Gila monster soup? Two Gilas one water dish? Nah, Hot Tub Gila Time Machine! Of course they have access to their own water bowls, but what fun is that? This is Indy and Misty and they follow each other around like any young couple in love. Thankfully they didn’t do what Gilas always do in the water bowls, yet💩!
I hope you are resting as comfortable as these two Gila monsters are this Sunday morning! There is certainly a social component to Gilas lives (and loves) that we do not understand, not even remotely.
With all the excitement of breeding season coming to an end, the only thing to do now is leave the eggs alone and wait until a very distant Halloween arrives. Though I do check on the eggs every day (making sure phorid flies have not gotten into the boxes and oxygen exchange is taking place) they’re not moved or messed with until hatching. I found if the eggs make it through July they’ll usually make it to term. Though, I did have an egg almost make it all the way and then suddenly die with a grown baby inside a few years back. That was a bummer to say the least!
As with all things Gila monster nothing is straightforward. We had a very good year with eggs, though two first time females paired with first time males did not produce viable eggs, but that was to be expected. Are stalwart female females Belle and Heather did what they do and produced beautiful eggs, laid on time at the same time. With Belle and Heather I was able to predict oviposition within two days of my projected date, which is huge in keeping track of how things should be going. This year another female (Lucy) became egg bound after laying three eggs which was a first. I was able to take care of it myself and so far it seems to have worked as that large egg was passed as she is still alive. Egg bound Gila‘s are a real threat to their health and proper monitoring and action are required. Egg binding will kill a female Gila monster without doubt, and time is of the essence in this case.
Now the focus is on nutrition as we prepare for next year. Armed with another year of success and failure I keep detailed notes and reflect upon what worked, what didn’t work, and speak to other breeders about their trials and tribulations. It’s easy to see why casual breeders have trouble with success breeding Gila monsters. It takes a lot of focus, dedication, and time to have repeated success. Hats off to all my friends and fellow Gila breeders making it happen every year!
Over the past few years successfully breeding Gila monsters I have seen an interesting behavior that is fascinating; nest box guarding! Each year after laying eggs my females back fill the nest boxes and then vigorously defend the nest. I cannot re-connect the cages with the males for at least a month after oviposition! The moms get extremely aggressive and if I put my hand in to grab or move something they run over to attack.
I am curious how this works in the wild as it’s obviously an innate behavior, but with wild Gila monsters breeding habits virtually unknown to us it may be some time before we know the answer.
Once the female Gila monster backfills the nest I know viable egg laying is over (I also check on ultrasound to be sure). Some slugs can still be laid after the nest is filled, but they are most certainly bad.
I how in the future we can piece the puzzle together between wild and captive behaviors and shed more light into the secret lives of Gila monsters!
Yesterday one of our females laid her first egg of the 2026 Gila monster (Heloderma suspectum) breeding season, followed up by two more females laying today! There are still more to come but the excitement is growing! So far only three slugs out of 13 eggs, but I do expect a few others to turn over the next few weeks. Stay tuned for more posts and updates!
This never gets old. Say hi to the world’s youngest Gila monster!
As our Gilas hatch those on the waitlist will be contacted in the order joined. We only had four eggs this year, so availability is very limited but let us know if you want to get in the list for 2025. Or, just reach out to talk Gilas!
As of today, only one pair of Gilas have been observed copulating. Mating activity usually picks up about now and lasts for 2-3 weeks, so more Gila monster love is sure to be seen. Though this is the only pair (Winston and Winifred) it is certainly the most exciting – if everything goes well and we get viable eggs from Winnie, it will be the first time that our axanthic line will have been produced.
Winnie was picked up in 2021 but had some health issues and the as held back for the first two years and allowed to focus on getting healthy, was off sync with follicle growth last year, and seems to be lined up this year. This axanthic project has been years in the making and I am certainly excited to see some babies come from this line! I’ll keep everyone posted on how the progress goes, I’m performing ultrasounds throughout the weeks and monitoring the pairs closely – fingers crossed for an amazing year!
Hey Monster Squad! It’s been way too long since I last sent an update out which is disappointing as so much has happened since the last post. As with all Gila monster breeding seasons, this one was full of surprises and a lot of lessons to be learned.
First, during pairing and copulating we attempted a 1.1 ratio for breeding pairs which we hoped would increase success. Two of our previously bred females were seen copulating at least five times, but the new girl we got last year was only seen once. Eggs seem to be maturing well as monitored on ultrasound, except for the new female which only had two eggs (the other two females had greater than five eggs from what we could see). By the time egg laying came about in June this is where things change and deficiencies in our program were found. our two long-term females produce 13 eggs between the two of them, and the new girl produced two.
Unfortunately only four of the 15 eggs survived of the whole group to date. One was actually eaten by it mother! This was a severe disappointment but valuable lessons were learned. First, the new female was under condition and not ready to be bred but she had enough weight and we thought she would be ready, she was not. Second our egg-laying protocol needs to be revised as it appears our girls are not comfortable laying eggs in their current egg boxes, which at this time are the entire cage turned into an egg laying nest with dark tint over the glass to provide privacy. Unfortunately this is not enough and we are going to try something entirely new next year fingers crossed!
As we approach the end of October we have four eggs still in the running. Four out of 15 is not a good ratio but some success is certainly better than none at all! It’s interesting that most eggs go bad within the first 30 days of laying, which says to me that our incubation protocol technique is working. Of course mid and late term and losses have happened but generally most eggs even fertile they are doomed will go bad within the first 30 days. These days I’m checking the incubator daily opening to egg boxes for fresh air as the humidity and temperature continue to remain stable throughout the week incubation period. We are super excited for the birth of our baby Gila monsters – each time I truly feel like a kid during Christmas opening the big gift center left under the tree! As soon as the babies are out we will post pictures and contact those on the waitlist in the order that they joined (Allen you’re up first!).
So as we wrap up our 2022 Gila monster breeding season and get our monsters ready for the Big Chill (hibernation, not the movie), we look forward to an amazing 2023 breeding season. One of our 2019 females produced here is growing follicles as shown by ultrasound and will be attempted to be bred next year. We are also very excited to have our axanthic Gila monster Winnie up to condition and ready to breed next year. This is a very, very exciting project for us as few of these morph are being bred throughout the world. We are also excited to put into motion the lessons we learned in this and past seasons to improve our success and to see more amazing baby Gila monsters born into this world, because what world isn’t better with more Gila monsters in it?
This photo shows offspring produced here over a three-year period; 2019-2020-2021. They really start to chunk out after the second year, but still have some growing to do!
The 2021 baby Gila monsters are all out and settling in here at Goatsby’s Place! We are very proud of our beautiful baby monsters, and feel blessed to have been successful again this year. While most are spoken for, we may have a few available for new homes. Please email us if interested, or to get on the list for 2022.
Goatsby's Place 