Hi LMS,
I wrote this on another (german) board a while a go so thought I'd copy it to here....
I will try to answer most of your questions, and I will tell you how I do it, and what worked for me for the past 6 years keeping and breeding chuckwallas. So this is not the only way, but this is how it worked for me the past few years……
First of all I’m breeding chuckwallas for the last 5-6 years in a row, and the hatch rate of fertile eggs is between 90% and 100%. So I’m pretty happy with that.
With my first attempt to breed the chucks I saw my male and female mating. After that I made 2 different egg laying spots. The first one with slightly wet sand under a roofing tile. And the second one under a piece of wood. She choose one and since then I only used that one and the female has used it ever since. (the roofing tile one) you can see it over here if you scroll down to 25 august:
http://www.agamen.nl/News.aspx 1. When the eggs are laid you can candle them, with a flashlight and you will see veins running through the eggs when they are fertile. I bought myself a egg buddy
http://www.agamen.nl/Desert-juveniles.aspx (last picture), with this device I can check if eggs are fertile.
2. I never turn the eggs. It is said that turning the eggs after 24hours after they have been laid can be fatal to the eggs so why risk it…… I never turned the eggs, and they all hatched.
3. I use vermiculite, and I make it slightly wet. I try and incubate them as dry as possible and only add a little water if the eggs collapse. Chuckwallas live in very dry desert, in my opinion these eggs are pretty hardy. I use a Jaeger incubator and a herpnersery II for incubation at 31 degrees Celsius. After 70-80 days the eggs will hatch.
4. In the wild female chuckwallas lay eggs every other year, because there is not much food and it’s just a struggle to survive. In the beginning my female laid every other year, after 3 years she laid every year, and this year was the first time she double clutched. I had 5 eggs hatch beginning of September (laid 15 June) and I have 11 eggs in the incubator that she laid 25 august.
5. My friend wrote an article about making your own incubator but its in Dutch……..
http://www.agamen.nl/Broedstoof-maken.aspx Hope this helps a little
Gr. Kamiel
