Summer News

Lots of changes here lately! I've sold some of my dragons and gotten quite a few new ones....I will have to update this page when I get a chance.  Right now everything is old and outdated on this page including pictures....just to let everyone know!

Update on Kora

Not much to report :(  She was on Baytril for about 14 days and showed no improvement and she stopped eating. She has gone up from 500g at the vet to 515g with me force feeding. We stopped treatment and now are just playing a waiting game to see what happens.  She is fighting the force feeding which to me isn't a good sign.  It's difficult for me to dedicate the time to her every day to feed her and bath her (her head will fall into the water if I don't hold it up) along with everything else.  She makes it hard to force feed her too...fights me and spits it everywhere.  She has a noticeable droop on one side of her face, her lip actually hangs open sometimes and she doesn't realize it.  I'm definitely leaning towards a stroke.  She has made some VERY slight progress.....her head is not as tilted as it was, but other than that not much to report.  She is starting to hold her head up on her own, but still moves in circles.  I know I'm going to have to make a decision soon.  I don't know if it's fair to keep her alive like this, though the slight improvements give me hope.

Bad news for Kora

I'm devastated. My big, fat, beautiful healthy Kora is sick. This happened pretty much overnight. Checked on her this morning and she was curved to the right side, almost going in circles, can't walk and her head is tilted downward. She is mentally very alert and looks up at me when I talk to her. When I pick her up, she acts as if she's falling and tries to flail her legs. Front legs are not moving at all, back legs are moving awkwardly. 

UPDATE after the vet - We had a vet appointment this afternoon at 3pm...Dr Wilkinson at Windcrest Animal Hosp was very nice and gentle with Kora. She weighed in at 504 grams which is a little on the light side for her, she's been known to be up to 540 I think at her highest. She's been slowing down a lot on live food which is normal for her during this time of year. All her vital signs were great, clean ears/eyes, good heart, belly felt normal, etc.

He's concerned that it could be some compression on the very top of her brain or spinal cord which could be causing this type of neurological sign. It could still also be as simple as an inner ear infection, but it's hard to say. We didn't really walk away with any answers, but he's willing to help in any way that he can. He gave me a dosage for Baytril that I'm going to get at my work (another vet hosp) and I'm going to start that on Monday to see if it has any effect.  He said he's seen many animals learn to live with a head-tilt just fine....they adjust. I really hope hers goes away..she looks so pathetic. I'm very hopeful though - she ate 3 dubias today which shows she has some appetite. 

 

First clutch update

I've had NO time to update the blog, so here's a quick recap! Pics are from 4-6 weeks old. They are getting SO big! Only 3 of the 5 made it out of the first clutch. Two never made it all the way out of their eggs :( They're starting to show their own personalities and all of them are very sweet and laid back for the most part like Kora. One is going home to live with the co-breeder today and the other two will stay with me until I decide who I can part with. I will probably sell one from this clutch and hang on to one. Looks like I might keep the "tiger" striped neon male but not sure yet. Looks like 1 male and 2 females but could be wrong. Here they are!

Bath time for the babies

It's a LOT of work keeping all the babies hydrated and eating well. I supplement them with a few drips of Repti-Aid on their noses and let them eat until they're full every now and then just to make sure they're getting enough nutrients. They all seem to be eating crickets and I have a huge shipment of phoenix worms coming this week. No interest in salads yet but I'll keep trying!


Collecting each one and "transporting" them in a little shoebox is a lot of work...they're jumpy and crazy but once they get in the sink they calm down and seem to like it. I do them group by group and it takes a while every night for bath time! The pictures don't do them justice with the horrible bathroom lighting.

29 more hatchlings! 2nd clutch

29 healthy, pretty babies just hatched out on Sept 10 from clutch #2. They are all feisty, crazy little beasts. Everyone is perfect and looks very orange and some even look red. There is also a 3rd clutch of about 20 eggs laid not too long ago but not sure if they will make it - they're still in the incubator and looking good but have a slightly different look to them then the other 2 clutches so I'm not counting on them, but they could still hatch!

I currently have two 40 gallon breeders separated into 4 different sections for them. Each has a reptisun 10 UVB and basking bulb and everyone is happy and even eating already. One section has the two older babies, and the other 3 sections have the 29 babies separated evenly. So far no nips or fighting yet.

Hatchlings are hatching!!

The first two hatchlings have made it out alive and they are FEISTY!!! They were running around wreaking havoc in the incubator on top of the other eggs. It only took 65 days (which felt like freaking eternity!) They definitely are Kora's kids....bright ORANGE already! They're too cute for words...teeny tiny and I can't wait to move them to their new home.

Here they are in the incubator before I even touched them (Baby #2 is hidden)



















(Notice the orange little specs on his lips? Kora has the same thing :)


















Baby #1 posing next to a quarter for size. Look at all that color!





















Baby #2














Baby #2 on left, #1 on right. They are a little under 4 inches.



















Cutest little thing!

Sweating eggs! Day 63....

The eggs started to sweat today! All 5 of them are still alive and sweating. Hopefully that means they're ready to come out soon and not that the humidity is too high. I've been checking on them every few hours to see if any are dented or deflated....but nothing yet. Here are some pics, it's hard to see the sweat spots but you get the idea!

First clutch is getting close!

The first clutch of 5 is now about 50 days old. A few other breeders I've talked to say they look really close to hatching because of the transparent spots and the eggs are getting stretched really thin. Hopefully there will be some BIG babies in there.





















These pics are a little old, taken a few weeks ago, but they show more vein development since the last candled pics on here. I'm sure now they're even bigger and the "shadow" in there has grown too. Will try to get some new ones soon.

35 more eggs!

Kora laid 35 more eggs today and every single one looks fertile. Looks like I'm going to be absolutely over-run with babies...LOL. It's exactly a month since she had the first clutch - May 24 and June 24!

I have no idea how she fit them all in that fat little tummy. She knows what her lay box is and as soon as she's put into it she goes to work digging and making a nice little den. She laid them all within an hour or so and completely packed them in there. There was NO evidence of a hole when she was done...but I knew she had laid. She made me work for them...I had to dig to the very bottom of the container to find the eggs tightly packed in there. It was really tedious.....I felt like I was excavating precious fossils or something. They're all neatly packed into the incubator now, and there is NO room left for more. Hopefully this will be her last clutch. If not, I have a few people who might take some eggs to raise.

Here's miss Kora being a grumpy pregnant woman, giving me the stink eye























And here are the eggs all neatly packed in and getting toasty - (Top right are the 5 older eggs)

Shedding

Momma Kora is in a full body shed as of today....she looks pretty miserable! The orange underneath is gorgeous though :) Just had to post some "embarrasing" pics of her shedding. (Taken with my camera phone, so they aren't great)









































Eggs are doing well! They are 22 days old today....

Making progress!

The eggs are now about 19 day old and GROWING! I got rid of the eggs that were stating to mold or look nasty (and had no veins in them). Now there are 5 left, and of them have visible veins and are getting bigger. Apparently since this is her VERY first clutch, it's not uncommon for her to not have too many fertile ones. Hopefully next clutch will have a few more, but I'm perfectly fine with a few at a time! I'll have to order crickets by the truckload as it is LOL. I took pics the other night without moving them, and they seem to be doing well. I'm amazed at how much they've grown in such a short time. It's so cool to see the veins forming!

Now I'm rushing Kora to HURRY UP and lay the next clutch....I've been putting her in her lay box every few days but she won't dig and looks pretty pissed at the "indignity of it all." She's a prissy little thing and doesn't like anything dirty in her cage.


Without further ado.....here they are!

Eggs are here!

Kora laid 31 eggs tonight. It was perfect timing....today I just ran to get a spare incubator because after ordering THREE different Reptibators, they were all out of stock online. Finally I ordered one from LLLReptile.com (great customer service, highly recommend them!) and it's on it's way. So in the meantime I'm using this incubator made for chicken eggs....hopefully all will go well.

Out of the 31, only about 5 look fertile, which I expected since this is her very first clutch. Five seems like a nice number to start out with...much less overwhelming than 31! They're currently incubating at about 83 degrees and should take anywhere from 60+ days to hatch. I'm already anxiously checking them every few minutes to make sure everything is just right! Here are some pics of the exhausted momma laying....and the cute teeny little "egg-lets" LOL.

Xrays!

I took some xrays on Kora today at work! She was a big hit (okay, not really, everyone actually thought she was creepy and spikey and didn't want her anywhere near them....we're used to just cats and dogs at our hospital LOL) Looks like she's got a belly full of eggs! One of the vets said they don't look fully calcified yet so she probably has another week or so to go before she lays.













(For a better/larger view, click here) ---> http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w75/zumiepaps/Kora/KoraXray2.png

Here's a close up of her belly

Kora was bred!

Kora was bred to a male dragon named Diablo from Sin Dragons this week. This will be her very first clutch. I can't even imagine how cute the little baby Kora's will be. She spent a few days with Diablo and now is back home safe and sound. Now the wait begins......

Diablo is a Crawley Red/Psycho Red/Orange German Giant and Kora is a Hypo Pastel/Orange German Giant x Marketed Leucistic. She is from Jeff at JDM Dragons in NJ. I expect some very orange/yellow/red babies!