01/06/2023
There are ups and downs in working with animals. These two photos represent both. I was very excited on Sunday morning to see that our massive Fire female Cinder had laid her clutch. She is a huge girl around 4500g and we were expecting a very nice clutch from her. Unfortunately of the 14 eggs, yes 14! that she laid, 9 of them were slugs and 1 that looked ok initially candled with no veins or embryo. The other 4 eggs are good but very small compared to the eggs this girl has laid in the past, likely the result of so many follicles developing. We suspect that because the male she bred with was a young first time breeder that he wasn't as virulent. However, coming off that low, on Monday morning our Spotnose girl Dottie gave us a beautiful 7 egg clutch. That she could barely wrap herself around. Great things are happening this year for us and even though those bad eggs were a small roadbump it will not slow us down. One more clutch to come this week and then the early clutches from the year will start hatching in about 3 weeks. We've also got a few more pairings lined up and in the works. Hoping to hit 100 🥚 this year 🙏.