63 Yellow-lip eggs today...

You may recall a pair of beautiful freshly-imported Yellow-lips I received about two months ago--I posted pictures of them, wondering if the female was gravid. I sold the male quickly, and long story short, the sale of the female never materialized.

She really looked gravid to me, so after a couple weeks I decided I'd stop trying to sell her and focus on keeping her healthy and strong in case she was indeed gravid. Well, starting about 2-3 weeks ago we could see the eggs in her, no need to palpate.

She worked her way down to the floor one day recently, something I hadn't ever seen her do, so I put her into a laying bin I had prepared. I had about 18" of peat moss and sand mixed, mostly peat moss. I figured she would need plenty of depth.

After about 12 hours, and just sort of scratching around on the surface, I put her back into her enclosure. A couple days later, she was near the bottom of the enclosure (but not on the bottom), so I tried again. No luck.

Then yesterday I noticed her deliberately climbing down to the bottom of the cage, very carefully, so when she got to the floor I gently picked her up and put her into the laying bin--it was early afternoon. When I left for the day, I kept the room lights on, but didn't have a light directly on the laying bin. I kept the bin cover on halfway.

When I came into the facility this morning, I walked over to covertly see what she was up to--when I saw her walking across the surface of the dirt, with wrinkly sides, I was excited to say the least.

I put her back into her enclosure, and started carefully digging. Contrary to what I had thought, I found the eggs, 63 of them, about four inches below the surface. They were hard-shelled, nothing soft. Not sure what healthy Parson's eggs look like, but to my eye most looked ok.

Here are a few pictures from what transpired:

Upon discovering the eggs...
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A closer look...
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Bin #1...
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Bin #2...
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Yesterday evening before I left for the day...
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The female Yellow-lip right after I put her back into her enclosure...
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Anyone who's successfully hatched these out, and would like to generously offer some pointers, I'm all ears. I have them in large plastic bins (perhaps 18"x14"x16") to help slow any temperature changes, in a temperature-controlled room that is automatically maintained between 68F and 75F, on perlite that's about 4-5 inches deep. I read that Ken Kalisch had 85% success on perlite at an average temperature of 72F, so that's really all I have to go on right now.
 
I appreciate the kind words everyone. :)

I've received virtually zero incubation information from Parson's breeders despite my communication attempts, which wasn't surprising (albeit sad) so I'm on my own here. I'm experimenting with three different incubation methods, so I'll keep you all updated. I didn't want to incubate all the eggs the same way (don't put all your eggs in one basket, right?).

I am offering a free hatchling (knock on wood) to any Parson's breeder willing to provide me with non-generic, actionable advice on incubating these eggs. I've heard one breeder mists his eggs with vinegar to break-down the egg shells, but then another told me not to do that but could not explain why. Please PM me if interested (assuming you've hatched-out Parson's).

Thanks,
Sam
 
Congratulations!

I'd love to offer advice, but have no experience. So, instead I'll ask you to add me to the long list of people who would gladly purchase a couple of the hatchlings! :D
 
I appreciate the kind words everyone. :)

I've received virtually zero incubation information from Parson's breeders despite my communication attempts, which wasn't surprising (albeit sad) so I'm on my own here. I'm experimenting with three different incubation methods, so I'll keep you all updated. I didn't want to incubate all the eggs the same way (don't put all your eggs in one basket, right?).

I am offering a free hatchling (knock on wood) to any Parson's breeder willing to provide me with non-generic, actionable advice on incubating these eggs. I've heard one breeder mists his eggs with vinegar to break-down the egg shells, but then another told me not to do that but could not explain why. Please PM me if interested (assuming you've hatched-out Parson's).

Thanks,
Sam

Sam,
I have experienced the same thing . Getting information from long time keepers/breeders in the US is all but impossible. Heck, they won't even tell you how many they've hatched. Luckily there are people willing to share info and help get this species more established in the US. One of them is rantotro (Andreas) who lives in Europe and gave me information on how he has been successful. You can find his thread here. https://www.chameleonforums.com/calumma-parsonii-parsonii-84839/

The other person is Garrett. He has been the most successful in my opinion because he hatched out a whole clutch of 22 babies of which I recently bought two. :) You can find the information on how he did it here. He has been extremely helpful to to me. https://www.chameleonforums.com/search-parsonii-info-41051/index7.html

Please PM me on where to send the baby yellow lip :)
 
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Send me a pm Sam if you would like any help with your incubation, the info I posted in the thread Craig referenced resulted in 100% hatch rate for me:D
Yellow lips come from a little cooler region than orange eyes, I would probably lower your incubation to something like 52-54F over the coming weeks, and hold that for 3 months for the diapause period. Incubating at constant higher temps, or not low enough diapause temps, will result in weak hatchlings and hatching problems like so many folks have experienced, imo. Ken's experience in the Advanced Vivarium Systems book is a good example, I think the lowest temp he used was 64f. Doing a quick check on Ranomafana weather today, this week shows a low of 61f. Take that down another 5 or 10 degrees to account for being buried in cold earth and you start to get a feel for where these numbers should be.
I'm unsure how much humidity plays into the incubation process, (I use dry\wet\dry\wet) but a distinct cool(cold) and warm period is required.
I remember reading a first hand account of parsonii eggs being exposed to temps as low as 4c in Madagascar during winter... can't remember where I read that, maybe one of the old C.I.N. journals?
 
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