Eggciting Times Round 2!

Lolly laid her second clutch of the season this afternoon.  My beautiful wife rang me at work to let me know that she though Lolly might be in the throws of laying as she had dug herself a mighty hole in the laying box.  It turns out she was entirely correct.  I had been expecting Lolly to lay as early as last weekend as she had been giving off plenty of signs that she was getting close.  I guess no one can rush a mother or her babies and nature just has to take its course as it were.

You can see in the first photo, that by the time I came home from work, Lolly was just finishing up.  The egg you can see in the back left corner was the only thing giving away her nest site.  For some reason, she left that one on the surface.  The rest were well and truly buried at the bottom.  I was able to see the technique she used to compact the sand to settle and maybe disguise the site.  It was fascinating to see her using her head to bash the sand down and the force with which this was done.  Given the location of the egg you can see on top (ie directly on top of the nest site), I moved it to the far corner of the lay box to protect it.

In this next photo, you can see the clutch itself.  I retrieved 24 eggs this time.  Unfortunately there were 7 other eggs that were either infertile, referred to as slugs, or that had been crushed.  With a total of 31 eggs, this was Lolly's largest clutch.  I wonder if that is why there were infertile eggs. In the case of what look to be the viable eggs, there is the general appearance of them being longer and flatter than her previous clutches.  I am hoping that it is just that prior to laying that things were just a little squishy in there.  They might round out a bit now that they are out and about as it were.

The final picture you can see here is the proud Mum to be, literally basking in the afterglow of her big effort of the afternoon.  At this point she had relaxed in a nice warm bath and had actually coloured up very nicely.  This photo doesn't do the yellow colouration she had on display justice.  She is a beautiful dragon and I am really hopeful that her genetics combined with Beau's will produce some excellent offspring.

For now, she has time to recover and I will be pumping her full of good tucker to help her recover and fatten up.  Chances are she will lay once or twice more this season.  I have promised her the year off next year.  I think she has well and truly earned it!

DIY Enclosure Series - Part 1

Ever since Bruce came on the scene, I have needed to do something about a permanent home for him.  In reality his arrival accelerated the need I already had to provide permanent accommodation for Lacey through her adult life.  She can only live so long in a 20 litre tub after all.  As much as it is ideal for her now, in a year or so, it will be completely inadequate.  Add to these requirements my general interest in DIY lately and you find me where I am today.  On the cusp of starting to build my own custom enclosure for both Lacey and Bruce.

I read an article in the current edition of Scales and Tails magazine that went into some detail the merits of building your own enclosure using tubular aluminium to construct a frame on which to encompass the various materials that make up its faces.  I set upon this concept over and above what I had been thinking, which had centred on using melamine to construct a wooden home for our reptiles.  I like working with wood.  That is not to say that I am any good at it.

The article described the tubular aluminium as being available with different profiles.  That is to say with different extrusions on it that would help simply secure different materials such as glass and wood.  With this and other basic information in hand I set about researching the manufacturers of the aluminium tube and what options were in fact available to me before setting about designing what I wanted.

The two images in this post are what I came up with.  The are produced in Google Sketchup and are to scale as a result.  I sent the designs to a couple of manufacturers and based on the great advice, help and the products themselves of one of them, I ordered the framework for my new enclosure.  I am very pleased to report that it arrived today!  So let the fun begin...

You can see in the images that I have designed a two storey home for the critters with Lacey to be in the penthouse and Bruce in the basement.  The void in between is where lighting for Bruce's pad will sit.  I have also included flyscreen panels on the top and sides for ventillation.  The left hand sides of both enclosures will have toughened glass hinged doors.

I am really looking forward to the interesting challenge of this piece of construction and will keep the progress recorded here.

Reptile Health Diary – 01/10/2011

Quite an interesting month just gone.  From Lacey and Bruce both shedding to Lolly laying her first clutch of eggs for the season.  Plenty of fun to be had.

Lolly
Weight: 407 grams (-40)
Length: 48.8 (+3)
Food: Bok Choy, Crickets, Fuzzy Mouse, grapes
Toilet: regular
Behaviour:  Lolly provided us with 29 beautiful eggs this month that are currently incubating and looking plump and viable.  This explains her weight loss.  In the week and a half since she laid them, I have been pumping her with food and she has been ravenous as you would expect.  Given that the weight of the eggs was just over 100 grams, I am not unhappy that she is only 40 grams lighter.  In all likelihood she will lay another clutch in the next 2-3 weeks!  So I have to be sure to keep her food up to ensure she stays in the best of health.

Beau

Weight: 289 grams (+9)

Length: 44 cm (+0)

Food: Bok Choy, Crickets, grapes

Toilet: regular

Behaviour: Beau, having proven himself on the breeding front has settled into a relaxed routine.  He is not the voracious feeder that Lolly is, but, then again, he is not eating for 30... He does eat well and is still putting on mating displays with Lolly.  I have plans in the works that will enable me to separate them once copulation is confirmed.  For now, Lolly has to put up with his amorous advances for a while longer unfortunately.

Lacey

Weight: 78 grams (+17)

Length: 72.5 cm (+6.9)

Food: 1-2 fuzzies per week (10g approx.)

Toilet: regular (weekly)

Behaviour: Lacey has made a smooth transition from pink mice to fuzzies this month.  She had one slightly off week eating just one fuzzy.  This was most likely because she had just shed her skin.  The shed was in one piece this time, which was pleasing.  This week she ate one larger fuzzy weighing in at between 9 and 10 grams.  I wondered if how she would go, but, whilst it took a little longer than usual, it looked like a pretty satisfying meal as it moved down towards her stomach.  She remains a quiet and pleasant handling pet.  I should have got into snakes sooner!

Bruce

Weight: 396 grams (+71 )

Length: 34.5 cm (+ .8)

Food: eggs, dog food, grapes

Toilet: regular

Behaviour: Bruce continues to grow well.  Although it appears to be mostly outwards this month!  I am working on a permanent arrangement to house Bruce as the hospital tank is becoming more inadequate each passing day.  I hope to have something sorted this coming month.  It will be good to have him in a permanent home.  He continues to be somewhat of a grumpy sod, but, in a way that makes you smile rather than anything truly aggressive.  When I went to measure him today, he took a half sleepy attempt to bite my hand.  It wasn't until I lifted up my hand to give him a once over that I even noticed what he was doing.  There was no malice and barely even any intent in it.  I know that if he wanted to he could give it a red hot go and I would know about it, but, deep down I think he is more of a grumpy smurf than a villain.   I tried putting him in with Lolly and then Beau in with him with a view to lessening the stress on Lolly with Beau's mating advances, but, he seemed to be more interesting in annoying the Dragons than anything else.  Out of curiosity no doubt and funny to watch, but, certainly not a long term strategy either way at this stage.