Breeders: whats in your toolkit?
- Thread starter EvilLost
- Start date
fluxlizard
Avid Member
Passion. Enough to drive you to do things that ordinary people would not be willing to do.
Enough to drive me to be patient for years while raising up breeders and then waiting for lengthy egg incubations and then waiting for hatchlings to grow and mature to the age they are ready for new homes, and then enough to repeat for the next generation.
Enough to drive me to spend plenty of money on this whole process for the breeders, the caging, the lighting, the plants, the electricity, the misting system, the food, the supplements, waiting for years before the money is returned.
Enough to dive with both hands into zillions of insects every day to feed the lizards (I'm currently feeding a few thousand insects daily and it isn't even hatchling season). Sometimes the thought crosses my mind as I'm sorting adult roaches into new colonies while I feed out the juveniles to the lizards that I spend hours every day doing something that would give most normal people nightmares (sorting masses of bugs by hand).
Enough to continually read and learn and update and compare with experience and knowledge stored away in my brain. Enough to think about the animals constantly day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year.
Enough to drive me to select my home location specifically with the lizards in mind (zoning, tax laws, flat land which is a bit rare in these parts in my price range)- and then on top of that spend quite a bit of money and time and learn quite a bit so I could build a lizard building just for the lizards.
Enough to spend countless hours when tired, hot, cold, hungry, frustrated, sad, happy, whatever comes- cleaning up poop and doing repairs on enclosures and feeding and watering and visually inspecting each and every lizard. There have been many days when I have said to myself that I didn't realise that having a lot of lizards meant spending a lot of time cleaning poop. Or waking up every 2 hours around the clock for 4 days treating the prolapse on the tortoise until it sucks it back in. The animals don't care how I am feeling, if I am happy, or if I like them. They just need to be taken care of regardless.
In short- I think the most important thing you must have in your toolbox is your mind and a strong drive to keep going.
You might at first think this is trivial. I've sold lots of lizards to people over the years who intended to raise them up and breed them. I'd say 90+% never follow that intention through for one reason or another. Even here on the forums with experienced buyers for my melleri who made a significant investment- most ended up reselling within 18 months... Over the years I've had dozens of sold lizards returned to me within that same period of time because the owner looses interest and wants to move on to something else.
The other must haves include a healthy bank account, patience (bears repeating), logical mind for troubleshooting, willingness to keep trying when things go wrong or in the face of the unexpected or when things don't go right at the least.
A good day job would help.
And personally- I wouldn't want all my animals and insects in my home- so for me, a lizard building is an essential. We keep a few "pets" in the home, however. So if scale doesn't equal seriousness, I suppose in the home works OK.
Also- a basic working knowledge of electricity, carpentry, plumbing are all pretty much essential for my interest in lizards.
As far as equipment which is what you really mean- a good digital gram scale is a must have and gets used a lot around here.
A good toolbox with hammer, drill, powersaw, square, level, and about a zillion other tools that can be purchased as needed along the way is also essential.
A garden comes in really nice too- I was able to grow all my own lizard greens the last couple summers. So knowledge of gardening is good to have if you are serious.
Willingness to experiment and try different things even after you succeed so you can learn more is good to have too.
I have a special penlight for this, but I misplaced it a couple of years ago and haven't seen it since. Nowadays I just turn off the lights and point the LED light on my keychain at the egg I want to check.
Honestly though- 99% of the time it is a bit of a futile effort. If there is something wrong with the egg, checking it with the penlight won't fix it. Checking the development won't help it hatch sooner either. Mainly it is there for amusement purposes and to twist up my insides while I try to patiently wait for hatch day. The eggs will hatch or they won't regardless of constant monitoring, and if they don't then they can be opened to see at what point they failed in order to start troubleshooting.
Not many. I keep my meds in the fridge- they include at the moment some antibiotic eye ointment from that time I tried to get rid of vitamin a and go beta carotene only on some panther chameleons after reading about that brilliant idea here on the forums and failing (vitamin a ended up fixing the problem after the ointment failed. Ointment 2 weeks- fail. A little real vitamin a and a few days, success), panacur and fenbendazole and flagyl, and a few other odds and ends from the vet.
Oh, that is another really good thing to have- relationships with some vets. I lucked out and hit the jackpot on this one, as my father was a vet who because of his profession ended up with relationships with some of the best herp vets in the country (he taught some of them when they were in vet school), so I have had access to some good minds through his contacts. My brother is also a vet, and some of my best friends have been vets. You *will* need at least one good vet (and there are many mediocre vets out there) if you are a serious breeder. Knowing what to do and having access to appropriate meds is far more important than what is in your emergency bag.
Depends on what I am incubating. I've never used a cooling incubator- used a basement before instead. I've used the shelf method with the gladware for many chameleons over the years. Currently I've gone back to my day/night variation to speed up hatch times, so I'm using heat during the day.
I build my own incubators, and they are better than anything I could buy. I figured out how after having the terrible experience of waking up one day to a failed thermostat and 1000 really nice bearded dragon eggs cooked. (See what can happen if you get too serious?) Worst day of my life. Now I have the best thermostatic controllers and excellent incubators that can hold hundreds of eggs each and keep temperature variance within the incubator within 2/10ths of a degree at any location inside. They have an automatic shutoff if the thermostat fails and an audible alarm. If I want to I can monitor conditions on the internet and if things get too hot or too cold I can have a message sent to my cellphone (I don't actually have that feature set up- but it was advertised for the controllers I bought). I've been meaning to do a blog entry on how to build these. Guess I need to get around to doing that one of these days...
Most of all- if you want to be serious- you've got to love it because it will rip your heart out after demanding all your time and money. You can invest a lot of money/time/love/thought/hope into an animal only to have the eggs cook in the incubator, or the animal fail to reproduce, or die on you. Or the market price drop dramatically. You get to compete in a marketplace with 15 year olds who have everything financed by their parents, people who don't care if they make a profit and cover their expenses, sickly cheap imported lizards, etc.
For me, if the life-experience with the lizards wasn't the reward itself, I would have dropped the hobby long ago...
Last edited:
coldbloodedAL
Avid Member
Very well said
Id really like to see a blog about them incubators you make as well.
Id really like to see a blog about them incubators you make as well.
yankfanthom
Established Member
I think this is all the response anyone should need! Well Said!!
JRchameleons
New Member
Vegas Chad
Avid Member
I dont have time to read that. But it was long so it must be full of great info.
Eltortu
Established Member
Money, dedication and patience. There, short and sweet.
