There's Always a First Time.

We lost our first animal the other day.  It was one of the baby Golden Tail Geckos.  I had held fears for it from the start as it was what you might call the runt of the litter.  It was born a couple of days after it's clutch mate and was just that little bit smaller and less developed.  I saw it trying to catch food, and yet was never quite successful.

One morning about a week after it hatched, I found it curled up in a corner at the front of it's enclosure.  It looked quite out of sorts.  I picked it up and it was listless and the top of its head was what I would describe as almost caved in.  My first thought was dehydration, despite the fact that I mist them regularly.  I put a couple of drops of water in the palm of my hand with it only for the little one to give one final kick before expiring.  Quite a sad little moment.  This is a picture of him the day he was born.

Its clutch mate is going as strong as any of our other geckos.  Feeding and drinking well.  I don't know why the little guy left us so quickly, but, rest in peace little dude.

On a brighter note, the third clutch of Golden Tails hatched yesterday.  They both look very healthy and strong.  Here is one from this morning.  They come out so perfectly ready for action.  Fully formed and ready to go!

The first of the Golden Tail clutches is also going sensationally.  They are just so awesome to watch at night, hunting around their home.  Whilst I am no expert, I think they are now of a size where I can sex them.  I believe that there is one male and one female.  Time will tell of course, but, that would mean we have at least one keeper as I am after a couple more females to put in with my adult male.  The young male will most likely be the first gecko I ever sell.  The bar form seems to be the most popular of the three sub species of Golden Tails so I don't think I will have too much trouble if it comes to it.  But as the saying goes, there is a first time for everything...

JT's Back!

Hi everyone!

Sorry I haven't been writing for a long time.  I have been sooooo busy.  But, here I am!

Since I last wrote, our reptile tally has gone up.  Now we have a total of 3 Bearded Dragons, 8 geckos (with 3 more on the way), 1 Shingleback, 1 snake and we think Lizzy is going to lay 2 more eggs soon (Lizzy is our gecko).

Dad has now given me the responsibility for Penny, our Bearded Dragon in the shed.  She is hypomelanistic, which means she is mainly white.  Well, make it half the responsibility.  I get to feed her most days.

Did you know that geckos lick their eyes?  Did you know that geckos can also drop their tails when they are in danger and then grow them back?

We have had a new arrival today.  A baby gecko that hatched!  Dad has put some pictures on my post for me.

Hope this time it won't be 6 months before I next write to you.

Talk soon,
JT

What a week!

Action packed on the gecko front.  I was greeted by two new baby geckos first thing Monday morning.  How exciting is that!?  As you can see by the photos they are happy healthy and as cute as it gets.  I will look to get a photo with one of their parents in the same shot to get a size comparison.  But, take my word for it, they are tiny!  Little mini me's as it were.

As small as they are, looking at the photo with one of the eggs from which they emerged in the same frame, it really makes you wonder just how did they fit in there?

Perhaps the most surprising thing for me was the incubation period.  I thought I was a good chance at winning the guess the hatch date competition that I ran at work, but alas, I was out by a couple of weeks!  The eggs hatched after 49 days.  I had expected around 60 based on the research I had done.  However, after posting the images in the 'Gecko Geek Group' that I am a part of, the answers that it was not an unusually short incubation period came thick and fast.  Where were they when I was putting in my guess for the competition I ask you??  Still, I am glad that the guessing competition generated some light hearted fun at work and now I get to try my hand in the kitchen crafting chocolate geckos in the moulds I ordered from the US on eBay.  I think that will require a post of its own...

If you thought that was it for the week, hang on to your hat!  Today, a mere three days after the new babies hatched, Lizzy, their mum, laid two more eggs!  In the image below, you can see that they are just as healthy looking as their siblings' were.  So soon you ask?  It's actually not so much.  It is not uncommon for female Golden Tails in captivity to lay as soon as 4 weeks after their previous clutch and do so several times in succession. In the wild, because of the climate in the small region in Queensland in which they are found, Golden Tails will actually lay all year round.  The incubation period of the eggs will vary seasonally, but, otherwise the temperatures are such that generally, they hatch successfully, natural impediments notwithstanding.  Obviously, males and females are not confined to enclosures and as such no doubt do not breed quite as frequently as they do in captivity.

For that reason, I am going to move Ecko, my male into a separate enclosure to give Lizzy a break.  It is quite possible that she will have some retained sperm and produce further clutches.  But, I am going to try and minimise the chances of more clutches in rapid succession by keeping them apart for a few months.  The idea behind this is to keep Lizzy in the best of health.  Along with Ecko, she has proven that she can produce healthy babies (although this pair had done so with their previous owner also), my responsibility is more than just to enjoy the reproductive process.  It is also to ensure that they are kept in tip top shape.

With any luck one or even both of the babies will be female and I will have nice little colony going.  I will most likely sell any males that are produced.  Out of the 4 eggs, the odds are in my favour to get at least 1 female.  Regardless, I will most likely only ever keep 1-2 males and never more than 1 in the same enclosure.  Just in case.

So there it is.  Quite an action packed few days.

GT Update

The title of this post sounds a bit like something you might type at a command prompt if you are like me an mess about on computers.  Not so of course as that is work and this is far from it :-).

I dragged myself out of my sick bed today to feed my Golden Tail Geckos.  They are in a fairly noisy, high traffic area, which is why I think that I have yet to see them eat terribly much.  By that I mean actually witness it happening.  There has been plenty of evidence of successful digestion to be cleaned up regularly, but, there has certainly not been anything like I witnessed today.

After having chatted with their previous owner in the past few days, I was a little concerned that I had not witnessed the enthusiasm for food that she reported.  She told me that they almost jumped out of their enclosure at food when it was presented.  This has not been my experience, and largely I have put this down to their location.

Today I made sure it was quiet during the feeding and for Lizzy (the female) at least, this made all the difference.  Before I left her to it, I witnessed her take 5 crickets!  I couldn't believe it.  It was satisfying enough to see her down a single insect.  But, to see her almost approach me at the start and then time after time hunt and capture her food was very gratifying.

The series of images in this post depict Lizzy on the prowl.  First locating her prey, then stalking and finally having captured her meal.  This was actually the fourth cricket that she ate.  It was so pleasing to see her enthusiastic for the hunt even after having what I would have considered a full belly.  I should note that she is looking gravid again, so this could be playing a significant part in her appetite.  That should become clear in the next week or two.

Regardless of whether or not there will be two more little gems laid in the coming weeks, it was simply fantastic to witness the fervent activity from Lizzy today.  The grace and dare I say athleticism of efforts are certainly representative of some of the qualities that drew me to want to keep geckos.  Quite pleased with some of the photos I took as well.  Three of which are here of course.  First glimpse of the underside of Lizzy's belly too.  Although worth noting that the potentially expectant mother has hidden her tummy from view to make that assessment somewhat more challenging!  Oh well, something else to look forward to.