This year the weather was very dry during the early spring. I think this directly affected the egg laying season as I've noticed some females laid earlier (often infertile) and now others are laying after a short break (more commonly fertile). Also, I'm noticing that I still have lizards that are just starting to breed, which is interesting this late in the season. I'm very excited to see what comes out of this year's pairings especially some eggs I collected yesterday from a very nice blue pair.

Used this cool little spy remote car to get a close look at a female albino in her hide. I thought this would be a nice way to check on nesting females to see if they have laid.

First eggs at Hector's habitat! The result of a cross of hybrid male (blue/bw x red) to albino blue female. The poor female looks completely drained after laying these beautiful eggs. She should start eating again soon to put that weight back on. I hope these eggs work out as I'm very excited to see the offspring.

I have a great Canon camera though I am not such a great operator.  I was attempting to capture actual colors present in natural lighting varying from sunny to cloudy.  Most of the time I snap the photo and am immediately disappointed at the lack of representation of the animal on the camera whether that is on my Canon or iPhone.  I think these came close to what I saw in person for these tegus.  I'll have to keep working on my photography skills. 

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.

Wednesday was only in the 50s in the morning but many of the tegus were out absorbing the sun's heat. With the night getting below 40 I topped of all the hides with hay which will hopefully be useful bedding for future breeding.

Most tegus still have their thick shed from brumation. Some are slowly beginning to eat but most are just picking and not eating with their normal vigor. As the temperature gets warmer and daylight increases this should quickly change and hopefully breeding will commence.

While riding a local bike trail my buddy almost had a terrible run in with this guy. Looks like it was just enjoying the sunny day too.

A few years ago, after selling off all the bearded dragons I had kept, I went for 3 years without having any reptiles. I finally convinced my wife Lauren to let me start up again by suggesting ornate uros as a compromise since they don't require live food. Needless to say that led me into Tegus and that obviously blew up and the ornates have been our pets. We recently agreed to expand breeding ornata uros for the future. I picked up a few US captive bred and some imports to hopefully have several lines to breed. We worked together to build the lizard rack which has been working very well for us. The tubs are each 3 foot by 2 foot mixing tubs similar to how rat racks are built. Currently I have the babies setup on paper towels with tile under the basking spot. They are eating great on variety of greens given daily. Very excited to see how these develop! 

FOR SALE: $2500 shipped each. 
These two albino baby tegus are available now.  They are over a month old eating and growing very well.  They have a calm demeanor and will be beautiful as adults.  The one in the top of the picture is a probable female and the bottom is a male.  Please let me know if you are interested and I can send more pictures.

Finally finished the outdoor rhino iguana cage to move them outdoors. Just like all the tegu cages I layed wire on the bottom before laying sand/dirt on top. For the top wire I went with 1"X1" black coated since I knew they would try to climb to the top. They seemed to like it right away basking and eating. I would like to plant some edible flowers in there soon. I'll start with a big hibiscus and some cactus. 

This is one of my baby tegu enclosures. The primary substrate is cypress mulch which is changed often. I use a heat and uv 10.0 bulb, kept a few inches away from the basking area. The hides are either stacks or some cork bark. Also, I keep a branch inside for climbing. Fresh water is changed daily in a shallow dish. At this young age I feed them daily crickets, super worms, and ground meat mix.

Hybrid babies - $250, plus shipping: Father(Blue Tegu) X Mother(Hybrid Tegu - Blue Cross/Red)
These babies are doing great showing a wide variation of color and pattern as they usually do.  Growing quickly eating crickets and ground meat mix.