Gravid Blackthroat

bear24 · 07-06-04, 01:53 PM

I have witnessed my male and female Blackthroat copulating. She has always been hefty but now there is more sag in her belly. It looks like she swallowed a baseball and it got stuck just in front of her rear legs. If she does lay what are incubation temps for the eggs? If anyone has bred these recently I would like to know about your egg laying substrate of choice. I figure she can lay in one of those rubbermaid "toughmate" boxes should be good they are 36"*24"*18". Or I could use a 4'*3'*14" enclosure. I just need depth for her to dig and build a nice egg chamber. she will still have alot of time till she pops. I will post pics of her later.

V.hb · 07-06-04, 05:29 PM

wow very cool. Never bred mine yet..... but from what ive been told 86 degrees works. roughly 150 days. Give her options for nesting, dirt, soil, sand mixtures give lots of options so she can choose.

What were you feeding the female, and how much?

mbayless · 07-07-04, 01:30 AM

HI,
Yes, they have been bred many times by many people - the earliest was 1861, the most recent I think by Rob Faust, author of the nile monitor book - Rob has the info on his web page I think...88-90 works ok too, which about 170 days is usuall. They can have enormous clutches compared to meager pacific monitors, ~upto 60+ eggs for big female. After she is knocked up, remove male and feed her all she wants, mostly high calcium stuff like shellfish, snails, stuff like that and then 4-7 weeks later she will dig test holes and excavate it - ifs its to her liking she will deposit her eggs, so provide a tonne of dirt in her cage, let her choose, skip the box stuff and add potting soil/sphagnum moss/vermiculite together and watch her. She may become very nasty towards you before and especially after she lays her eggs so beware! A nasty disposition mother is nothing to mess with!

Good luck, enjoy, cheers,
markb

bear24 · 07-07-04, 11:57 AM

She gets fed every two to three days. Rats at the start of the week eggs or a whole chicken for the middle of the week and fish on fridays. I substitute in cooked beef, pork, and lamb. I don't always feed them during the day so it is hard to say what days I feed them about every 35-60 hours. I don't like leaving old food sitting in thier enclosure it tends to stink so I remove what they don't eat and feed more later.

I was sitting in front of my blackthroat enclosure talking to Smoochy my girl. Suddenly Smoochie pops out these two little bumps from her cloaca(sp). then one inflates to the size of her leg while the other stays small. I think this a hemipene but my male has two much smaller ones that look like a ***** with no skin no resemblance between the two cloaca protrusions. Smoochie has one the size of a pen and the other was huge. I will try to get picks. Could they both be males the two organs look nothing alike but I have only seen T.rex's out when he is getting off Smoohies back. The picks are in my gallery. I still can't get the pics to work.

Optimus Prime · 07-07-04, 02:28 PM

Thats awsome man, put me on the list if she drops

best of luck!

SHvar · 07-07-04, 08:32 PM

They were the last 2 to breed them, oh I forgot Gary Quirk bred some of Rob Fausts crosses not too long ago. I messed up when my big female cycled and had the wrong dirt as well not enough, she became eggbound and required surgery (after 3 weeks I set the appointment for a few days later, they should lay at 2 weeks but can lay up to 4 weeks, beyond that is a problem). Robs old female BT had the record of 52 eggs in one clutch, thats alot, my big girl had 44 removed and she was 21 lbs and 5.5 feet long. Good luck and make sure you have alot of perlite as well a big incubator.

lakeridgekennel · 07-11-04, 03:59 PM

I had the incubator at 87.6 when mine bred last year. It was her first so i only got a couple eggs but hoping for more next season.