Spring has definitely sprung in The Reptile Room.....

Geckos and frogs and eggs oh my!

Well it is all go here! The weather outside may be dull and cold AF but it's nice and toasty in The Reptile Room, so toasty in fact that everyone has started producing eggs for me this week!

The frogs

male dart frog

Last year we raised six Dendrobates tinctorious Tumucumaque dart frog tadpoles, I sold three and kept three back in the hopes of finding a female for Beau my male from the previous year. Well, amazingly, I've ended up with two pairs! So Bonnie and Beau are the pair i'm keeping, and the two surplus frogs are

female dart frog

now available for sale on our . The day that I separated them into two pairs both males began calling, and today I spied Bonnie checking out the nursery hut so fingers crossed it wont be long before they start producing eggs for me.

male dart frog carrying a tadpole on his back

The Ranitomeya variabilis Southern, spurred on by the noise and commotion in the viv above them have also began laying eggs. 16 eggs to be precise! Ten of them have already developed into tadpoles and are now

tadpole about to "pop" out of the egg sack

available on the web shop. Any tadpoles that don't sell will be grown out into froglets and will be available for sale once they are at least two months out of the water and eating well.

Sticks!

male stick insect

Metallic stick insects that is, we still have well over a hundred stick insect eggs left from last years adults and today they began to hatch! As I write this there are two babies but as you are reading we will likely have 10+ with more to hatch every week until March! Metallic stick insects are so so easy to care for - put them in a mesh enclosure and feed them brambles. There. Done. They are perfect for kids and bug enthusiasts alike - and they get really big!

I have eggs available on the web shop already and will be adding nymphs as soon as they have successfully completed their first molt.

The crested geckos

Miss Ruby

We have swapped our breeding pairs around this season to prevent over saturating the pet trade with beasties of the exact same genetic male up. So for the first time Miss Ruby, my beautiful lilywhite, has been paired with Pippin, my fabulous tri-coloured extreme harlequin.

Ladybug, my red phantom super dalmatian, has been paired

Ladybug

Severus, my high white harlequin. And both ladies have now produced their first clutch of fertile eggs for the season. Crestie eggs take between 60 and 120 days to incubate, i prefer to leave them as long as possible to ensure healthy and hardy offspring, i know many keepers cut their eggs at 80 days but this is not something i practice;they will hatch when they are good and ready.

All babies from last season, with the exception of Harry who I've decided to hold back, are now listed on the web shop.

The dwarf geckos

adult mourning gecko

No surprise here, but we currently have twelve mourning gecko eggs incubating - they are the gift that keeps on giving! As soon as the next clutch hatches I will update the shop - these ladies are insanely popular so get them when you can, they sell out fast!

male Klemmeri gecko

Finally, and I can not stress how excited I am for this, my Neon day/Klemmeri geckos

have begun laying eggs! I've been working with this species for eighteen months and I'm absolutely delighted to share that we have four fertile eggs incubating from them! I'll be holding the first two babies back to grow the colony and all future offspring will be available on my web shop.

So that's my February update for you - I'm surrounded by eggs, the frogs are calling, crickets chirping and waterfalls are trickling, new buds appearing on my plants and even the bromiliads are blooming. My little slice of rainforest paradise is coming back to life. I love springtime.

Sarah