Few more of these bad boys hatched today.....

[Jeff_Favelle]

They incubate for so damn long, you almost forget about them!!

http://members.shaw.ca/jefffavelle/hatchlings%20002a.jpg

[asphyxia]

Hey Jeff,

Do you think the cost on these guys will fall below the 350 (yellows) mark this year, if not when, and what do you think they will bottom out at?

If they do bottom out at say 200.00 how do you think it will happen?

Thanks
Brian

P.S. Very nice and congrats this is your second clutch this year is it not?

[Tim_Cranwill]

Right on buddy! That has got to be a thrill and a half. :D

[Jeff_Favelle]

I doubt they'll fall any time soon. I can count the breeders in this country on one hand and the US can't legally export them. Its not like a Beardie where a baboon could breed and hatch them. Also, Beardies have 20-30 eggs at a time and you'd have to be brain-dead not to get 90%+ hatch rates!!

Ha ha, but that wasn't your question (ignore my Beardie rants). Supply and demand dictates that they probably won't drop much more this year. I've seen them for $375 and I'll advertise mine for $400. Just last year they were $500 so I don't understand the price drop. It may be because the people selling them don't have any other animals to breed so they need to sell something fast. But I'll just sit on mine (ha ha, not literally). I like them. I have a big cage with the babies running around!

As for bottoming out, it'll be a while until that happens. For an animal to bottom out, they usually have to be bred by the lay-person (ie. a person with little to no experience). This is what happened with corns, Leos, Beardies, Grandis, etc etc etc. This won't happen with a monitor. Too hard. So then who's breeding monitors? Well, people who've invested time, money and effort into them. And lots of it! They don't want to chop the prices and risk not getting some of their investment back. So the prices stay high. Until more than 5 people in Canada hatch an Ackie, the price won't drop (or at least it shouldn't). But if it does, then lucky for the people who buy them, right?

This is the 4th clutch this year. Mostly due to luck, and NOT my monitor husbandry abilities, ha ha!! Plus a TON of help from Don Patterson and Frank Retes (via computer).

Cheers and thanks for the compliment! It means a lot!! :D :D

[asphyxia]

Hey Jeff,

Thank you for the stright forward and knowledgable answer, it is very refreshing, and understandable.

Thank you
Brian

[Kyle Walkinshaw]

VERY nice Jeff....Actually at the petstore where I work we have 4 ackie eggs that are due to hatch end of june/ early July, and im taking two of those babies. So make it 6;)

[Mardy]

sweet

Mardy

[Jeff_Favelle]

Hey Jeff,

Thank you for the stright forward and knowledgable answer, it is very refreshing, and understandable.



Brian, no problem man. There's plenty of opinion to go around here!! Ha ha. Whether or not it will happen like I tell it, is another story, LOL!!!

[Jeff_Favelle]

VERY nice Jeff....Actually at the petstore where I work we have 4 ackie eggs that are due to hatch end of june/ early July, and im taking two of those babies. So make it 6

Kyle buddy, I'm sending you good vibes for those eggs for sure.

But the thing with monitors is there are levels to getting babies.

1) Acquiring a pair (easy)
2) Making them compatible (up to the monitors for the most part)
3) Getting good nesting sites (somewhat harder)
4) Getting fertile eggs (dead easy!).
5) Hatching the eggs and rearing the babies (the hardest part of monitor husbandry in my opinion)

You see, having eggs means absolutely nothing in Monitorland. Its easier than pie. Monitors breed all day every day.

Hatching those eggs is another story....heh heh.

But if everyone sends you good vibes, then you'll surely get those babies !! :D

[Linds]

Congrats! How many are you expecting this year?

[gonesnakee]

I agree with Jeff, no matter what the reptile, breeding & eggs happen easy, the animals do all that for you, with proper husbandry that is. It's from incubation on where your herping talents need to shine. Mark I.

[Jeff_Favelle]

Thanks all.

Linds, if all goes well, I should have about 30 babies by the end of summer (that's with 80-90% hatch rates).

Then, the animals will start cycling and producing eggs again (hopefully) so that a new crop will be hatching in September/October!! Should be fun/a lot of work. Ha ha!

Cheers. :D