Finally decided to start a blog on our site!
We'll just start with a quick review of 2009.
Breeding:
Crested gecko, chahoua, and gargoyle gecko breeding was at it's peak. Crested geckos produced were all super vibrant bright orange, the result of 3rd generation color specific breeding efforts.
Gargoyle geckos were a small breeding group but extremely productive with interestingly high colored and differently patterned offspring.
Chahouas were more productive than ever with one of my adult female pine island producing 6 clutches!
Expansions:
Using profits from sold rhacodactylus babies produced over the year we expanded our rhacodactylus collection with new bloodlines of chahouas and even more colorful gargoyle geckos and crested geckos. We also decided to research and obtain new species. Among these newly added species were: nephrurus levis, lygodactylus wilimansii, cyrtodactylus elok, and teratoscincus roborowskii. All new additions were purchased as pairs or more to create breeding groups. Most of the animals were either too young to breed or needed to be cooled to stimulate breeding, so no offspring are expected until spring-summer 2010.
We also decided to expand our chelonian collection, specifically our tortoises, and have begun working out a breeding plan and researching which species will work best for us. We acquired a subadult male leopard tortoise, and were finally able to sex our 2 year old baby leopard tortoises as a male and a female.
Events:
This year we attended fewer expos than in the past due to a plethora of animals at home, and ongoing projects. We did attend one Manchester, NH expo, one White Plains NY expo, and one Hamburg, PA expo. As a general review we can say that the Manchester fall expo was disappointing in variety especially of geckos, though our friends at This Island Earth presented a great selection of Australian geckos and a few high quality Rhacodactylus as well. Hamburg was huge and stocked almost too full of a great variety of all herps. This was our first year attending the White Plains expo, if you're into snakes it's a good expo, not great for chelonians and only ok for geckos.
Special happenings:
We were approached by a french reptile magazine online regarding our large display vivaium the "Rhacarium" as it is dubbed on this site. It was also featured as a DIY pet project on thisoldhouse.com! Then near the end of the year we were approached by a PBS science film project director about possibly filming our animals for a segment about the "adhesive" qualities of many gecko's feet. We're not sure if this last project will become a reality, but are hopeful.
Overall 2009 was a productive and different year, with lots of rare and interesting herps available for sale online and at expos. We have high hopes for 2010 and are looking forward to some new hatchlings from all of our gecko species!
We'll just start with a quick review of 2009.
Breeding:
Crested gecko, chahoua, and gargoyle gecko breeding was at it's peak. Crested geckos produced were all super vibrant bright orange, the result of 3rd generation color specific breeding efforts.
Gargoyle geckos were a small breeding group but extremely productive with interestingly high colored and differently patterned offspring.
Chahouas were more productive than ever with one of my adult female pine island producing 6 clutches!
Expansions:
Using profits from sold rhacodactylus babies produced over the year we expanded our rhacodactylus collection with new bloodlines of chahouas and even more colorful gargoyle geckos and crested geckos. We also decided to research and obtain new species. Among these newly added species were: nephrurus levis, lygodactylus wilimansii, cyrtodactylus elok, and teratoscincus roborowskii. All new additions were purchased as pairs or more to create breeding groups. Most of the animals were either too young to breed or needed to be cooled to stimulate breeding, so no offspring are expected until spring-summer 2010.
We also decided to expand our chelonian collection, specifically our tortoises, and have begun working out a breeding plan and researching which species will work best for us. We acquired a subadult male leopard tortoise, and were finally able to sex our 2 year old baby leopard tortoises as a male and a female.
Events:
This year we attended fewer expos than in the past due to a plethora of animals at home, and ongoing projects. We did attend one Manchester, NH expo, one White Plains NY expo, and one Hamburg, PA expo. As a general review we can say that the Manchester fall expo was disappointing in variety especially of geckos, though our friends at This Island Earth presented a great selection of Australian geckos and a few high quality Rhacodactylus as well. Hamburg was huge and stocked almost too full of a great variety of all herps. This was our first year attending the White Plains expo, if you're into snakes it's a good expo, not great for chelonians and only ok for geckos.
Special happenings:
We were approached by a french reptile magazine online regarding our large display vivaium the "Rhacarium" as it is dubbed on this site. It was also featured as a DIY pet project on thisoldhouse.com! Then near the end of the year we were approached by a PBS science film project director about possibly filming our animals for a segment about the "adhesive" qualities of many gecko's feet. We're not sure if this last project will become a reality, but are hopeful.
Overall 2009 was a productive and different year, with lots of rare and interesting herps available for sale online and at expos. We have high hopes for 2010 and are looking forward to some new hatchlings from all of our gecko species!