195. Passing of the Winter solistice brings the first salvo for the 2012 breeding season

So we are now on our way to more minutes and hours of daylight. For us that means we can start introducing the males to the females for breeding to commence. Accordingly we have today set up 5 RUBs with breeding pairs and one viv with a trio so that they can get familiar with each other.hopefully they will get very familiar with each other and produce us some eggs by the end of January. In the past we have had our first eggs by 22nd of January. Last year it was the first week of February. Fingers are crossed for good early eggs.

194. Houten show December 2011

We are running a table at the Houten show this Sunday (11th December 2011) we have so far prepared a good selection (31) of Leopard Geckos to put on sale from out table GG6. So saturday morning its off to Harwich to catch the morning ferry to the Hoek. Arriving there Saturday afternoon its on to Voerden for the hotel with an early morning rise to get into the show exhibition hall soon after the doors open.

193. New signing to breeding squad for 2012 season.

This is Goldust who joined us from Phil at Slurms geckos for an undisclosed fee at ERAC's September show. She has red/orange eyes and a Bell base so will go nicely together with our team captain Einstein who has broad stripe aspirations and has proved out to be carrying the red/orange eye gene. We are hoping they can get it on by mid breeding season.

192. Off season

Well folks not really much to write home about now the breeding season has ended. Main priority is to get all our females chunked up and fully fit for the 21st December when we will start putting our males into harems ready to start breading. We always do it this 21st December as it is the winter solistice and we are pretty convinced that Leos quickly pickup on the increasing daylight and the implication were haeding to summer. seems to work as we usually have our first eggs before the end of January.
In the next few posts and to keep the blog ticking over in the end of year lull we will post some piccy's of the latest additions to our 2012 breeding squad.

191. And then there was the final hatch of the season

This baby came out of our last good egg from this season on 24/09/2011. Think she is something in the order of our 116th baby produced this year. Parents are Arosa and Isuzu. Hatch weight was 3 gram after 49 days of incubation.

190. A pair of Mack snow's near seasons end

We have had Mack Trempers and supersnows but these are the only Mack snows from the 2011 breeding season. They hatched out 20th and 21st September after a 47 and 48 day incubation. Parents are the ever reliable Maggie and Rob Roy. Both hatched out weighing 3 gram. The piccy's below were taken 09/10/2011.

189. More catching up after the Donny and Essex shows

Yes it has been busy for the past two weeks as we had tables at the IHS Doncaster reptile show (18th September) and ERAC Essex reptile show (25th September). In the rush we didn't have the time to upload the baby normal wild types shown below which hatched 13th & 14th September. Must apologise about not being able to shed much light on their parentage or how long an incubation they had. Basically we have fouled up with our record keeping on these two.

188. Little and Large

These babies hatched out 7th and 8th September 2011, the smallest coming first. Both are from the same clutch of eggs produced by the ever reliable Patricia and Isuzu. The smallest baby showed as 1 gram on the scales at the point of hatch with the larger one being 4 times bigger at 4 gram. Incubation periods were 49 and 50 days.

187. Number eight's sibling?

Well we think it might be the sibling of the baby in the previous post (186). So pretty much the same vague biography. What we do know is that it hatched 05/09/2011 and weighed 3 gram.

186. Come in number 8

Kinda looks like a number 8 on the back of this baby which hatched out Sunday afternoon 04/09/2011. We are a bit confused about who the parents are, for this stunning baby which appears to have Bell type red eclipse eyes (RADAR). If so that would mean the two non red eye Bell's (Befi & Einstien) down in our records, that may be the parents, are het for RADAR. Alternatively maybe this babe is a really strong coloured Tremper. Time will tell as he/she grows larger and fully develops. Weight at hatch was a whopping 4 gram and incubation period is estimated at 54 -56 days

185. Final RAPTOR of the 2011 breeding season?

Don't think we have anymore RAPTOR eggs left in the incubator so this baby looks like it is probably the last RAPTOR hatch for 2011. It broke out of the egg last weekend (02/09/2011) after a 56 day incubation and weighing 3 gram. The parents are Duchess and Red Ron.

184. The normals are back again

These 2 babies are the offspring of Nell and Ahmed. One hatched last night 01/09/2011 and the other emerged from the egg this morning 02/09/2011. So 55 days incubation for one, that being the largest at 3 gram, and 56 days for the 2 gram midget.

183. Last of August and first in September

Both these babies are from the same clutch of eggs. The interesting normal hatched out late on last night 31/08/2011 and the patternless this morning 01/08/2011. Both weighed in at 3 gram. Not too sure of parentage at the moment so will check the records later on today. That said we suspect it is Patricia and Isuzu. this is because the baby patternless is the spitting image of patricia If so that means the stated parentage of the normal in post 180 is incorrect.

182. Ebony & Ivory in perfect harmony!

Contrasting day yesterday 30/08/2011 with thes two babies hatching out. The Whitey is we think the sibling of the Mack Tremper in the previous post. So same boigraphic details as far as parents are concerned. she/he weighed in at 4 gram at hatch. The supersnow is out of Maggie and Rob Roy. It is the sixth supersnow they have produced this season. Hatch weight was 4 gram. Can't say what the icubation period was as we have not got our record log at hand. It is certainly 50 plus days.

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181. Whats pink and white? It's a Mack Tremper!

This baby hatched yesterday 29/08/2011 following a 54 day incuabtion and weighing in at 4 gram. Parents are Fanta our broken banded Mack Tremper and Rob Roy our Mack RAPTOR.

180. One more wild type from the incubator

This baby hatched out 24/08/2011 following 57 days in the incubator, weight at hatch was 3 gram. Parents are Patricia and Isuzu who have now given us quite a few babies this season.

179. Nearly a twin bit not quite so!

This is the sibling of the baby in post 178. This pretty little babe popped out of the egg about 8 hours later and weighed 3 gram. So pretty much the same biograpbhic details. With the big brown spot on it's nose we think this is even prettier than its sibling, which takes some beating.

Just one more little normal to announce and upload then we will have fully caught up with our back log of hatch announcements.

178. Look at the red mince pies on this bewt

A very pleasant surprise it was when this baby was found to have hatched on mid morning Monday 22/08/2011. Not only that it got better in the evening when the clutch sibling also hatched and also had a stunning pair of red eyes. We were expecting some nice geckos from the eggs but not red eyes as we were unsure what genes the sire (Einstein was carrying. He is basically a reject from Steve Sykes (Herpetoculture) Bell broad stripe group who's eyes are pretty plain. So from his offspring it looks like he is het for RADAR. On the other hand the Dam is quite a stunning bell patternless with brillant red eyes who we picked up last year from Geordie at Atlantis aquatics in Great Yarmouth. Weight of this baby at hatch was 3 gram and incubation took 54 days.

177. Special needs arrangements for this babe.

This baby hatched out Saturday 20/08/2011 and is the sibling of the normal baby in post 176. So biographic details are nearly the same except for a 54 day incubation. It really struggled from the start and limped out of the egg with great difficulty. The piccy was taken today 23/08/2011 and the baby is still extremely wobbly and unsure on its feet. So it is going to take a lot of TLC to get this tiny tot throught the next few weeks to the point we can say it is securely established.

176. Six day old normal

This baby hatched out 16/08/2011 following 50 days in the incubator. It has very dark bands so almost certainly a classic normal type when it matures. Parents are Mohammad and Izzy and hatch weight was recorded as 3 gram.

175. One more to catch up with

And a nice one this is to catch up on. If we recall correctly our 5th supersnow this season.
This babe is the sibling of the supersnow in post 174. So same biography apart from an extra day of incubation.

174. Catch time after the big show

Blimey, what with preparing, then clearing up after our attendance at the Kempton show on the 14th August we are a bit behind in annoucing recent hatches. The 4 babies down below all hatched out 09/08/2011. Two normals one with an interesting jungle pattern, a Mack Tremper and a supersnow can't be bad as the end of the 2011 breeding season comes into sight. Egg production has been slow this month but we still have a few females carrying eggs.
All the images below were taken today (22/08/2011). With the rush and general hussle and bussle of the past two weeks we did not get their hatch weight.
The upper normal is out of Patricia and Isuzu. Incubation period for this babe was 50 days.
Second babe in the sequence is from Rob Roy and Maggie with incubation period being 49 days.
Third down and second normal of the day comes from Patio and Isuzu. Incubation period is recorded as 50 days.
Finally, the Mack Tremper is from Fanta and Rob Roy with our records showing it was a 61 day incubation.

173. Current availabilty.

To see how some of our 2011 hatchlings have got on you can visit our website at
http://lowestoftleopardgeckos.co.uk/available-for-sale/
and see more recent piccys. Must point out that we have many more leos available than is currently uploaded. This arises because someone has been copying our piccys, without our permission, and uploading them onto their facebook page/album and adding a bit of a premium to the price we have listed. Without naming names local East Anglian yokels will probably be able to work out who this is from the style of our piccys. In consequence we have been rationing the pictures we have uploaded on our official website.

172. Number three from yesterday.

This babe is the one mentioned in the previous post (171). It is the sibling of the normal in that post. So biography is exactly the same including weight. Well apart from the fact that it broke out of the egg about 8 hours later.

171. Yesterday's prodigy

These two babies both hatched out yesterday morning 08/08/2011. The sibling also hatched in the evening but we haven't got a piccy yet.
The blizzard and probably a blazing blizzard, as it is very pale,is the offspring of Red Ron and and Duchess. Weight at hatch was 3 gram and incubation took 63 days which is the logest we have had this year. Do hope are records are correct?
The normalish looking one is from Lynn and Mohammad who have produced us quite a few this year. weight at hatch was 3 gram and incubation period rolled out to 59 days.

170. Afghan Asylum seekers produce prodigy

After what has been a fairly poor breeding season this year we were over joyed to find that one of our Afghanicus eggs had hatched out this morning 06/08/2011 to produce the baby shown below. This comes after the previous eggs, at least 4, had turned manky during incubation. The baby below is quite tiny, as might be expected, and shows a remarkable 2 gram on the scales. Must say she/he does not look big enough for 2 gram, maybe the scales are not too precise. Incubation took 54 days and the parents are Kabul and Sangin.

169. All quite on the western front so to speak

Sure is quite over the last week as far as the arrivals suite is concerned with nothing to report. Once again we have had a lot of duff eggs. We are expecting a few more babies in the coming days but certainly not as many as we expected when we embarked on this breeding season. Also we are getting no new eggs of late. Quite a few of our females are gravid but they have definitely slowed up as far as the production of eggs is concerned. Fingers are crossed that we get a bit of an Indian summer with a flourish of eggs in the coming weeks.

168. The normals keep on coming

This normalish looking baby hatched out this morning 22/07/2011. It is the sibling of the baby in post 167. Hence, biographic detail is similar except for an extra day of incubation and a hatch weight of 4 gram.

167. And another little normal happening

This baby has just popped out of the egg in between 09:00 and 11;00 hrs this morning (21/07/2011). There is also a sibling egg which looks like it is also ready to pop. Parents for this baby are the ever reliable Marge and Isuzu who have already produced quite a few offspring this season. Looks fairly normal, though the banding is brownish which could result in this little tot going hypo as it grows. Weight at hatch was 3 gram and incubation period worked out to be 48 days.

166. Second supersnow in 24 hours makes it 3 for the season

This baby was found hatched out this morning 21/07/2011 and is the sibling of the baby in post 165. So we are doing quite well in terms of the offspring that Maggie and Rob Roy are producing for us. Hatch weight for this baby was 3 gram. Fingers are crossed for a few more like this in the latter part of the 2011 breeding season which is now past its peak as we move closer to August.

165. Second supersnow of the season

This baby was caught on camera hatching out late last night and is the second supersnow we have hatched out this season. Parents are Maggie (Mack snow) and Rob Roy (Mack RAPTOR). Hatch weight was 3 gram and incubation took 47 days.

164. Het blizzard normal

This baby is the sibling of the baby shown in post 163. Hatch took place a few hours later on the morning 20/07/2011. This is the first time Anya has produced a normal wild type, all her previous babies have been blizzards or Trempers; we thought we might have mixed our eggs up a bit. However,checking up the morph calculator it says that 25% of a blizzard x Tremper (Homer)will be normals. So it looks like we have a normal het blizzard and Tremper, Hatch weight was 4 gram.

163 First blizzard of 2011

This is our first blizzard that we have produced in the 2011 breeding season. Hatch took place on the evening of 19/07/2011 which came after 47 days of incubation. weight at hatch point was 4 gram The proud parents are Anya and Homer. H

162. Think we might have a Mack RAPTOR

On our noon (17/07/2011) incubator check we have just clocked eyes on our latest hatch which is pictured below. Depending on eye colour we are thinking this baby is a Mack RAPTOR which is the same as the Sire Rob Roy. Mother is Fanta a Mack Tremper. Weight at hatch was 4 gram and incubation took 55 days. After what seems like a never ending run of normal wild types hatching in the past week it is nice to get something different.

161. Saturday babe

This little normal maybe hypo, as the banding is brownish hopped out of its egg Saturday morning 16/07/2011. It has a nice little swoosh on the neck. Parents are Elver and Ahmed. Weight at hatch was a healthy 4 gram and incubation for this babe took 55 days.

160. Not much luck with our Afghanicus Leopard Gecko pair but some nice crosses.

As in the title we have not had any success in producing any offspring from our pure Afghanicus Leopard Geckos that we imported from Pacherp last year. We have had some eggs but they have all turned manky. On the bright side the Afghanicus female still has a couple of eggs in her which could be laid at any minute. We have had a little more success in breeding the male Afghanicus with Macularius females so producing Afghanicus Macularius crosses. The two babies below hatched out today 15/07/2011. They are from Meriva (Macularius hi-yellow) and Kabul (pure Afghanicus). One weighed in at 4 gram and the other was 3 gram. Incubation on these two was 46 days. As might be expected they look fairly normalish.

159. A nice little RAPTOR

This baby hatched out last night 13/07/2011 and is our 4th or 5th RAPTOR produced this season. Parents are our own bred Duchess and Red Ron. Incubation took 51 days and weight as measured today 14/07/2011 is 3 gram. We should be able to get this up to saleable weight for the Doncaster reptile show in September 2011.

158. Introducing Spotty

As this baby looks a bit spotty it is quite an appropriate name for it. This little un hatched out last night (12/07/2011) and is the sibling of the baby in post 157 so shares identical biographic detail. Must say we are getting some very interesting patterns coming through from Isuzu the Sire.

157. More interesting prodigy from Isuzu

This baby hatched out early today 12/07/2011. It is another normalish, possible broad stripe baby sharing the same characteristics as Isuzu, who is the sire. Of course leos change so much as they grow and certain colours fade and disappear. So it might just end up as a standard hypo. Dam is Poppy who is a hypo with what appears to be the faintest hint of red stripe. Incubation on this baby was 53 days and birth weight was 3 gram. With just 5 weeks to the Kempton reptile show it is possible that this baby might make sale weight by then and be available for that show.

156. Two more babies from Lulu and Isuzu

Both these babies have hatched out today 11/07/2011. Parents are as stated in the post title. Worth mentioning they have produced 9 babies so far this season. Both these nippers weighed in at 4 gram at hatch. Incubation period was 50 days. Bottom piccy shows the second hatch breaking out of the egg.

155. Get your 4 a day

Here is a piccy of the fourth baby that has hatched out today. She/he is out Iof Poppy and Isuzu. incubation for this babe took 49 days and hatch weight was 3 gram.

154. Third hatch of the day before noon

This baby has literally just hopped out of the egg at 11:35 hrs 08/07/2011 and is still wet behind the ears as you might see from the perlite sticking to it. Parents are Lynn and Mohammad. Incubation took 50 days. don't know the hatch weight at the moment as it is best to wait until it completely drys out.

153. Looks like a hypo and a normal wild type

These 2 babies were found in the incubator this morning (08/07/2011) after an overnight hatch.

Uppermost is the sibling of the normal baby in post 152. All biographic therefore being the same, apart from one day extra incubation. Hatch weight as shown in the piccy was 2 gram. Dark bands are brownish so probably a hypo.

Lower down is the offspring of Ahmed and Nell. This looks very much normal. Hatch weight on this baby was 3 gram after 52 days of incubation.