>>Just read about your misfortun on the other site!

>>This really saddens me a lot, I don’t understand why none of you emailed me?



Jobi,



would have emailed but you were having your knee fixed! I just read your reply to my question and I too had many nesting options. Varied moistures, many different mediums as you are well aware. These did not do the trick. I still think that the females overall weight and vigor to start with is of great importance in the final outcome. Much like some geckos if the female has a good fat reserve she is going to be in better condition to deal with the whole egg production process.



I feel that the two females that I lost were marginal at best when they conceived and by the time they should have laid the eggs conditions were not right and it was just too much. Had the temps, humidity, and medium all been perfect then perhaps they would have made it and laid their eggs but something was not correct and they missed.



The larger female was also not finding conditions to be perfect but due to her nice fat reserves she was able to survive and eventually she did lay her eggs and went on to develop a second clutch.



I must point out that I did open both of the females that I lost and both had egg folicles developing for a second clutch. However, had they laid the eggs they were carrying they were already so thin I am not sure they would ever have survived the second clutch. It would have been hard to imagine them eating enough to bulk up that much in the short time it takes for the second clutch to develop.



I feel that my females, and certainly my male, were lost by accident. I was doing everything that I knew to do. I had set up what you had told me to do. I had the oak leaves, the moss, the heat lamp, and had put them in the nesting viv I had talked about setting up. It is the greenhouse that is 8' long 2' wide and 28" tall at the peak. I have construction paper taped on the glass to give them privacey with only narrow strips at the peak for me to peek in. I open the top to mist and change the water and add worms and other feeders.



The male especially was doing very well. I have been using the forumla you suggested, the heat lamp, the humidity, the substrates. He was shedding on a monthly basis which to me seems a great growth rate. I don't know what went wrong with him. It seems he just crashed overnight! He was a very small male, maybe 5" snout to vent. The female that died egg bound wasn't much larger than him. I wouldn't have bred her by choice but didn't think that this group was old enough to breed. That's why I had them separated out from the other group. The surviving female is probably 4" snout to vent. I just hope she makes it.



Now that you are back I am asking questions in hopes of avoiding problems with the two females that I have that are still gravid. I don't want to lose them and their eggs.
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Marcia - FroggieB Dragons

www.froggieb.com/MHDHome.html

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