Ferdy Timmerman
Member
Hi everyone, I had some brevicaudatus hatching from their eggs so I'll share some photo's and (incubation) info.
I had a group of 1.2 adults in a well planted terrarium for a while when I realised I couldn't really see if there was any activity on the soil. I've had brevicaudatus eggs hatch in a terrarium a few years ago and wanted to let the same happen here, but I figured I wouldn't really gain a lot of insight into the incubation of the eggs... Therefore I changed the set-up of the terrarium and discovered two clutches of eggs: one was dried out already, but the other (consisting of 3 eggs) looked good! I placed them in vermiculite (mixed with water, 1:1) and put them in my incubator. I then arranged the plants etc. in a way that I could see the entire terrarium floor. Believe it or not, the next day(!) I saw a female digging and later laying a clutch of eggs! Naturally I dug them up after she was finished and I also placed this clutch (consisting of 4 eggs) in the incubator.
So to sum up the incubation:
Clutch 1
Dug up on 21 July 2011 (date when they were laid is unknown, but probably a few weeks before digging them up, since they were a bit bigger than the second clutch)
First baby hatched on 23 October 2011
Second and third baby hatched on 25 October 2011, so that's a minimum of 95-97 days for this clutch.
Clutch 2
Laid on 22 July 2011
First baby hatched on 3 November 2011
Second and third baby hatched on 4 November 2011
Fourth baby hatched on 5 November 2011, so that's 105-107 days.
Temperatures for both clutches were the same: during the day between 19,7 and 21,8°C (67,8-71,2°F) and at night between 17,7 and 19,0°C (63,9-66,2°F). I have the exact temperature of each day and night in case anyone is REALLY interested, but I think it doesn't matter all that much.
One thing I noticed was while they are hatching from the eggs, vermiculite must be extremely annoying for them. They can't grab it and pull themselves out of their egg, so it takes them ages to do so. When I placed a small twig right in front of one hatchling, it grabbed hold of it and just started climbing even though the hind leggs were still inside the egg. After that it managed to get out quickly, so I left the twig in there for the other hatchlings. This way the babies didn't really need time to recover their strength, so I placed them in a terrarium right away. They remained really active for the next 1,5 day or so and then started to slow down a bit
And finally some photo's. Hope you enjoy them!
I had a group of 1.2 adults in a well planted terrarium for a while when I realised I couldn't really see if there was any activity on the soil. I've had brevicaudatus eggs hatch in a terrarium a few years ago and wanted to let the same happen here, but I figured I wouldn't really gain a lot of insight into the incubation of the eggs... Therefore I changed the set-up of the terrarium and discovered two clutches of eggs: one was dried out already, but the other (consisting of 3 eggs) looked good! I placed them in vermiculite (mixed with water, 1:1) and put them in my incubator. I then arranged the plants etc. in a way that I could see the entire terrarium floor. Believe it or not, the next day(!) I saw a female digging and later laying a clutch of eggs! Naturally I dug them up after she was finished and I also placed this clutch (consisting of 4 eggs) in the incubator.
So to sum up the incubation:
Clutch 1
Dug up on 21 July 2011 (date when they were laid is unknown, but probably a few weeks before digging them up, since they were a bit bigger than the second clutch)
First baby hatched on 23 October 2011
Second and third baby hatched on 25 October 2011, so that's a minimum of 95-97 days for this clutch.
Clutch 2
Laid on 22 July 2011
First baby hatched on 3 November 2011
Second and third baby hatched on 4 November 2011
Fourth baby hatched on 5 November 2011, so that's 105-107 days.
Temperatures for both clutches were the same: during the day between 19,7 and 21,8°C (67,8-71,2°F) and at night between 17,7 and 19,0°C (63,9-66,2°F). I have the exact temperature of each day and night in case anyone is REALLY interested, but I think it doesn't matter all that much.
One thing I noticed was while they are hatching from the eggs, vermiculite must be extremely annoying for them. They can't grab it and pull themselves out of their egg, so it takes them ages to do so. When I placed a small twig right in front of one hatchling, it grabbed hold of it and just started climbing even though the hind leggs were still inside the egg. After that it managed to get out quickly, so I left the twig in there for the other hatchlings. This way the babies didn't really need time to recover their strength, so I placed them in a terrarium right away. They remained really active for the next 1,5 day or so and then started to slow down a bit
And finally some photo's. Hope you enjoy them!
