Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ive got a pair of western fence lizards that I captured not long after they came out of hibernation(just my assumption, ive had them for a few months). I captured them with the intentions of breeding them, since they had already been cycled. When should I start expecting eggs? I live in Northern CA.
Today was cleaning day, and so I took a few pics when I took them out.

Thanks,
Andrew

Hey there,

from the picture, it looks as though you might have two males. They appear to both have a hemipenal bulge at the base of the tail. Could be wrong though. Especially if you've watched them mate. Anyway, their breeding time is right now. If they're going to, they'll be mating and dropping eggs soon. So take a look around the cage if you think they're laying. Jason and Alice can probably fill you in on other details. Hope I helped. Talk to you soon.

-Phil

Thanks for your help. Im positive that they are male and female though, aside from the lack of the hemipenal bulge on the female, she also lacks the intense color and bulk that the male has.
Ill be getting a nest box in there now, then. What is the best way to incubate the eggs, I know the temps, but I need more info on how much humidity is needed.

Thanks,
Andrew

First of all get those lizards in a larger cage. The enclosure you have is not big enough to maintain one let alone 2 of this species, I would not recommend anything smaller than a 10G all glass enclosure. Put something in “the new enclosure” with some sort of semi moist substrate, Be careful that it is not to wet, a cool whip or small Tupperware container work well. You should soon see the female digging around in it. Check the container several times a day but try to not disturb it to much. After the eggs are laid you must removed them and put them in another container with Vermiculite or Perlite as a substrate. Keep the water to substrate ratio at about 1/1 by weight. I personally have yet to successfully hatch eggs so aliceinwl should be able to give you more insight on this.

My reptile research and collection

Sorry for not being more clear in my post. I was taking the lizards out so I could clean their cage, which is a 10 gallon tank. I just put them in the small critter keeper while I was cleaning the cage.
Anyways, thank you for the advice. I placed a nest box in there with moist potting soil in it, so I will watch it closesly for any activity.

Thanks,
Andrew

You can't really go by color / build alone for sexing. Your "female" is smaller than your male who appears to be a young / small adult. It's, therefore, quite possible that your female could be a male who hasn't developed its color yet. Fortunately it's easy to accurately sex fence lizards at any age. Flip the male over, just past the vent, you'll see a pair of enlarged scales. Your male is also old enough to have femoral pores. These pores are found on the underside of the rear thighs; look at the last row of big scales on the underside of the rear legs. In males, the pores in these scales are enlarged and secrete a waxy substance. Now check your female. Females will lack the paired enlarged scales bellow the vent, and their femoral pores will be much less developed.

I've attached a couple of pictures to help you with sexing. The fist is the underside of a male, the second is the underside of a female.

I've never actually tried / had the opportunity of incubating fence lizard eggs. If you look at my response to the post on eggs bellow, you can see my recommendations.

-Alice

P.S. If you have any trouble finding the features I'm talking about on the lizards in the pictures, let me know and I'll try to add some arrows or something

Thanks Alice. I used the method you described, and confirmed that I have a male and a female. Hopefully my female will start laying soon.
Thanks again for all of your help everybody. Ill keep you updated.

Thanks,
Andrew