Prospective Beardie Owner

[Rolandslf]

Good Day All.
I hail from Sunny South Africa. I live in the city of Durban in the Province of KwaZulu Natal.

I have kept and bred various species of snakes for the past 12 years or so. These include Indigenous and Exotic species to South Africa.

I have never ever kept Beardies until a telephone call one week ago. The call went something like this, " Hello, is that Roland. The snake guy Roland. My Bearded Dragon has laid eggs. I do not want them. Come and fetch them before I throw them away."

In a matter of minutes I was there, I picked up a total of 26 eggs. About half of them were dehydrated and shrunken. I used the same Re-Hydration Techniques I use for my snake eggs, and after 48 hours I only had to throw 1 egg away, sadly I could not save it.

I now have 25 good Beardie eggs cooking in the incubator. I will ask for advice and pose questions in another thread.

Some Pictures

Day of the Phone Call.

48 Hours Later.

One Week later.

 

[zebraflavencs]

Wow.. and these were from a fertilized female ?

Nice technique.. perhaps you could share how you did that ?
I don't breed as a rule.. However, such knowledge could prove handy to others.

Welcome and get ready for lots of hungry mouths..

Now, when they hatch, you'll want to have enough empty enclosures that you can separate as much as possible.. Each enclosure will need at least a 10% uvb and heat (basking around 110-115).

Welcome once again.. !
Keep us posted please !

 

[Vinzy]

O yes I saw your post on SAreptiles

Welcome

 

[Pogie]

Hey welcome Roland, Another one of my referrals made it here. ;D ;D ;D
The eggs look good. How long to wait for baby pics now?

Sure am glad I dont have the task of choosing which one of the little poopers will stay once they hatch. They are ALL so cute

 

[Craiger]

Welcome aboard, Roland! Kudos on rehydrating those eggs....too cool!

 

[Rolandslf]

Thank You Everyone for the Warm Welcome.
Yes Monique, I finally made it here.

My Re-Hydration Technique is absolutely simple. Take a sheet of Roller Towel, fold it so that you have a piece with 4 layers. Now for the tricky part, wet the top layer until the bottom layer is damp, ( After a bit of practice it becomes very easy to do), place the Roller Towel over the top of the eggs, packing it fairly firmly, the damp bottom layer should be resting on the eggs, leave for 48 hours, remove the Roller Towel and check the eggs.
If the eggs have not started to swell after 48 hours, repeat the procedure for another 24 hours. It is my humble opinion, that after 72 hours, any eggs that have not plumped at least 80% up, will not make it anyway.

Prety simple and cheap to boot.

I have candled at random 8 of the 25 eggs, and all 8 show the little red road map, so yes, definitely fertile.
What happened is that the owner keeps 2 x female and 1 x male Beardie permanently together.

I have advised the owner to seperate them.

 

[zebraflavencs]

Ah...
Interesting and good to know, Roland !

Oh good on you.. it's just too bad that $$ is the focus and good hands on knowledge just isn't given out to most new reptile owners.

 

[Rolandslf]

While it is sad that Finances always creep into it, we are lucky to have all sorts of Forums whereby we can share our knowledge, such as this one.

 

[zebraflavencs]

You won't get any arguments from me on that account !

 

[Craiger]

You won't get any arguments from me on that account !

Ditto.

 

[renich]

Hi and welcome.

 

[staylor]

Hello and welcome. Those eyes look so much better, great job on them

 

[beardie_love]

Welcome! Great job on helping those eggs. Hope everything goes well.

 

[Red Ink AUS]

G'day mate and welcome ;D

Good on you for taking them on 25 eggs should be keeping you well busy in a couple of months time lol. There's plenty of experienced breeders on here to give you a hand on any Qs that you may have down the track.

 

[Justus85]

Normally we have people start with "I'm thinking about getting a beardie". You on the other hand have, by no mistake of your own, jumped to one of the most advanced stages of beardie keeping. Brian, aka crypticdragons, is an enthusiast breeder and very helpful in all things regarding bearded dragon care if you want to ask him anything past the basic care sheet. There are several others here that have raised a clutch or two but I don't know all of them. Welcome to the forum, any friend of Monique is most certainly welcome here along with all beardie enthusiasts. If any of you breeders care to post tricks of the trade here I am sure many of us would love to hear them, myself in particular as I will have a breed-able pair within a year and change.

 

[Rolandslf]

I agree with you Justus, it is a pretty daunting task.
Then again, I am pretty sure that there will be lots of Tips, Tricks, Advice etc. to be had on this Forum.

Talk about being thrown in the deep end.
I will not drown however, failure just does not exist in my dictionary.

 

[staylor]

Tom, a.k.a TheWolfManTom is another breeder on here. He always has some eggs cooking and is a great resource. You have a world of knowledge on this forum. Can't wait to see when they hatch.

 

[Rolandslf]

I can't wait either. One problem though, I am not the most patient of people.

 

[Craiger]

I can't wait either. One problem though, I am not the most patient of people.

This will be a good test, then.

 

[zebraflavencs]

Roland.. you are NOT alone in that! I don't have much either.. and with two gecko eggs in the cooker.. well I wanna see babies !