..aaand our incubator is officially empty (pic heavy)

[fallen_angel]

but our last baby hatched this morning. Official baby count: first season - 18, second season - 46, this season - 6 :main_lipsrsealed:

From LBS x Nova, a pretty little Enigma het. RAPTOR with a partial Reverse Stripe :main_thumbsup: We'll most likely be naming this one Neytiri :heart:

Here's a couple of updated offspring pics for those that may have not seen them on Facebook. These are all of the babies we've hatched this season.

------------------

Our LBS female is carrying more eggs, so here's hoping they will be good and we'll hatch more babies later on. There are also several females that just never laid anything or never took to a male.. maybe we'll be able to get to see some eggs from them later on too. These are the ones we've missed out on thus far:

Giant RAPTOR

Jungle TA het. RAPTOR

MSTA

MS het. TA

MS fascio. cross Enigma

If anything, perhaps the 2011 season will be better Thanks for looking!

 

[mainelygeckos]

WOW your gex never cease to amaze me! I absolutely love the MS fascio cross Enigma and I am not a big Enigma fan I also love ur MSTA and the third of your updated juvies..is it a reverse stripe Mack? Or just a bold stripe? either way they all are gorgeous and I am so jealous

 

[Kristi23]

I hope this is just a break in your season and that you hatch a lot more later on. Congrats on the new baby! It's gorgeous!

 

[fallen_angel]

WOW your gex never cease to amaze me! I absolutely love the MS fascio cross Enigma and I am not a big Enigma fan I also love ur MSTA and the third of your updated juvies..is it a reverse stripe Mack? Or just a bold stripe? either way they all are gorgeous and I am so jealous

Thank you Donna! :heart: The MS fascio. cross Enigma came from Albey :main_thumbsup: As for the third one of the updated juvies, no Mack genes whatsoever.. but a Line Bred Snow Reverse Stripe :main_yes:

I hope this is just a break in your season and that you hatch a lot more later on. Congrats on the new baby! It's gorgeous!

Thanks Kristi! :heart: All but one of those females laid a good number of eggs last season too, only the MSTA was a first-year breeder

 

[thegeckoguy23]

AWESOME geckos!!!!

 

[robin]

beauties! did you breed less geckos this year or just numbers down? did you do anything different that could have caused less egg production?

 

[GeckoGathering]

EmptyBator

but our last baby hatched this morning. Official baby count: first season - 18, second season - 46, this season - 6
If anything, perhaps the 2011 season will be better Thanks for looking!

Well JB, I have come to an assumption that
Mother Nature's score card for gecko births has
indicated 2010 as a slow down year.
Your beauty babies, but low counts and numerous
other kinks in the breeding ways are certainly felt here,
as many others I've talked with.
Yes, lets hope for a more pleasing 2011 season.
TCJBHJ

 

[ariana]

i want them all

 

[SFgeckos]

Hmm...that is very strange to have such variation in production? Can you pinpoint any major changes in your husbandry/feeders, male fertility, age of females, day/night cycles, environmental humidity/temperature changes etc?

Jon

 

[KelliH]

I love love love them all!

 

[fallen_angel]

Thank you everyone!

beauties! did you breed less geckos this year or just numbers down? did you do anything different that could have caused less egg production?

Hmm...that is very strange to have such variation in production? Can you pinpoint any major changes in your husbandry/feeders, male fertility, age of females, day/night cycles, environmental humidity/temperature changes etc?

Jon

We bred more geckos this year.. rather, attempted to breed. It's just bad luck, I think.. and it seems to be going around, I can think of at least seven people off of the top of my head that are also having their worst season ever this year.

However, we also moved twice this year.. once from Tempe, AZ to Lodi, CA.. then again from Lodi to Stockton, CA. So all geckos had to adjust to moving in December and April. But the issues we have had for the most part are females either not accepting the male or just not laying anything at all after accepting a male. It's very strange..

We have gotten a lot of infertiles, but mostly from our LBS who's carrying her 7th clutch right now. 5/6 babies that we did hatch are from her. In her case, I think she just needs a year off, so she won't be bred next year. She has always been a good egg producer, only produced 1 infertile egg in her two years prior to this season, with a total of 19 healthy babies in two seasons.

I also got some infertiles from a couple other geckos, one of those being the one first-year breeder that I mentioned, so that's rather normal. The other was the Jungle TA het. RAPTOR.. last year she laid 10 eggs and 6 of them were good and hatched. Last year was her first year.

The Mack fascio. cross Enigma laid 4 eggs last year, all of which hatched and it was her first year breeding. I watched her mate with a male this season and has laid nothing. The male is a proven breeder.

The MS het. TA is on her third year. First year, she laid one infertile clutch. Second year she went 8/8 with a perfect hatch rate. I watched her mate with the male and she has laid nothing, same male as above.

The Giant RAPTOR is just picky.. she has refused males in the past and seems to have continued to do the same this season. She appears to be carrying eggs but I am not sure if she ever accepted a male and she has been carrying them forever. Last year she had 8 eggs and 7 of them hatched. This is her second year.

But from what I understand (or at least have been told from other breeders) is even the best egg producers can throw you for a loop from one season to the next. It is just something that happens, comes with the territory, some seasons are just better than others as far as I understand. Besides moving, nothing in their husbandry has changed. But since you mentioned environmental factors, perhaps the move alone really did have a huge part to play.

Well JB, I have come to an assumption that
Mother Nature's score card for gecko births has
indicated 2010 as a slow down year.
Your beauty babies, but low counts and numerous
other kinks in the breeding ways are certainly felt here,
as many others I've talked with.
Yes, lets hope for a more pleasing 2011 season.
TCJBHJ

Thank you HJ, best wishes to you too :heart: TCHJJB

 

[SFgeckos]

Thanks for the detailed response! It is very likely that moving could have affected your breeding season, but there are many other possible factors that could be involved. It is possible that the stress of moving could have had negative effects (since stress increases cortisol hormone production), but there are other biological differences that may have occurred which we humans aren't sensitive to. Possible examples include differences in elevation level and photoperiod, these changes are detected by baroreceptors (pressure) and the pineal gland (photoperiod) which can affect other organs, including hormones and those involved in reproduction. Nutrition could be another difference, for example the previous cricket supplier was feeding a specific formula which is different than the new source. Or the mealworms you feed currently are gutloaded differently from before because the groceries you purchase in your new location have different trace minerals from being grown on different soil.

Basically, what I'm suggesting is that a combination of different factors can have detrimental effects on production each year- and I find it irrational to simply say "everyone else is having a bad year". It would be wise to examine all the different possibilities, not just with the animals themselves but also aspects that humans can control- such as supplementation, feeder nutrition, animal body condition (obesity), husbandry, photoperiod cycling, practicing the ability to detect or "see" ovulations, or even checking male sperm fertility under a microscope. We are all learning together in this wonderful hobby!

Good luck in the future!
ps- great looking geckos!!
Jon

 

[fallen_angel]

Thanks for the detailed response! It is very likely that moving could have affected your breeding season, but there are many other possible factors that could be involved. It is possible that the stress of moving could have had negative effects (since stress increases cortisol hormone production), but there are other biological differences that may have occurred which we humans aren't sensitive to. Possible examples include differences in elevation level and photoperiod, these changes are detected by baroreceptors (pressure) and the pineal gland (photoperiod) which can affect other organs, including hormones and those involved in reproduction. Nutrition could be another difference, for example the previous cricket supplier was feeding a specific formula which is different than the new source. Or the mealworms you feed currently are gutloaded differently from before because the groceries you purchase in your new location have different trace minerals from being grown on different soil.

Basically, what I'm suggesting is that a combination of different factors can have detrimental effects on production each year- and I find it irrational to simply say "everyone else is having a bad year". It would be wise to examine all the different possibilities, not just with the animals themselves but also aspects that humans can control- such as supplementation, feeder nutrition, animal body condition (obesity), husbandry, photoperiod cycling, practicing the ability to detect or "see" ovulations, or even checking male sperm fertility under a microscope. We are all learning together in this wonderful hobby!

Good luck in the future!
ps- great looking geckos!!
Jon

I am sure moving from one state to another had an impact on our season for sure, perhaps in ways that I am not aware of, or ever will be. I agree that it's important to consider all factors, always (especially when dealing with science). However, me saying "everyone else is having a bad year" is simply an observation, not some sort of excuse to explain why our season is bad. There are many breeders that are having no issues at all, I was just noting that I know a good number of people personally that are going through their worst season too. Some of these people are very curious as to why so many of us are having a bad time this year, and think there has to be something to it besides just coincidence.

Now of course, the most common factor that has been proven to greatly affect a breeding season is supplementation and feeder nutrition, which in our case has not changed from one season to the next. We have always primarily fed gutloaded super worms and mealworms and supplement with Rep-Cal products. However, having gone through this season with so many problems, I can't say I haven't questioned whether or not I should start buying a different gutload.. In fact, I want to switch to Cody's Pro gutload and plan to do so asap.

As for the other factors you mentioned.. None of our animals are obese and our husbandry has been the same. I can't say I thought about the light our animals are exposed to - basically whatever light comes in through the window and the lights in our home. I always make sure to check to see if a female is ovulating before putting her with a male, although I do not check for male fertility by looking at sperm under a microscope considering I don't have one. However, there was only one male who wasn't a proven breeder prior to this year, and we did get one baby from him.

There are a few other things I hadn't mentioned as well.. When we moved, all geckos stayed in bins for four months when we normally keep the adults in cages and only the babies in bins. Also, I haven't candled our eggs the same as I have in past seasons.. long story short, when eggs are first laid, I used to candle them to find the bulls-eye to determine how to put them into the incubator (I would always make sure the bulls-eye was on top). Of course, it hasn't been proven within the community that this is something necessary or even worthwhile (most breeders will incubate the eggs exactly as they were found - which is for the most part highly suggested).. but when we started making sure the bulls-eye was on top, we had amazing hatch rates, not one egg went bad mid- or late-incubation. The reason we haven't done it this season is pretty lame - our flashlight needs batteries and we just hadn't gotten around to getting them (with moving and everything that was going on earlier this year, buying batteries for the flashlight was the last thing on my mind).

There really could be so many things going on here that I am not aware of, and there are several factors to consider like you said. For me though, I think it's good to note what kinds of changes we can make to ensure more successful seasons, if needed.. but when it comes to pinpointing any one problem, especially when there's so much I couldn't possibly know, I prefer to stop speculating at some point before I drive myself absolutely crazy.

Thank you for all of the comments

 

[funky1]

Beautiful hatchlings and superb adults you have there!

Regarding the `odd` breeding season - it`s currently very similar over here in the UK, there`s a great debate going on between all the breeders, trying to pinpoint why most of us are having/had a terrible start to the year, with a massive increase in the number of infertile eggs produced and the number of fertile eggs that simply aren`t going full term regardless of incubation methods. Sounds like it could be more wide-spread than everyone had figured.

 

[Enigmatic_Reptiles]

You have some awesome snows. We need to cross some of our projects . Congrats on a successful season.

 

[fallen_angel]

Funky1, that's definitely strange for so many people to have similar issues, and in different countries no less. Best wishes to you, hopefully next season won't be so brutal for us.

Travis, yes we definitely need to cross some of our projects at some point!! I look forward to it (most likely next season when we have more babies)