As with every Gila monster captive breeding season, there are wins and loses, new things learned and insights gleaned to improve next year.
First the wins; I had an improved nesting experience (thanks to my mentor Dr. Mark Seward) with my stalwart females Belle and Heather who had their best year yet. The newbie females are still figuring it out and they laid partial clutches which are good, but held eggs that were ultimately unviable. Also, we had a disproportionate ratio of males to females so had to do some calculated male swapping so that likely factored into things. The females are also recovering nicely post breeding which bodes well for next year. I currently have ten good eggs in the trusty Grumbach S84 incubator which is great. There was a total of 22 eggs, 10 of which were infertile slugs or laid late, 2 fertile eggs went bad about a month after being laid, and 10 still a-cookin’. I always feel that if I have one egg hatch in a season it’s a win!
The losses are always rough, especially when you lose a Gila and this year we lost a female that became egg bound. It is tough and in retrospect I should have intervened sooner, but assumed that since she was eating and defecating the eggs would have eventually passed on their own. Sadly, this was not the case. It seems the time between oviposition and expiration is much shorter than anticipated and generally experienced with other reptiles. Now I know not to wait and to intervene sooner, but I am deeply saddened that this information came at the cost of a beautiful Gila monster.
Another battle that is ongoing is with our axanthic Gila monster Winnie that has refused to eat after laying five infertile eggs. She has been to the vet and is on antibiotics, but she is still not eating voluntarily. Not a good sign but she is eating eggs with a little help from me and I am hoping she recovers. As it’s late in the season and she should be bulking up not fighting for her life, Winnie will be taking the next year to recover as long as she pulls through. She was sick when she arrived in 2021 and after treatment then she has had been doing well until now. There’s obviously an underlying issue that we will get to the bottom of over the next year to ensure she gets healthy and stays healthy for the rest of her days. Stayed tuned for updates on this front…
So, it’s been another year of learning, living and loving our precious Gila monsters. Keeping detailed notes is helping to make changes in the future which will lead to greater success and hopefully no more losses. I can’t wait to see what pips out of the egg this year, it truly makes all the struggles and planning worth it when the babies come out!
PS – My 10-year-old daughter is creating videos for Goatsby’s Place, so they’ll be some fun shorts on YouTube coming up soon!
Goatsby's Place 