Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all,
though many of you have experienced this before (I have, just with other animals) I just wanted to tell the board that my A. capra is gravid! I am so excited! If anyone has any advice they would like to relay to me, I'd be very thankful. I bought her in May, so I'm wondering if she came to me gravid (I'm only now noticing and feel ing eggs) or if they actually bred. If anyone has any opinions... Thanks in advance.

Best Regards, EMWhite

Hey I hope this will be one of those exceptional experience for you!

I notice that my acanthosaura’s take about 30-40 days from copulation to nesting, therefore if you got her in may, she wasn’t gravid for sure.

To be of any help I must talk about husbandry, a choice of good temperatures NTL 75f DTH 85f with a basking of about 90 to 100f is what allows your lizards metabolism to function, of course with such temps you must be attentive to hydration.

The above sets the rules of feeding witch in turn allows your lizard to progress, cycle! Develop eggs!
Good husbandry allows all this to happen fast, bad husbandry can drag this process for months, or worst will not allow it to happen.

Once your female is gravid you should focus on nesting options, your female should be able to nest anywhere in the above temperature range, this is easily achieved by lowering a reflector with a 25w bulb 6in from the ground. Sphagnum moss in my favourite material, but oak leafs works excellent, what matter in volume moisture and heat.

I incubate my eggs at DTH 86f and NTL 75f, without this night drop the eggs fail.
Keep them well hydrated, these can tolerate floods so don’t worry about the high end, worry about the low end on hydration.

Best of luck.

Ps. My Vietnamese friend and anthropologist is actually in the jungle sins Monday, he’s collecting temperature data-food sample and observing acanthosaura day and night activities. I also asked him to note nesting options.
This should prove to be most interesting for all of us dragon keepers.

jobi,
Thanks for the tips, I'll make sure that she has the necessities provided for her. I read the messages between you and froggieb about the importance of leaves on the bottom of the enclosure. I have a pear tree outside which is dropping liberal amounts of leaves, you think I could use those? Will they really make nesting easier for her? I'll definatly do it this time, but if you think it is worth it, I'll leave them in the enclosure. I'm glad you think that she was not gravid upon purchase, this means that I will have more breeding! (hopefully). I have been looking foreword to this for some time now. If all goes well, I'll post some pictures of the babies. Before I go, I have one more question: do you think (or if anyone else reading this wants to offer an opinion) that I should offer a seperate container with nesting material, as opposed to making her lay them in the substrate? The pair are housed on about an inch and a half of coconut fiber/ coco bark mixed together. Thanks.

Regards, EMWhite

To be honest I don’t know much about leafs, I know that some are prone to fungus and others attract bacteria, they all have different chemicals and ph levels.

I know that oak leafs have antibacterial properties, and are resistant to fungus, lizards nest well in them, they must understand the benefits for there eggs better then we do.

Whenever I read someone saying that any leaf litter will do, I have to question if they really have every used leaf litter as nesting media?

I experimented many years before understanding this difference, I lost many eggs in the process.

As for nesting, its very simple, take your water bowl out and fill your cage with nesting media, compress it with your hands to get 8-10in deep, and voila!

The water vapours from your coconut fibbers will filter thru the nesting media, it will fluctuate with the heat cycle, as in nature.

A common mistake is to make a nesting area in one corner and hope they nest there, this is asking for trouble. I see this often, when I ask why did you build a nesting site in that corner, the usual answer is, this is the wettest side of the cage! Usually rain forest lizards defecate in the wettest part of there cage, do you think they will nest in there toilet?

Faeces are what you need to avoid when your nesting, any cent that will bring upon predators is self destructive. This is why I prefer to clean the cage and start witch fresh unscented media. A lot of it!

Hope this helps.

jobi,
Thanks again, I'll deepen the substrate. Since I'm just now noticing the lumps, how long approx. until she lays her eggs?

EMWhite

jobi,
Excuse me, I didn't realize that you already answered my question in the previous post. Sorry about that, in one ear out the other

Regards, EMWhite

P.S. I have been looking for a female armata for some time now. She will need to be about 3-4 inches snout-to-vent length. Do you know if you will be getting any in any of your shipments?

Being Canadian I can only ship to US keepers with an import license.
This is why I don’t mind shipping a few morphs to Marcia, I know she will eventually supply you guys!

jobi,
No problem. I'll just keep an eye out at the vivarium or somewhere. That's where I bought the male. By the way, are any of your armata mean? Mine wants to kill me, and is very, very flighty.

Regards, EMWhite

My armata are the same way. They will tolerate me holding them in the morning but when they heat up it's hands off. The female charges my hand and head butts it. She has bitten me several times. I'm pretty sure she is gravid. Not lumpy yet though.
-----
BONNIE

My dominent female is a love, never snaps or bites, well, almost never! The second in command is a really hissy biter and the subordinate female is also very calm most of the time. The male is a real pistol, as I would want him to be!

In the second viv, the youngsters, the dominant all three are pretty feisty, especially the male. These guys were pretty small when I got them but they are growing fast!

I think we are going to see distinct personalities with the armata just as we do with any of the acanthosaura species. The males do seem to be pretty testy.
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Marcia - FroggieB Dragons
www.froggieb.com/MHDHome.html

Peoples will think I am bragging! But 30 days after copulation I expect my females to nest, of course all this has to do with food intake, eventually you learn to read each lizards and know they are due! When I feel this I will set up an other cage and move the female, usually this stress is enough to release labour hormones (act like an oxitocin shot) and leads to nesting. This is in my care, the result will vary from one keeper to the next, theirs no way for me to give you my experience, you must build your own with time.
This is why my friend FR always say that husbandry is about making decisions.

rgds

jobi,
Sorry to keeping messaging you, I hope it's not a bother. I will watch her carefully. That's actually how I began to suspect pregnancy. She got bloated for about a week and a half, then she semed to "de-flate" all the while eating like crazy. And now lumps, she feels like she's full of kidney beans to be honest. The funny thing is, that I never saw her acting in a receptive way towards the male. He was always bobbing his head and hissing at her, but she seemed only to ingnore him. I guess she was playing hard to get. Thanks a bunch.

EMWhite

Hey no problem!
I am actually exchanging with my friends wife in Vietnam, the both of us are anxiously waiting for news of him from expedition.

Answering to you kind of fill in the voids a little.

Best of luck, take care.