Reptile Update

Because I've been told some of you rely on me for 1) science lessons, 2) interesting anecdotes, and/or 3) comedic relief, here is the latest in our reptile adventure:

Quick recap-

--the two lizards who had lived together for 4 years and "never" mated, decided that their new home, aka the "No-tell Motel" was just what they were waiting for.

--the beginning of November, Buttercup began to look quite lumpy in the middle regions...

--We researched and prepared a "laying box," complete with topsoil, sand from a friend's sandbox, and privacy. Buttercup would have nothing to do with it. Wesley, on the other hand, thought it was way cool and could be found hanging out in the box whenever we left it in the tank.

--Buttercup began frantically digging in the tank. Unfortunately, there is only about an inch of sand in the bottom so she was frequently frustrated.

--November 13th we awoke to a super-skinny Buttercup, a half-buried and very shell-shocked Wesley ("what on earth just happened here???"), and 24 eggs laying around the tank-some buried, some stacked, some just laying out.

Unfortunately because the eggs were laid in the night, the temperature was too cool for them and the majority of them were already dimpled and yellowed.

**scientific fact alert**

Reptile eggs are soft and grow with the embryo. The outside temperature and humidity levels are crucial to their development.

We didn't have (or want to buy) an incubator so we are trying to make do with our own design. We read that vermiculite (a soil additive) is particularly healthy for the growing eggs so we did as recommended-we removed the eggs and placed them into a thumb-depression in the vermiculite which was in a tupperware. You can see in this picture which eggs look fairly good. I think we have 1 or 2, possibly 3, eggs that look semi-viable. Not a good percentage out of 24, but I've read that breeding bearded dragons is not easy.

If you look closely, you can see that I marked a line on the tops of a couple of the eggs-those are the ones that looked good. I marked them when I picked them up so I would be sure to bury them the same way they were laid. Otherwise the embryo could drown in the yolk sack. Now, I am a little worried that I should have performed a "light check" on them before I moved them, to make sure they were oriented the correct way, but I forgot.

You can see how the other eggs are shrunken and kind of yellow. The eggs have to kept at a constant temperature of 81.5 degrees. That requires us checking on them, oh, about a thousand times a day, to move them closer to or farther from the heat lamp. This morning we took some of them out and cut them open to see if we could find the embryo. We were able to see it in two of the eggs-mostly just a little reddish-pinkish lump at the bottom of the shell. It was our science experiment for the day.

Here is where we stand as of this morning:

Buttercup has been forcibly separated from Wesley. As much as I am enjoying trying to raise baby dragons, cleaning up after, feeding, and learning everything there is to know about this reptile so I can teach it to my son, I have decided that there will be no more mating going on in that tank. On Sunday he moved to his new home.

**scientific fact alert**

did you know that female reptiles can store sperm--resulting in laying multiple egg clutches up to a year after the initial mating?

Anyone want a cute girl dragon??