What about the turtles?

We have had some fun things happening around here in 2017! A couple of weeks ago we posted about our blue tongue skinks that finally had their first successful matings earlier in the year and we are still hopeful that those girls are pregnant.

Today I want to update you on our common musk turtle breeding program. We have been working with these 6 (1 male, 5 females) turtles for 2 breeding seasons now and are thrilled to announce that we have eggs!

The first three eggs were laid 59 days ago, on May 17. At our incubation temperatures we could see little turtle hatchlings as early as this next week! The eggs were improperly calcified causing the shell to be of varying thicknesses so it was impossible to know if the dark "calcium ring" appeared on these first three eggs. We aren't sure if these first eggs are fertile, but we always incubate if there is any chance of fertility. If the eggs are fertile they will have a dark white spot in the middle. You can easily see this spot on eggs 5, 6, and 7!

Eggs 4 - 7 were just laid on July 8. 3 are definitely fertile and if our incubation process is effective, we should see hatchlings in mid September.

I thought this might be a great time to also show you our home made egg incubator. 

It has been running for 2 months now and it's working perfectly. 

We used a mid sized plastic bin with sealing lid, a small plastic bin with a lid, aquatic pond soil (our substrate), 2 bricks, a fully submersible (and temperature adjustable) aquarium heater, sturdy mesh, substrate thermometer, and our trusty temperature gun.

First, we prepped the smaller tub, adding moistened aquatic pond soil, the sturdy mesh, and the eggs. 

Then the bricks and heater go in the bottom of the bigger tub. We filled the water right to the top of the bricks and placed the smaller tub on top of the bricks. 

The smaller tub now gets placed on top of the bricks. Pop in the substrate thermometer and we were ready to start closing it up.

The lid for the smaller tub is placed on top at an angle, balancing on the sturdy mesh
This is to keep humidity near the eggs, but to prevent water from dripping directly onto them.

Close the outer bin's lid tight... 

Check the temperature... 

Double check the temperature with a temp gun and the incubator is good to go.

Babies? Maybe?

Merauke blue tongue skinks are notoriously hard to breed in captivity (intentionally and repeatedly), producing live babies. In Canada it doesn't happen very often and for the past couple of years we have been determined to figure it out, dedicated to increasing our merauke family, trying new things and to keeping good records. 

We have 3 females that mated successfully from January - March 2017. On May 19 we took photos of each of them, today we took 6 week follow up photos and things are looking promising! 

Zoe looks the most likely to be pregnant, she mated with Angel only once, 104 days ago.

Buffy first mated with Angel 170 days ago and last mated 106 days ago. She is recovering from a burn when she broke her heat lamp in May, so the red you see on her back is from the iodine ointment. We see some signs that keep us hopeful that she is pregnant.

Charlie first mated with Angel 171 days ago and last mated 104 days ago. 

Blue tongue skinks are great at showing signs they are pregnant and not producing anything (they simply had a huge spring appetite), or producing unfertilized eggs. So, although we are hopeful, we won't know anything for sure until those babies start popping, which will likely be in July. We will keep you updated!

Basking in the sun.

I love the toasty warm, sunshiny days when I can take the B. Boivinis outside. It's fun to watch them all line up on the sunniest wall to bask, and follow the sun around throughout the day. Our large front deck has full access to the eastern morning sun and the full southern sun of all afternoon. It is wonderful!

Do you want to see our gecko room?

We promised you walkthroughs of our reptile spaces and we are keeping that promise :-). This first one is of our gecko room. The blue tongue skink room, the Boivini habitats, and the stink pot turtle aquariums will be coming over the next few weeks. Enjoy the quick glimpse into a bit of what we do :-)

A new addition!

First, we want to say thank you to everyone who came out to Edmonton's Reptile Expo three weeks ago! It was one of our best yet, we met some fantastic people, got to see some old friends, talked about reptiles for 2 whole days, and made some great sales! Thank you!

We have been pretty busy since coming home and I will try to update you little by little :-)

9 days ago we welcomed Matrix into our blue tongue skink family. He is our first IJ, all the others are Meraukes, and we adore him. He is almost 3 years old, is captive born and bred (from a breeder that we know personally) and is quite the charmer. We are excited to expand into the IJ (Irian Jaya) species of blue tongue. After 2 preventative mite treatments, 9 days on paper towel and a 40 gram weight gain (530-570), we moved him onto our regular coco husk substrate. He is still in the quarantine tub for a few more weeks, but will soon move into his permanent home. 




IJs come from Indonesia, just like our Meraukes, and have the same care requirements. We have heard from numerous keepers and breeders that IJs tend to have the laid back, chill, friendly attitude of a Northern from Australia and the social inquisitiveness of the Merauke and we have certainly seen this to be true with Matrix. While none of our Meraukes are aggressive, they do huff when you reach into their home or bother them, but they love to watch us (from the safety of their tank) when we are within eyesight. This guy definitely likes to keep an eye on what is going on, he is always out basking and hardly makes a noise when we go into his home. 








We have also heard that breeding IJs is much easier to figure out than Meraukes. We will continue with our dream to crack the code on successful, repeated Merauke breeding in captivity in Canada, until then we are excited to possibly delve into this new world of IJs. 

Welcome home, Matrix!

3 days to go!

As promised, here are the updated photos of the juveniles that will be coming with us to the Edmonton Reptile Expo this weekend. They all weigh 5 grams - 11.5 grams and are in great health.

We are also bringing a 25 gram sub adult, Halo. When using a loupe we see pores, but there is no male bulge yet. Sex is not guaranteed for Halo. 

Lily (a proven female breeder) will also be coming. She is a spotless red and throws red and spotted red babies.

Iced Capp will be coming to the show as well. He is a proven breeder male who throws flames and harlequins.

These photos and descriptions are simply to get you excited about the show. We live too far from a major center to ship and only sell at Edmonton AB (possible Regina SK) expos at this time.

5 days until the Expo!

We have 5 days until our first Expo of 2017! Today we are weighing geckos, deciding who will come with us, and taking photos of those who are ready for new homes. Are you ready to see some? 

** I apologize for the poor quality of these photos, it's much easier to post right from my phone, but it looks like the photo quality suffers :-( . I still have more juveniles to take photos of and I will take the time to upload them onto the computer first. If time allows, I will redo these 8 before the show. **

These are our Tiana and Titan babies who are ready to go home. All are over 5 grams and unsexed.



Lily and James babies that are all over 5 grams, unsexed and ready to go.



These 2 were purchased from Live Harmless Reptiles in BC, but have not grown into what we were hoping for. They are unsexed.

We do not ship our reptiles, are currently only selling them at Expos we attend and due to issues in the past, we no longer take deposits or hold an animal for pick up. These photos are to show you who we are bringing and to get you excited to come.