I'm starting to sigh a big sigh of relief here. A couple of weeks ago, I had an incident with my incubator that resulted in a short term temperature spike that I feared would kill all of my eggs collected thus far in 2009 (of course the Rhacodactylus eggs are incubated at room temperatures and were unaffected). I had a large number of helmeted gecko eggs and 5 Nephrurus milli eggs in this incubator. I was pretty discouraged by this setback in my breeding efforts. This past week however, the first 2 helmeted gecko babies and a single N. milli baby hatched right on time and are doing well. Apparently these little guys are pretty resilient and were able to withstand this elevated temperature (slightly over 100º F for an hour or two). So, if these first eggs which were late in the incubation process were able to make it, I have hopes that the rest of the eggs are good as well.

In other news, I've been published... sort of. The relatively new online gecko blog called Gecko Time  contacted me about a month ago to see if I would submit an article about helmeted geckos. I see that the article is up today. Check it out at http://www.geckotime.com/

Summer is flying by. I didn't realize it had been so long since I had updated. I had a little flurry of buying this spring (after quite a flurry of selling). The geckos I bought have settled in nicely and are growing well. I've enjoyed keeping and learning about my new webfoots (P. rangei) as well as my Nephrurus wheeleri. Both are cool gecko species, but the webfoots are just so unique. I'm really enjoying them. The other new additions aren't new species to me - just additions to my existing groups. I picked up a male P.I. chahoua to complete a pair for the future. I added a couple of juvenile female N. milli, and added an unsexed full pinstriped crested gecko. I decided I needed to add a little new blood to my pinstripe groups. I'll need some unrelated animals for some of the nice holdbacks I'm getting from my existing groups.
Due to my work schedule, I generally start my breeding season a little later than some. I've been getting crested gecko eggs, but don't have any hatchlings yet for 2009. Shouldn't be long now. I have 3 Nephrurus milli eggs incubating. If they hatch for me, it would be a "first timer" for me. I'm a little disappointed in my Eurydactylodes agricolae pair this year. Last year was their first year of breeding and I got 2 good clutches of eggs late in the summer from which I hatched out 3 babies which have done well. I have gotten 4 clutches of eggs from my female this year and all have molded early in the incubation. The first clutch of the year looked questionable from the start, but the next 2 clutches had the appearance of nice, viable eggs. I hope I get some good eggs yet. If not, I might have to adjust my conditions a bit or try a new male next year.
Last, but not least, my helmeted gecko project has been a high priority for a couple of years now. Last year I hatched out a few, but had a lot of eggs go bad, and a few hatchlings that failed to thrive. I have quite a number of eggs in the incubator right now, and some of the first ones in are approaching 70 days of incubation, so I have my fingers crossed that I will soon see some positive results from this group.
Finally, I recently bought a used digital camera which I hope will allow me to take some new and updated pictures of some of my geckos. I hope to do a photoshoot soon, so watch for some updated pictures of my collection.

First of all, thank you to all who have purchased geckos from me this spring. I have sold out nearly all of the 2007 holdbacks I had on my available page! I will be adding some well started 2008 geckos to my website by late spring / early summer. Keep checking the website for updates.

I'm also excited to announce the addition of a few additional geckos to my collection. One species that has been on my want list for a couple of years is Palmatogecko (Pachydactylus) rangei, or Namibian web-footed gecko. They are just such a unique gecko in both appearance and habits. I was lucky enough to locate a sub-adult pair which will be arriving at Ridge and Valley Reptiles in the very near future. I can't wait to add them to my collection. They will probably not reach breeding size until early 2010. I also picked up one more young female Nephrurus milli, bringing my total to 1.4. I plan to add one more male to this group so that I will be working with two groups of 1.2 animals and produce unrelated offspring to offer for sale. Three of these females are subadults which won't produce until 2010, but one pair will be put together soon. I have high hopes that I will produce my first milli babies this summer.

I've put my pinstripe crested gecko group together for the breeding season. I have high hopes that they will be as productive as years past. The demand for offspring from this group outpaced my supply this year. I also have a couple of outstanding young holdback females which will breed for the first time this year. That group won't be put together until late spring / early summer, as I don't like to push young females too hard in their first breeding season.

All in all, it's an exciting time of the year full of anticipation of new eggs and the start of the 2009 breeding season.

I had a "first" yesterday. I've been working with a group of Geckonia chazalia (or Tarentola chazalia) for a couple of years now. These are currently the favorite terrestrial species I work with. Almost 3 years ago, I bought and raised up 3 CB hatchlings that all grew up to be females. I then spent most of a year looking unsuccessfully for a male or 2. Meanwhile the females started dropping eggs left and right... but still I had no male! Last spring I got a WC male that had recently been imported (along with 2 more females), and after quarantine he was placed with the females in mid-summer. I got a bunch of eggs but they were mostly infertile at first. By early fall I was getting eggs that looked fertile, but the male passed unexpectedly at that time. I had a number of eggs that progressed nicely and then went bad very late in the incubation. When I'd open them up, I'd find a nearly fully formed embryo.  I even had 1 hatchling emerge, but it was found dead. I got another dozen or so eggs in late November / early December (4 females) but wasn't sure if they'd still be good, as the male had been gone for a couple of months. About half of them candled pink, so I changed a few things in my incubation procedure and now, approximately 80 days later, I have my first successful hatchling of this species. Now the tricky part begins... there aren't many in the U.S. having success with this species. A few of the people who have hatched these guys out are reporting difficulty in keeping the hatchlings alive. We'll see how it goes... I still have several more eggs that I think are fertile.

BTW... I have picked up 2 new males since losing the last one, so come spring, I will be putting together 2 groups of 1.2 to see if I can produce some unrelated offspring and continue carrying this project forward. These can be prolific egg layers. If all the eggs laid last summer had been good and hatched, I would have had well over 25 babies! If I've solved the  incubation problems I was having, and if the babies survive and thrive, I should produce quite a few of these in 2009.

As soon as the shipping window opens up in Wisconsin again- probably still a good month or so away-  I have a number of geckos going out and a number coming in.

Animals I'm looking forward to receiving include:

1.) 2 more female subadult Nephrurus milli which will eventually be added to my breeding group. This will give me 1.3 milli. I hope to add another nice male at some point down the line so that I can produce unrelated offspring. I should produce my first N. milli offspring in 2009.

2.)  I will also be adding a subadult pair of Nephrurus wheeleri, which is a new species for my collection. I hope to produce my first wheeleri in 2010.

Geckos which should produce for me in 2009 include: Rhacodactylus ciliatus, Eurydactylodes agricolae, Nephrurus milli, Eublepharis macularis, and Geckonia (Tarentola) chazalia. Fingers are crossed for a successful season as a couple of these would be "firsts" for me.

I will be vending at the W.I.R.E. show on May 2. I should still have a few "high end" sexed crested geckos available from my 2007 holdbacks, as well as some younger 2008 juvies. Some may be sexable by that time.

2008 was a good year for Ridge and Valley Reptiles. My crested gecko group continues to produce consistently good results. I held back 14 crested geckos from 2007 based on the amount of pinstriping and color they were showing as unsexed hatchlings. Of those 14 holdbacks, 11 were female and only 3 were males. Now that they are sexable, I am holding on to 2 for myself (7-02 and 7-18) and making the other ones available (see Availability).

 I only bred 2, rather than 3 female crested geckos in 2008 - trying to focus on quality, not quantity. These were the females that produced my most stunning offspring in 2007. My full pinstripe male went with one female, and I have a nice yellow pinstripe male with great structure that I hadn't used yet, and was curious to see what he'd produce, so he went with my other top tier female. I'll be growing that group up of juvies up to a larger size to see how the color develops. They definitely have a different look than what I was getting from my lavender and cream pinstripe group. I look forward to seeing how they mature.

I had mixed success with my group of helmeted geckos (Geckonia chazalia) in 2008. After a long search, I obtained a male, as well as a couple more females to go with my CB group of females. I had very good egg production from the group, but have struggled with hatching out healthy babies. I have had several that died late in the incubation process, and one that died soon after emerging from the egg. I have made some changes and currently have more fertile eggs incubating, so fingers are still crossed. I did pick up a couple more males, so in 2009 I will be working with 2 separate 1.2 groups (total of 2.4) so that I can produce unrelated lines.

I added a young pair of Eurydactylodes agricolae early in 2008, and got a couple of clutches of eggs late in the summer. Of the 4 eggs layed, I hatched out 3 tiny babies that are growing rapidly.

My young pair of Nephrurus milli were not quite ready to breed in 2008. The female did produce a couple of dud eggs late in the summer, so she should be ready to go in 2009. I'm really looking forward to hatching out some of these. I find them to be such a striking looking gecko, and the hatchlings are just too cute.

Miscellaneous additions in 2008... future breeding projects? I added a young Pine Isle Chahoua at Tinley this year, and an unsexed Goniurosaurus hainanensis also. When they are old enough to accurately sex, I will probably be searching for suitable mates.