or 2 without any adverse consequence, but with a faster metabolising lizard doing this can kill him. Fast metabolising lizards need energy food more and more often, they can feed many times more then other lizards of the same specie, they will grow many times faster too, this is safe and has no side effects whatsoever if you provide. Lizards kept this way will produce many clutches every year and live longer then most lizards you know.

Now a word about accelerated growth, this is about achieving faster growth via hormones and other proteins, this practise is unhealthy and dangerous, animals grown this way do not look healthy, they are mostly obese and do not reproduce, there life expectancies is poor.

Pet shops sell extra large mealworms that are the size of super worms but have been grown on hormones, stay away from this junk food or any other types of food that advertise super growth.

My husbandry is a healthy husbandry, but you must commit to your lizards if you wish for them to perform, my lizards perform as nature intended them to, in favourable weather wild lizards are capable of multiclutching continuously, however mother nature is not always favourable to lizards, so they adapted ways to shut down production until better days.

In captivity we are the providers and can allow them better options, if we run out of food we can also lower the temps and let them shut down if we what.

If this isn’t clear for anyone pleas say so, its important for me that all understand the implication we as keepers have to assume.

Rgds

I'm afraid I choose my words poorly. I meant accelerated to mean faster than what I have achieved using my methods of raising my babies. I didn't even consider the possibility that you might be using hormones or any other unhealthy or un-natural method of raising your animals. I am impressed with your male to say the least.

I would sure like to raise them faster. If heat, humidity and feeding are the keys then I am game. I am still a bit cautious though! I do have problems as it is with raising adequate food for my animals and living where I am, town is populating 2400 and no place to buy anything but nightcrawlers without driving more than an hour or more, so I have to be cautious.

My food bill is high. That is why I have tubs filled with roaches. I find they are much easier to raise than crickets with much less smell and without the escapees. They also don't bite my animals and the dragons seem to prefer them to the crickets. I am just getting the colonies to the point where I can feed the babies roaches exclusively but don't yet have enough for them and the adults.

In another month or so I will have greatly reduced my population with the sale of most of the babies. I will then be building my feeder colonies through the winter. Perhaps my next clutches I will be able to divide and set up a couple of different temps and see what results I have. You have really peeked my curiosity here! ; )
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Marcia - FroggieB Dragons
www.froggieb.com/MHDHome.html

Whatever you feed, more of the smaller bugs per meal is the key. Large bugs are a waste of energy and minerals. = poor growth.

What makes all the difference in the world is you being aware of the possibilities, the fun part of being passionate is that we enjoy baby step progression, giant leaps are hart breakers.

Enjoy these moments

You guys tot I was joking about them going from egg to egg in les then a year time?

Well no its for real and I will prove it in this up coming year, this is nothing new to me, iv been doing the same with varanus salvadorii the world longest varanids, I grew them from hatchlings to adult size 6-7feet in less then one year, raising any species of varanids from hatchelling to adult regardless of size is very simple, I have also raise python reticulatus to 12-14feet in one year, same with P sebae and P molurus.

Iv also raise many crocodilians to adult size in one year time.

Therefore I think growing a 15inches lizards is not a big deal at all, nothing to brag about here. In fact this should be the norm not the exception.

Also Iv talked with Mantey about the mistakes in his book, tfh is responsible as they added photos without consulting him. The German edition don’t have these mistakes of identity.