This is Ailsa, the newest addition to the family! She hatched today and I've had a fun couple of hours trying to get ger out of the big vivarium and into a smaller tub so she doesn't escape from the vivarium, and so her mum doesn't get to her, and so it is easier to make sure she is feeding and growing properly. To give a sense of how tiny she is, the vine she is on is around 1cm think so she is really tiny! Her big sis, Cumbrae, is all grown up now as she has two eggs developing in her belly that I think she will lay in the next few days!
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Hi KatTai
Really fantastic...................um which brood is she from? You've got so many and I can't find the thread that introduced them all! sorry!
Regards
Kerry
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kezmo6310/
Kezmo Hi KatTai Really fantastic...................um which brood is she from? You've got so many and I can't find the thread that introduced them all! sorry!
She is a mourning gecko, Skye is her mother and Cumbrae is her big sister. Perhaps I should have said that in my first post but I'm so thrilled that I forgot to even say what she was lol I've been waiting for her to hatch for a couple of weeks now as I've been watching her pushing at the sides of the egg and knew that it wouldn't be long before she emerged! Finding the egg empty was exciting but worrying because there is always the chance that her mother will catch her and eat her, but I eventually found her on a leaf and then the struggle to get her out started. Need to keep an eye on her tail at the moment as it looks as if there is still some shed skin left at the tip (they shed their skin straight after hatching).
So what do you feed her on? if she has to be protected from Mum, how would she survive in the wild - does mum not have any maternal instincts at all after laying the egss?
Kezmo So what do you feed her on? if she has to be protected from Mum, how would she survive in the wild - does mum not have any maternal instincts at all after laying the egss?
She has some Crested Gecko Diet (cherry flavoured) and I have some crickets that should be small enough for her to tackle but I won't offer them until tommorrow or the day after as she probably won't eat straight away, especially as she'll have a belly full of the skin she shed. The parents, as with most reptiles, don't take care of their youngsters at all, they are left to fend for themselves from day one. I'm not certain Skye would kill her, but they are known to be canibalistic in captivity. In the wild the youngsters may have to dodge the adults but it is harder for them to do that in a vivarium than in the wild as there are only so many places to hide. Many reptiles will prey on smaller individuals of their own kind so it isn't something unusual in reptiles. Baby Komodo dragons, for example, have to race passed adults to reach the trees after they hatch and if they don't make it they become a meal for an adult.
Well congratulations on your new addition, - will you keep her?
Kezmo Well congratulations on your new addition, - will you keep her?
Yup, I'm going to keep her :-) The next couple that hatch will be going to a friend.
Well Ailsa's big sis Cumbrae has laid her two eggs last night/early this morning...in her feeding jar! So now I have to find myself a new jar (I use old herb jars) to put her crickets in! At least if they are fertile I won't have much hassle finding the youngsters, and it means I can still give her vivarium a proper clean too.
KatTai, congratulations on Ailsa's birth and now Cumbrae laying her eggs. Hope you find a new jar quickly. You must be extremely pleased.
Reminds me of when I used to keep fish and if I didn't move fast enough for the' live bearing fish', the mother or other fish, would eat the babies, which were extremely small but had to be caught and put in their own aquarium.
Brenda H KatTai, congratulations on Ailsa's birth and now Cumbrae laying her eggs. Hope you find a new jar quickly. You must be extremely pleased. Reminds me of when I used to keep fish and if I didn't move fast enough for the' live bearing fish', the mother or other fish, would eat the babies, which were extremely small but had to be caught and put in their own aquarium.
Thank you :-)
I am very pleased, when I found Cumbrae she was in the jar looking at her eggs, maybe she couldn't quite believe she had laid two eggs herself! She looks in good condition herself too even after laying the eggs though her calcium sacs have shrunk quite a bit but she should soon build those up again!
I can't imagine having to catch tiny baby fish, I have enough trouble catching baby geckos and fish are so much smaller!
Cumbrae obviously didn't want to be outdone by her sister! lol. Take it you'll be looking for a bigger house soon?!? Thankfully Council Tax isn't measured on the amount of pets one household has!! ;-))
KatTai Well Ailsa's big sis Cumbrae has laid her two eggs last night/early this morning...in her feeding jar! So now I have to find myself a new jar (I use old herb jars) to put her crickets in! At least if they are fertile I won't have much hassle finding the youngsters, and it means I can still give her vivarium a proper clean too.
Kezmo Hi KatTai Cumbrae obviously didn't want to be outdone by her sister! lol. Take it you'll be looking for a bigger house soon?!? Thankfully Council Tax isn't measured on the amount of pets one household has!! ;-))
Haha apparently not! I think I may be looking into getting a couple more vivariums...hopefully mum Skye will accept Cumbrae in her vivarium and then it will be even better if Ailsa can join them when she is old enough, but I am wary of Skye having a companion as I orginally had two mourning geckos but Skye bullied the other one and she eventually died despite them being seperated. Whether there was something wrong with her that Skye picked up on that was the cause of the bullying I don't know, needless to say she will be watched like a hawk for a long time! They are naturally a colonial species so hopefully I will eventually have a little colony that I originally wanted and not loads of geckos living alone in their own vivariums!
If council tax was measured on the number of pets I would have been in trouble a couple of years ago, I ended up with nearly 20 baby sand geckos so that would have been pricy!
Well l really do wish you luck with the new vivarium. It's a lovely story so keep us updated. They are all very lucky to have someone like you looking after them.
Wow! Never seen one so small! Gorgeous little thing! Glad that you found her in time too!
Reminds me of some miniature chameleons I once saw in a garden centre for sale, they were no more than 2" long and quite beautiful!!
"All weeds are flowers, once you get to know them" (Eeyore)
Well Ailsa is 9 days old and doing well, she is very bright and alert. Still quite shy but she is venturing closer at feeding time - probably means it won't be long before she starts trying to do a runner from the tub! I'll be ordering in some crickets this week too so she will have her first cricket treat! I suspect the crickets won't last long once she gets started on them lol