Responsible Breeding help

[flnatv]

I have some questions that I am hoping some of you will give me your honest opinion... it is okay... please be forward.

I am a biology teacher and have two little beardies (male and female). There is NO WAY I would be ready to breed for another year or so anyway, but was thinking of letting my students incubate the eggs and watch them hatch. There is a very, very nice local reptile store that will be willing to take all of the babies (I don't want my students taking them home... I would rather someone who is really searching for one and willing to spend the money to take care of them have them)...

Is this a bad idea? I thought it would be educational and I would donate them to the store.
I am a current dog rescuer and would never breed my dog due to the number of unwanted animals.. that is why I am asking all of you your opinion.

I would have a year to learn everything and anything I can... we have an incubator at school and I can get all the required/necessary and even extra frills with a grant.

What are your thoughts?
Neely

 

[TheWolfmanTom]

Hi Neely,
I like your idea and think it has merit. Might I suggest you try this project with leopard geckos. They only lay 2 eggs at a time. Where a dragon can lay up to 35 at a time.
From 1 breeding you can get eggs in numbers up to 145 over 5 to 6 months. Thats alot of dragons at 1 time and not even a busy pet store can keep up with that.

 

[flnatv]

true... I was only planning on 1 breeding a year at the most... is that reasonable?
We have a male crested gecko... It is my daughters and I don't know as much about them as I have learned about the beardies. Would that be a better choice for classroom learning?

I do know that temperature plays a part on the sex of the offspring for geckos... Saw somewhere that it was the same with the bearded dragons. I was hoping the kids could experiment with 3 different temps for their eggs... the low, middle, and high of the range. Still in the thinking stages... have a whole year to make up my mind.

If I did do one breeding per year... am I looking at just about 30 eggs? or are you telling me they can lay 145 from one breeding?

As I said... I am trying to figure all this out...
Neely

 

[AHBD]

Your dragon can lay multiple clutches from just one mating. So, yes, there could be more than 35.By the way, the average first time breeding yields about 22-26 eggs...but I have had a female lay over 30 every clutch, so you can see what Tom mentioned as being a problem. Babies are somewhat hard to care for in that they require huge amounts of food, and can bite each others tails and toes very quickly if they miss even one feeding, or just if you have an ornery one in the bunch.

 

[flnatv]

Thank you Thank you

and tell me more
I just want to make sure whatever decision I make it is a good one. The only bonus is that I can get a grant and the kids can raise all the bugs needed... another part of a project. Thankfully being biology I can work it all in to my curriculum and we have the facility and room to house what we get. I am worried about the total number of eggs possible!!!!

 

[AHBD]

You could always throw some of the eggs away...if she laid 2,3,4 fertile clutches, which would be about 3 weeks apart, just keep the first. Be aware that 25-30 babies can eat about [ on the low side ] 1,000 crickets a day.

 

[spurlee01]

A lot of breeders freeze some of the eggs (this ensures they will not hatch in a dumpster somewhere) and then pitch them. I do think it is a very neat idea.

 

[spurlee01]

A lot of breeders freeze some of the eggs (this ensures they will not hatch in a dumpster somewhere) and then pitch them. I do think it is a very neat idea.

 

[Jayson745]

maybe you could find a local breeder to hook you up with a few eggs to incubate/raise. That way you know exactly how many you have to take care of. The amount of bugs needed to raise 1 baby is a lot. Multiple clutches of babies can get insane quick. Its not a thing where your students can raise a few roaches and support it. Cricket/roach breeding becomes less of "part of the project" and more into a full blown bug breeding operation in its own right, with bins and bins and bins.

 

[Jayson745]

Not to get off topic, but was thinking if you want to breed something in the classroom, and have them raise it and see life cycles and all that, you should read up on dartfrogs. They're quite easy/cheap to care for once you get the vivarium set up. I still haven't got mine to breed for some reason, but I got my first ones as tadpoles and morphed them out no sweat. You set up cultures of wingless fruitflies to feed them which doesn't cost hardly anything. Dendroboard.com has a lot of good info, and and people you could see about getting tadpoles from.

 

[flnatv]

I like the idea of getting a few eggs from someone and letting the kids work with that.... Sounds more reasonable. Now if there were some breeders locally

Please keep the ideas and thoughts coming...

Thank you for the dart frog opinion as well... we have a tomato frog... Did you raise your tadpoles in a bromiliad or did you do it in a tank-like set up? Just still exploring options

I knew I came to the right place to ask questions... all of you are awesome!

Neely

 

[spurlee01]

Well I've considered letting my kids raise feeders for my dragon. I think hornworms would be neat if I (we) could figure it out. Lilly would for sure love it.

 

[Vacren]

I just talked to the guy from GLH, he has good prices on eggs, 20% overcount. If you look at the manducaproject.com they have instructions on breeding and rearing hornworms. I know my babies absolutely LOVE hornworms.

Good Luck

 

[Jayson745]

only some species of dartfrogs you have to leave the tadpoles in a bromiliad or film canister so the mom can come drop unfertilized eggs for them to eat. Those species are smaller, and have a lot less offspring, so they cost way more. In the wild the bigger cheaper species(can usually get tadpoles for $10) usually lay eggs on leaves on the ground or on the live leaves of plants, then when the tadpoles hatch the parents work them onto their backs and transport them to water somewhere. So in a vivarium people put a petri dish under a coconut hut and they usually lay in there, then they pull the eggs shortly after they are laid and hatch/raise them themselves. You pretty much just have to put a tadpole in a cup of water and feed it once in a while, then when its close to being a frog give it a place to crawl out of the water. They do most of the work. Azureus, auratus, leucomela, or any tinctorius are all good hardy beginner frogs. Leucomelas will do better in groups as the females of the others can wrestles sometimes when they get mature. Theres some videos of that on youtube. Its pretty crazy. I've luckily had no problems with 1.2 azureus together and 1.2 cobalts together.