K. Matschiei Eggs- Malachite & Alba

CNorton

Avid Member
I've finally gotten around to documenting this clutch laid on June 19, 2010.

Tylene (ponders) was gracious enough to mate her veteran male named Malachite to my female, Alba. You can read more at this thread; The Copulation.

After about 6 weeks and nearly 20 grams of egg weight, Alba dropped 22 eggs. It took her 4 days of digging, during which I left her alone all day every day in an inescapable bin mixed with sand, soil, branches, and a planted pothos. The laying bin only had a weak household incandescent bulb which provided almost no heat. The sand/soil mixture was moistened until I could dig a small hole without it collapsing on itself. The mixture was 12 inches deep and the eggs were laid at the very bottom. Perhaps a deeper digging medium would be better.

Alba was relentless about digging for those 4 days. I did not attempt to feed or hydrate her. The first 2 days she continued to dig well past lights out. She seemed to prefer the area closest to the pothos plant, under the leaves, and in the actual root structure of the plant. This, in my opinion, was a significant discovery.

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As you can see the eggs are about 5/8 inch in size. They were all laid in one big clump together. I excavated the eggs the day after I noticed a significant size change in my female...I only checked on her after lights out. Digging by hand is the easiest and most safe method in my opinion.

I will be updating this thread with incubation info in the future.
 
Such pretty white little eggs all lined up in rows! Good luck Chad.
Malachite's been restless lately, searching for a girl I think.:)
 
Alba has laid again, 17 eggs this time. She was not mated again and so if there are any viable eggs, she must have retained sperm from the mating this spring. Only time will tell...
 
Great work on both clutches! I can't believe I missed this thread before so I'll say it now, "Can't wat to see some babies!"
 
Great and they look good!
Best of luck with them and I really hope that you have a good hatchling rate!
keep us update please.

Best regards,
Tom
 
Jurgen! That is excellent news!! Please share some more details; when did the next baby hatch, how is the first one doing, coloration, behavior, etc.

Jared, the eggs are still doing well. Nothing really to report. The actual size of each egg has not changed...that I've noticed.

Todd, I really didn't see any gravid colors per se. The behavior did change though; massive eating increase, and more basking than I had noticed before. Be careful with feeding though, these little girls will pop out infertile clutches left and right if they are fed well.



Thank you all for the interest. A 13+ month incubation is a real patience test but this species is worth every minute of waiting. I'd really love to see a captive population here in the states but that will not happen without the few of us working to keep these guys in top shape. I hope more and more keepers recognize the importance of captive breeding projects. Although WCs will always be cheap and enticing, we've got to spread the word to new keepers how much easier a CB cham is. So much can be said for a "parasite free" (or low count) chameleon that is accustomed to captive care.

Also, I wanted to tip my cap to Louis - Seeco for what he has done for Kinyongia Multituberculata. I think I noticed a significant decrease in K Multi imports this year thanks to his massively successful breedings. Way to go Louis!:D
 
Hey Chad,

Indeed all true what you are saying here! This is the main reason why we (Jürgen, Tom and myself) are doing some breeding projects of some interesting Trioceros (cristatus, deremensis, fuelleborni, wiedersheimi, pfefferi, ...) and Kinyongia (matschiei and tenuis) species. We try to maintain a stable F1 and F2 population of these species. And not to forget a lot of success is also made by Tom regarding F1/F2 populations of rhampholeon and rieppeleon ssp.

Cheers,

Joery
 
It is great to hear you are having success with this. Keep up the efforts. I'm looking forward to your progress.
 
Also, I wanted to tip my cap to Louis - Seeco for what he has done for Kinyongia Multituberculata. I think I noticed a significant decrease in K Multi imports this year thanks to his massively successful breedings. Way to go Louis!:D

Hey, that's me! Thanks! Now that I have my facility perfected I am keeping my eyes open for some of the less common Kinyongia. If anyone can help me acquire, please PM.
 
Hi Chad,with the first baby i had bad luck:(
It was about two months and half and grew great and i put him outside on a sunny day.
I put him outside normaly for one hour but a made a mistake one day to put him outside for a whole day and i think he does not have enough shade because the day afther he died:(
It seems that young fishers apparently can not stand exessive solar radiation.
This clutch whas from a very young female and only two eggs where fertiliezed.
It is remarkable that this one came out after just one year,1 month earlier than the first one.
The new born looked very great:)and really energetic,i hope he continues to do well of course.
For the moment i have a huge baby boom from several species so i gave the baby to Tom becouse i dont have enough place for the moment.
The next clutch are 7 eggs all good for within 3 months but the real work starts within 6 months 68 eggs all fertile:eek:
A good frend of mine was a while ago on a holiday in Tanzania and had the great luck to visite the breeding farm of Joe Berraducci(MBT)
in Arusha.
Joe gave lots of info about matschiei's in the nature,at the farm they hatch at about 11 a 12 months(just put them in the ground becouse its their natural climate.
I keep you informed(you have to ask Tom for pics)
Greets Jurgen
 
It is remarkable that this one came out after just one year,1 month earlier than the first one.

The next clutch are 7 eggs all good for within 3 months but the real work starts within 6 months 68 eggs all fertile:eek:

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by these 2 sentences. Was the second baby from a different clutch than the first baby; that died from solar radiation? If so then I think I understand that the second clutch took 12 months and the first took 13 months to hatch.

Did Joe Beraducci have any insight that you can share? I would be very interested to hear more about what happens in the wild.


Jurgen! I'm so happy to hear from you and wish you the best of luck with your gang of babies. I hope this next year brings you a great sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. We are trying hard here in the US to cultivate the rarer species, for me...just one species at a time. ;)
 
My female is at the base of the plants looking around. I have never seen her do this before so she might be looking for a nest site.:)
 
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