Conventional Wisdoms

[Richard.C]

People over think the breeding of gigas,talk of raising humidity to stimulate mating,ion bulbs ect,that mimmicks when babies are usually born,not when mating starts

Talk of them needing to be housed together for success is another thing,for some reason people ignore the important aspects of getting them to breed and focus on things that make things more difficult

If they stuck to the basics there would likely be more success,they dont need to be shutdown fully,they are tropical animals,wild studies show they are predominantly dry season breeders and quite early in the dryseason breeders yet alot of folk try to breed when temperate forms breed ,spring,which is odd as they usually are heavily gravid in spring

Conventional wisdom ,dont overthink and over complicate things,and get the basics right first,dont chop and change your plans,stick to your guns

[Lea]

This thread was hard work. I missed a few days, so just read it in it's entirety and I'm pretty sure I learned little, except to honour all gigas and stone the rest and that the dog food diet in still somehow in total disgrace.

Where that leaves me, I'm not sure. What happened to openminded brains and willingness to listen to those with experience? I keep the lowly and humble shinglebacks and the not so fashionable Easterns and feed fresh meats, vegetables and a little fruit. They don't breed, oh, except for a possibly gravid girl this year and I get stupidly excited when I see baby shingles pop out at Jeff's place in Arizona! My views and ideas are all over the place, based on my years of experience in keeping, observations in the wild AND by listening to fellow keepers and drawing on their experience.

I know that not being a breeder has me on the bottom of the pile for experience in some eyes, but I knock socks of them when it comes to caring for sick and injured skinks. It makes me no less of a keeper not to breed, but at the same time I don't see them in poorer light just because they wouldn't know what to do with a sick animal. Working together we can all build a clearer understanding of these awesome animals and help give them the care they need and deserve under whatever circumstance, breeding, in sickness or in perfect health.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure I'm not exactly on topic for the thread, but it was bugging me to see a lot of argumentative banter with no real respect happening for anybody, anywhere, in this entire thread.

Mel, Ray, Jeff, Richard and Brad, as well as a few others, have tried to offer advice and dare I say say it, educated opinion, but it seems personal and not always so well educated opinion got in the way every time.

[Scotts1au]

I must admit that I put this up as much as for the expression of Big L learnings as a social experiment. Fair to say I have a bit better understanding of a few things out of it which may help with future management of the site. mmmmm

[Toria Dawn]

This may be off topic but - although after reading this whole thread, I learned a LOT about beig condescending, rude, closed-minded, ignorant, sarcastic, and disrespectful, I think just one thread like this should be kept open. Maybe if people can banter about stuff somewhere, they can keep that stuff out of other threads that are just meant to help. But that's just my opinion.

Edit. Sorry I just re-read that and I didn't mean for it to sound so harsh. I do get irritated and also amused when threads that start off helpful turn into a vicious debate. Maybe if there was somewhere to vent those debates, helpful threads would stay helpful, instead of turning mean and or amusing in a "Drama!" sense.

[jdheff1982]

I breed all sorts of leopard and fat tail gecko morphs.... i dont even own a "surgery table"

I think what Dakota was getting at is that there are breeders who do a lot of inbreeding to obtain certain genes. They'll find a particular gene they like and breed until they can consistently produce that gene. In their eyes, that equals big $$$. I'm not a fan of this type of breeding myself. I mean, while it is possible to isolate a gene and breed for that gene, inbreeding also introduces genetic anomalies which may result in sickly/unstable animals. This type of breeding is seen more profoundly in the reptile arena than any other animal category, imo.

Because of the way you responded to Dakota tells me you breed to breed, not to achieve a certain pattern, color, or some combo of both. In my book, that's fine.

[Scotts1au]

Ok folks. I think that this thread has run its race. Thanks for the contributions. I'm looking forward to some new, mutually supportive threads emerging . Scott