After some heavy rain I went out to collect some blue tegu eggs. I have several clutches still incubating and am excited (though a little surprised) to keep collecting eggs from my females. As I've mentioned before, this season is a little "off" in terms of timing.

During this breeding season, I planned to try to breed some hybrids we produced in the past to some blues to see if this brings out any highlights. The diversity I have seen with the hybrids has been very interesting. For example the female hybrid mating the blue male is from the same clutch as the hybrid male mating the albino blue female. I kept them back because of how unique they were. Hopefully these pairings prove out and it would be very exciting to see how the babies develop. In my opinion this is the best part of breeding: picking some animals with very nice characteristics and seeing if those genes carry on to the offspring.

 Since the SIM incubator tubs I'm using this year are larger then the standard 16 quart ones, I had to get a third incubator. My two natures spirit were not wide enough to fit several tubs on a shelf and are currently full. This scientific precision incubator was purchased used off eBay and works great. The only negative would be that it weighs in at 300 pounds. The double door is a pretty cool feature which allows you to quickly take a look without having to open all the way and lower the temperature. Currently this is not even half full as you can double up on each row. It's been running for over two months but the true test will be if these eggs hatch.

Just collected 2 more clutches today one from Omega cross and another blue x blue cross. I keep 2 Nature's Spirit incubators in the closet and they work quite well. This one is nice and full.

These babies are looking great, came out of the egg ready to pound food.  All are eating voraciously on crickets , ground turkey mixed with chopped chicken parts, and veggies.  The father is a brother to Omega(my blue cross male father to the blue cross babies) and the mother is a female I acquired as a sub-adult and was told it was Red/Blue cross but I'm not certain on that and want to be clear.  Regardless, I chose to cross this female for her high white contrast to a very beautiful blue cross male in hopes to have some unique hybrid babies with great color and disposition. 

They should be ready to ship out next week and I will be bringing some to the Daytona National Breeder Expo. 
They are priced at $250 shipped.

Blue cross female before and after she laid a bunch of eggs.

Red tegu female laid a very nice large clutch of solid eggs.  She was paired to a Blue Cross male.

One of my female blue cross tegus laid eggs this past Saturday 5/3/14.  Very nice nest building techniques used by this female and some pearly white beautiful eggs.

As it is tegu breeding season found this article interesting.

http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Osvaldo_Arce/publication/228522062_Dynamics_of_ovarian_follicles_in_Tupinambis_merianae_lizards/file/9fcfd508eb39a6dec5.pdf

It was late in the afternoon and this female blue cross began working hard at gathering the fresh leaves into her nest.  It's funny how she starts in all the corners and pushes them back to the nest.

My black and white tegu female laid over 40 eggs but unfortunately all were infertile. As you can see the eggs are all dented in the nest. I did put them in the incubator for a week even though I knew they were bad just to be 100% sure. She built a beautiful large nest and spent about 5 days constructing it and laid the eggs while daytime temps were in the 80's and high humidity. This is the second year she laid infertile eggs even after watching her mate with a proven male. Hopefully my other females will have better luck.

Saw the male dragging the female around trying to breed. I didn't see full lock up but it's not his first rodeo so I'm sure they have or will.

Still have a few tegus remaining and took some pictures today of their development and color variation.  Starting to really lighten up! Enjoy!

Later today, we will  be posting our first Tegu lizards for sale.  They are 2 weeks old and are a cross of a Blue female and Chacoan male.  Check our breeding page to see pictures of the breeders and check the available tegu page later for pictures of the babies and ordering information!