Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Caught in the act for the second time in the same day! LOL
Yahooooooo! Thanks again to Dr Seward for ALL the help!

And one day later folks! The first beaded hook ups of the year! YAHOO! I know I know I gotta be doing something right!

So what do you attribute your success. Give us a few pointers as far as your brumation periods for both Gilas and Beadeds. Did you tape your males mouths and let them go into a "fake" combat before pairing them off or just to help determine sex? I've bred my Gilas before but the last 3 years no success. I hoping they bred this past month but I'm waiting to see. Both females look a little swollen so I'm hoping. A friend may come by and with his Ultrasound and check to see if they are gravid. I cool mine from Dec. 1st until March 1st. in a fridge with a thermostat at 57 degrees then out for a month of feeding and then pair for breeding and rotate between males.

Couldn't say exactly what worked for me and I'm not considering it success until I hatch babies but I'm eager to share everything I learn.
She is a three year old and was in amazing health coming out of brumation. She was already apparently pear shaped...I'm positive conditioning the spring prior is what triggers females to produce viable follicles or something...I also fed her all she wanted from March 1st-April 14th, 6-12 small mice a week!
I tell ya it seemed to me when my female was ready, I couldn't stop my males...Thier behavior was absolutely crazy for a couple weeks like they were walking on tip toes n amped out in a roid rage or something....Beadeds were the same in fact last night my male beadeds and gilas were going crazy and I think its because I got some younger girls I'm holding off breeding in season.....

I hibernate gilas 54-58f from Dec to March using air from outside to cool a stairwelll I insulated, nothing special a dayton blower n a cooling thermostat... my temps fluctuated some too. Beadeds brumated dec-feb at 60-70 degrees....

My animals have access to 90+-70f temp gradients n drop to the high sixties at night. I did notice my males kept a cooler temp outta hibernation than my females ...I DO NOT USE BELLY HEAT with my heloderms ....they stay on it too much and in my opinion the wrong body parts are too hot too often when others not hot enough...all my cages are heated from the sides with flexwatt
radient heat style.

I followed Dr Seward's instructions in his book close.

Besides that I introduced my male to my female a few times as soon as I woke them so they all became aware of each other. Yep there was a lot of male on male combat the week before my lock ups with the gilas and the beadeds...not right before though....I'd say the biggest thing is we had stormy stormy weather for two weeks straight then...The barometer was all over the place...I opened my windows at night in the gila room and tried to stimulate them...
These lizards are smart and respond to outside stimulus bigtime you can watch them react to sounds, breezes n birds shadows....I'd bet money gilas n beadeds reproductive clocks prefer a stormy spring given thier love of water and the fact hatchling dehydrate very easy... If there was not storms in my area next season I'll certainly up the humidity at least....

Here is one my female rios swelling up with eggs! Look at the girth on her tail! Thats a healthy lizard!
Not too many beadeds in captivity are getting fed enough IMO.
just my 2 cents I still got a ton to learn

peace

Thanks for the reply--I wasn't sure you would see it. The year I had sucess I brumated mine in the crawlspace under my house. It stayed a constant temperature under 60 degrees with the ductwork and furnace being under the house and I wonder if the humidity was higher than my reptile room--I never checked. Also your statement about the weather outside playing a part. With the Gilas under the house they may have been more directly exposed to these environmental changes outside. A friend of mine and I have discussed this before and I know that some of my frogs (Pipa Pipa)tend to breed when it starts raining--the barometric changes and then I provide a change of water with a temp drop and they breed. I have used under tank heating and think you're probably onto something by heating from the sides. I also feed mine heavier but usually 4 to 6 adult mice--but sometimes they won't eat but 3 at a time. Thanks for the advice and keep posting any other tips you have.