blotchies are starting to have bubs

[Richard.C]

got to go check on lizards today,found a baby blue mountains alpine,so had a search and have found 4 so far,have to weed my outside cages as it took me ages to even find the female whom had them,which is a female i got from scott,shes lost a heck of a lot of condition,probably the most of seen in a blotch,her babies were quite large to,will put pics up tomoz,only just got home

the vic alpine female is huge,and id say not far off dropping either,managed to weed the alpine side of outside cages today so my sis can look for more bubs,they can get through to the lowlands side which is where i found 2 of them so need to get in there and weed to


not sure ive mentioned this before or if anyone has witnessed it,but 2 seasons ago i had a new born blotchy appear the puff up,get bloated,like a puffer fish does and ended up passing away on the day it was born,had an eastern do it as well that same season,never had that before

but 1 of the 4 is also doing the same thing,seemed fine when i found it,but a little soft feeling,and chubby as,then felt stiff,puffed up and they seem to have issues breathing,cant move properly as like a balloon,i dont like the chances of this one surving after the last 2 times ive had it

anyways ill transfer pics when i get a chance

[acanthurus]

Good work! Love that feeling when you are digging around trying to find babies. 

Do the girls get a little feisty around the bubs after birth? With the shingles the little ones often follow mum around for a couple of weeks and she will often waddle over and bite the toes of anyone who gets too close.

Sorry to hear about the little ones dying. Could it be related to some sort of neonatal infection - not uncommon for mum to be a carrier of opportunistic bugs that can take advantage of a weakened new born.

[Richard.C]

only 2 females normally get narky,one well before having bubs is the worst,normally timid,but if gravid she turns nuts,charges from 6 metres away and bites my shoes aggressivly,normally only settles a week or 2 after having bubs,goes back to being timid,the other lass just gets nippy at me if im close.

not sure what the bloating is from,only 3 times ive seen it,and only with one baby from those 3 litters,one was from my big vic alpine female,shes had lots of litters,and only once had the bloating thing,the other was an eastern baby,out of a litter of 15,just the one bloated after appearing normal,and then today from this bluemountains female,4 bubs,1 bloated thingy again,other 3 seem fine

[WanderingChai]

PICS!!!

[Katrina]

Congrats!! Must be fun digging around for little babies.

Sorry to hear about the young ones dying, that is odd.

[Leigh]

How the devil are you Richard, I can't believe this is my first visit for 18 months, anyway, you're the man regarding breeding o'natural, I shall have to come back now you've promised bub pic's. didn't want to hijack the htread my hello but had to stop and look in here after reading the title

[xxmonitorlizardxx]

LLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Katrina]

How the devil are you Richard, I can't believe this is my first visit for 18 months, anyway, you're the man regarding breeding o'natural, I shall have to come back now you've promised bub pic's. didn't want to hijack the htread my hello but had to stop and look in here after reading the title

Leigh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think any thread you post on after 18 months absence is going to be hijacked with welcome back Leigh stuff. So welcome back, so great to see you posting!

[Richard.C]

haha,leigh,good to see you back mate

[Scotts1au]

Richard, great to hear the bubs are finally coming. Hope they all turn out ok. We need photos though.

BTW wow Leigh :-) thought you had been swallowed by a sudden hole in the earth.

[Richard.C]

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[StaceyLeigh]

Oh that last one is so darn cute! What I wouldn't give to spend the day weeding to find these little cuties!! Need help, I just need a plane ticket

[Richard.C]

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and the nsw alpine male to show before i weeded it,lol,will help my sis finding more and prevent them being stood on,going to be warm the next couple of days so hopefully some more will drop,still have to weed the lowlands side,the bubs from this litter are quite large,hopefully theres a couple more running about

the bloated one unfortunatly passed away,the other 3 are doing great

[Scotts1au]

They are boof heads when born - like Milton :-) I've had them up to 50 grams at birth, around double the weight of an Eastern. They look good.

[Richard.C]

these guys are boof heads scott,they are alot bigger than the bubs i got of you last season

[El Lobo]

They're good healthy looking blotchies Richard.

Sorry to hear the other passed away. Do you have any thoughts as to what happens and is the bloating localised to any part of the body or through the whole torso?

[Richard.C]

the whole torso,in the pic with 3 of them in hand,the one with the eyes closed is the bloating one,as to the cause,im not entirely sure,but this is the 3rd specimen that has had it now,it was in the lowlands side of the enclosure where the eastern water dragons also reside,perhaps they had a go at it,did notice a scale missing on its back,its weird as they have all seemed fine when found,move normally ect,then just bloat,its got me buggered,i have seen water dragons nip at them in the past,new borns,i normally try to bring them in for birthing,but i dont live where they are at the moment,so better to keep them outside,have my sis checking on them numerous times a day

the bloating has me buggered though,only ever on the day of birth,ive seen others get nipped ect and they didnt bloat,so not sure the water dragons cause it,and also the eastern that bloated was witnessed being born and removed straight away so that rules the water dragons out,maybe an internal development fault which manifests after there first breath after being born,i really dont know,sux when it happens though,was hoping someone else may have an idea

[Scotts1au]

Strangely the babies this year were born earlier and were smaller than last years crop but more numerous, up from 6 babies per mother at an average of 35-40 g per baby (some 50g) to 8 babies per mother down to around 30g per baby (not sure cos some I didn't catch for several days). Any deadens or slugs were probably eaten.

Most of the mothers start out at 800g prior to pregnancy and have carried on average 240g of babies making the babies 33% of the total combined mass (minus fluids and egg sacs). Strangely the same as the previous year at approximately 240 g worth of payload when they only had 6 babies. I suspect that it was because the weather was cooler than the previous summer.

I didn't get pre birth weights of the mothers as like Richard I have been living away from where the mothers are housed. I get to check on them a few times a week.

As for the bloating - I've been breeding them for a few years now and haven't seen it. I had about 32 babies this year and none of them had it. I have had issues with a couple of them over the last few years due to eating foreign substances with the egg sacs and another time with consuming chook egg shell.
I also had a prized bright orange one die a few years ago due to consuming rice hull based cat litter.

Sometimes animals when underdeveloped can suffer a pneumothorax (hole in the lung) that causes air to accumulate in the abdominal cavity. I don't know if this is the case but is consistent with the animals becoming bloated quickly and dying from inability to breath and/or pulmonary hypertension.

[Richard.C]

thanks scott,thats a point i didnt consider,ingesting substrate when devouring yolk sac,theres a tree over hanging my cage that has spikey type leaves,like pine needles but with a few strands ,thicher and quite sharp on the tip,after weeding yesterday my finger tips are sore from all the spikes i copped,so theres always a chance they consumed a tip with yolk sack

the females usually,well that ive seen with mine chow down slugs as soon as they drop them,only times they havnt is because cage mates got it first,lol

[Richard.C]

been meaning to cut that tree down,next time im down there the sthill will be getting a work out,and the cage raked