Reptile Kitty

K

kitty

New Member
Messages
15
Location
Montana
Call me Kitty. :)

Husband and I rescue reptiles in our area. Last summer we took in a nice female leo who shed for us the day before going to her new home. She has such a nice disposition and was so fascinating that I started thinking about adding a leo(s) to our collection of snakes.

Lo! In a conversation with a close friend, I mentioned my interest. He immediately offered the four eggs from his colony that he currently has "cooking." He isn't interested in keeping any of them - although, he did incubate for females. When they hatch, he'll bring them over and we'll swap mice for lizards. A very good deal, I think. (the only good rodent is a feeder-rodent)

He has Tremper lines, so I look forward to learning more about their genetics and seeing how they turn out. :)
 
LZRDGRL

LZRDGRL

Active Member
Messages
2,807
Location
Southern Illinois
Dear Kitty,

hey, that reminds me of the Diary of Anne Frank, she always begins with
"Dear Kitty" ;-)

Your project sounds exciting.... let's hope all your four eggs are fertile and hatch out! Do you know if they are from the same parents? If yes, you'll start inbreeding at some point. I try to buy my leos from different breeders, to make sure they're all from different parents. But what do I know - is it good, or is it bad? I read that you can create very pure morphs by inbreeding, so I'm insecure now.

Are you planning to feed your leos little mice? I've seen a YouTube video, and it's possible to do that. Mine don't get anything that big... and I don't want to have dead mice in my fridge, either ;-)

Have fun with your (future) leos.

Greetings,
Chrissy
 
C

cajbjsmith

Guest
My husband agrees about the only good rodent is a dead rodent, but we have a freezer full of dead rosents to feed his 7 snakes! lol
 
Leopardgeckosunlimited

Leopardgeckosunlimited

New Member
Messages
412
Location
Cincinnati, Ohio
Welcome, sounds like a great deal! Were also working w/ the Tremper gene, it's the 1st albino strain that we started working with. We have many Tremper breeder's, w/ all different genes and traits. I'm sure in your research your hear about Moose- the worlds largest tremper (although maybe one of his sons I think might have just out weighted him, we have some of his blood lines and others from Tremper himself) They're very exciting to work w/ b/c the tremper albino is a bit more advanced I'd say (w/ combo morphs and patterns traits, line bred traits, then the others) which makes it easer to find what you want and on $$, then the other two b/c it was around 1st so breeder's have had more time to get traits more defined in them which pass on easier. If you have questions that I can answer I'll be happy to help. One thing I recommend to any leo owner or breeder no matter how big or small is to get Ron Tremper's Book The Herpetoculture of Leopard Geckos you can get it on his site and is well worth it! It's best book, I know of, I have several, only place I found all the info in one spot, there's been new morphs created since the books been out -but other then that it's up to date, the newest leo book out, That I know of.
Some leos do have great dispositions, some don't. They're all different in their own way. Honestly the hardiest part of breeding to me is letting go of the gecko's I get attached to alot them b/c I am the one that does the caring for, and my fiance (him and I breed them together) does the business part of emails, shipping, eggs and records, breeding projects etc... So I get close to really them. So when we do longer need a breeder that has the best personality and disposition is very tough on me. Glad to have you here.
It's such a great thing you do by rescue the animals, esp. reptiles! That's awesome. I'd love to do that and help out in any way I can. How did you get into that? I want to go back to school to become a vet. I also love to help save any animals and endangered ones some day.
Jessica
 
K

kitty

New Member
Messages
15
Location
Montana
Thanks for the warm welcome! :)

I have a rather poor photo from a text message of the first hatchling. My friend is bringing it by tomorrow evening. The other three eggs still haven't hatched (I'm not sure how far apart they were laid.

Response to some questions/comments:
Thanks for the genetics link and the book recommendation! They'll be my next stops. :)

The eggs are all from one colony of 1.4. I'm not sure how many of the females in the colony produced the eggs.

My research says pink mice are fattening for leos. I doubt I'll feed them to anyone unless they need the extra calories.

The rescue work started with Husband. He loves reptiles and wanted to work with them somehow. We discovered very few rescues are capable of handling reptiles. He networked with the local animal shelter (also not set up for reptiles). We've taken in animals needing new homes, kept animals until investigations are complete, found homes for abandoned/confiscated animals, put on education demos for kids and adults, and relocated animals people didn't want around their homes. Most of our referrals came from staying in touch with the local shelter and talking about our rescue business to anyone we meet. It helps that Husband "never meets a stranger" and is a natural extrovert. :)

Off to see review the links. ttfn
 
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