Monday, November 2, 2009

Baby Cuban Knight anole!

This little baby just hatched out yesterday!

This is when I found him hatched out in the incubator


After I got him out and opened the lid


Sitting on me with Hatchrite all over him and yolk still attached


After I cleaned him off and after he ate the yolk off his belly



In his cage



It's been a long wait for me in getting this new baby. It is so hard getting eggs in time to incubate them. Most times the eggs are laid and buried in the soil and I cannot find them in time to get them out(they have a large cage). Either the eggs get too cold or feeder insects find the eggs before I do and eat them. I feed insects in a bowl but every now and then a cricket will escape and munch on the eggs:( This egg that hatched I actually saw being laid. I watched the female lay the egg and start to bury it so I reached in and scooped the egg on to a spoon and took it out before it was buried all the way. The female did not mind, she just sat there and looked at me like "What are you doing with my egg?" I put the egg in the incubator set at 80 degrees and waited for it to hatch! I candled it every week and watched it grow and move inside which was really cool:) I really love this species, partly because of their personalities but also because I grew up catching them in the wild as a kid. I have many fond childhood memories of them. In the future I would really like to acquire and breed other large anoles such as the Ornate Knight anole (A. smallwoodi palardis) and A. baracoae (also a type of Knight anole). These anoles are beautiful, they look like Cuban Knight anoles but have yellow markings all over the body and sometimes some blue color too.
Here are links to pics of these other Knight anole species

A. smallwoodi palardis

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