- Joined
- Aug 5, 2012
- Messages
- 187
Well today the last of my female phayrei layed her eggs. She is captive born herself and it was her first viable clutch. Phayrei need to weigh 40 lbs to lay viable eggs. Her first try was two years ago and they were very small and pinkish in color. She scattered them around after a failed attempt to build a nest. I dont know what happened last year as there was no nesting at all. This year she struggled at building a nest but kept at it for weeks just to have it washed away in the flood. When she started over it started raining again every afternoon. there was no flood this time but everything was mud. I gave her some semi-dry leaves and she started building. (I add dry leaves near their nesting sight quite often now and it helps keep the nest "fluffy" if they get to much dirt pilled up.) I put a plastic patio table over the nest sight and covered it with a tarp leaving one side open a little. She loved this and findly had a fairly big nest under the table and it was drying out nice with the hot weather. this morning when she was off the nest we checked and 40 eggs were retrieved in very good condishion. She is my 2nd captive born phayrei to lay and I hope hatch out. The smaller eggs were no suprise as i have learned from my first CB egg layer that 2nd. generation eggs and babies are smaller than older/heaver wild cought adults are. 32-36 grams compaired to 45-50 grams or Big Mama's huge 68 gram superchamp sized eggs. She was an adult 25 years ago when I got her! This is something we..er....you..er the next younger generation of Manouria keepers are going to have to deal with, because captive born emys are all you will have to work with. Their first clutches will be smaller and LESS FIT than their wild parents were. I hope to let you know how long it takes them to be equeal to the wild adults of the 80's early 90's but I'm only into 2nd gen. for five years coming up this year. They get a little more fit each year, so its looking like they may not be in their prime breeding age until 45+ years! I'll check in again with another story with another female in the 2013 flood durring nest building or "the Summer of the wet nightmare" Vic emysbreeder
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