2008 Summary

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.