Reptile & Amphibian Forums

alright, is there any thing i need to do to stimulate them to breed, more light, more heat, more humidity. i know you mentioned light, but is that for all the time or to stimulate breeding. what temp should they be kept at. i would appreciate if you could email me so we can talk more direct, scalesnshells@yahoo.com

thank you so much man, im looking forward to trying to breed these guys
kody

Hi,

for the flavigularis I tried variation of temps, of humidity, light cycle etc...I even changed density of plants to simulate a wetter season.
All this did not have an Influence. They always bred in Winter and ONLY if they had metal halides for at least 2 monhts before breeding season.
Finally I kept conditions constant year round and they still bred every year.

Hope that helps

Ingo

(ingo.kober@phenex-pharma.com)

ok so what you are saying is make it really bright for two months(is an 8 hour day good?) and give them plenty of food, and a wet spot for eggs, and they will breed? how many watts of a bulb do you recomend? thank you for the help man.
kody

No,

I mean: Keep it bright all the time.
For the tank (5 x 2 x 3 ft I hat two 150 W metal halides (HQI; NDL 4800K) plus 3 36 W fluorescents). This I had year round.
And as I said: Onve I had these lights, they bred every year in winer. Absolutely independent from any environmental changes or stimuli I tried.

Ci@o

Ingo

oh aight cool, so how long of a day should i give them, and you said they breed in winter every year...did your house get cooler in winter? did you have any heat lamps or pads for the plateds? what is a good temp to keep them at? 85-95 sound ok? what is the imcubation temp and humidity for the eggs? i really appreciate your help man!
kody

As I said, I tried variation, but ended up with a 13 hour day year round.
For heat I only had the metal halides, hangng approx 1 ft above ground level.
At the basking aspots I measured temps up to 130 F. Coolest temps at daytime were in the 70s range.
At night temps dropped down to themid 60s.
There was no significant environmental chnage in our house in winter.
For incubation it is essential to keep humidity close to 100% for the first two months. Than humidity should be reduced till the substrate is almost dry at the end of month 3. If eggs begin to show indentations its too dry, but minor indentations do not harm and if some drps of water are added in the vicinity of the eggs, eggs recover quickly.
However, its not easy to find the best way of reducing humidity.
I either opened incubation boxes slighly for some time or just changed bedding after 3 months.
I had best results with daytime incubation temps in the low 80s and a night drop down to the mid 60s.

Hope that helps

Ingo

you keep refering to metal halides. how many watts, will any bulb with the same wattage do? how long of a day do you give them year round? 8 or 12?
thanks again for putting up with all my questions
kody

I use the kind of lamps shown in the pic.
These need bulbs like that:
http://ebay2.ipixmedia.com/abc/M28/_EBAY_90b92a500a6a89c407c34fa515aa0224/i-1.JPG
Its important to go for the right colour temperature of the bulb. Everything between 5000 and 6000K is OK. 10000K or 3000K are not good.
For the plateds I had them buurning year round for approx 13 hours.
I always had at least one 150 W HQI plus one 70 W HQI and later I had 2 x 150 W HQI in the plateds tank.

Hiope that helps

Ingo