Hatchling Blue headed tree agamas

[Leos r gr8]

Hi
When we were building our pool, we had to take out a tree. Whilst the
builders were digging out the roots I spotted a clump of oval shaped white eggs, I told the men to stop digging and retrieved the eggs . All 13 were placed in an incubator for 62 days at 29 degrees celcius. When they hatched, we dicovered that they were blue headed tree agamas. Ive been feeding the hatchlings a strict diet of small crickets and termites for a few months now and I was wondering if it was safe to release them in my garden, we have a few big wild males and I was wondering if they are terrotorial and would the babies be eaten or something?



Here are a few of the hatchlings on my arm

Pics fixed - Froot. You need to paste the URL of the full size pic in the gallery. Right click on the pic, select properties and copy the URL.

[Kay]

How cure are they! It is great that you made such an effort to save these little guys!

[Bushviper]

That is really nice to have hatched them all. These eggs seem to survive being dug up quite happily.

The males will usually only fight with mature males who could mate with their females. They should not eat up the babies in case they babies are there own or are females that they could mate with one day.

I would not release them right where the dominant males are but if you have some place nearby they should do well.

It is more than likely that at most only one will survive to adulthood. If you can put them in a cage where they will get sunlight and be fed often you could get them all to adulthood and then go release them in a new suitable area.

You can switch them to mealworms (which are cheaper), crickets cockroaches, termites and other insects which they would find in the wild.

[polywogle]

Oh wow, this is handy, I rescued a baby tree Agama out of my cat's mouth the other day, he is not eating by himself though so i have to feed him.
Nice to know that there are other people out there with some experience with these guys.

[Bushviper]

Polywogle baby agamas also take beetles so if you leave them to crawl around while he is sunning himself then he should take them quite easily. Termites are also a very good bet because that is possibly more what he is used to as well.

[Natal_Black]

Yus thats cool ! they check so rad ! we used to have many at our place when I was a kid , havnt seen one in 10yrs , well done on that , great story!

[polywogle]

Thank you Bushviper, what beetles do you mean though?

I was a bit worried about termites coz there were some in his tank that were taking off cricket legs that were the size of his toes and he is so lethargic he might not eat them before they try to nibble on him.

He is looking alot better though so i must be doing something right.

[Leos r gr8]

Hi
My agamas favourite food is termites.The termites wont hurt him if you only give him the workers, the big headed ones can bite. He wont eat for the first week or so because he will have been a bit stressed by the whole cat incident. Also keep him quite warm and let him have access to sunlight.

Good luck

[Rob]

I also dug up and hatched these guys about 2 years back. I released each one on a different tree in different parts of the garden. When i left there recently i know at least 3 were still there in their same tree

There were 9 eggs

[vierfleck]

Hello Bushviper,

I´m not sure,if you´re right saying,that adult agamas won´t eat their babies.Of course I have no experience in tree agamas,but I know,what a bearded dragon do with their children, they eat them!!!

I bred bearded dragons for a long time,and sometimes(2x) we get a crippled baby. I fed this crippled baby to the mother,and she ate it, but thats only my experience.

regards

Matthias

[Bushviper]

Matthias I have no doubts that Bearded dragons will eat their babies. This could be more of a problem in captivity as well.

I know that the agamas I found in Namibia (Agama planiceps) actually live in family groups. I have seen a number of territorial disputes with the Blue headed agamas. So much so that the one time I had to stop my car and chase them off the road.

I have never seen baby Blue headed agamas in the wild so I have no idea if they would become food, but I dont think the adults would actively search out the babies.

[vierfleck]

Hello Bushviper,

i would love to see,what you described .

The most experience i have with geckos,and there are some species,who eat the youngsters,and some dont.Maybe equal to agamas,that some will not eat their babies.But i wouldnt try it in captivity.

regards

Matthias

[Buckweed]

Hi There guys

I'm loving the feeds and have almost all the info I need, however I need a few more direct questions answered, please help

I have had 6 eggs in a home made incubation, not having any idea what could be brewing inside... Yesterday morning I had the great suprise to see that one little egg had hatch a stunning baby Blue Headed Tree Agama. (Thanks to the awesome photo above) A couple of hours later the second egg hatched. Unfortunately these eggs were found in building sand on a resort and moved around a lot before I was able to put them in the incubator... the other eggs did not adjust to the move so well. I have now 2 little ones that have made it, and I want ensure their survival.

I am worried that the 2 survivors might have some complications due to the eggs being moved around so much. And to top it off I have no knowledge of rearing a hatchling reptile...
* They are very lethargic gaining a burst of energy when startled. Is this normal?
* They also do not seem to eat... If I am correct these little guys are diurnal, would it mess with their cycle if I placed a light in their “cage” and placed the cage close to the window to attract the insects flying by at night?
* Should I force feed them if they do not want to freely take insects roaming around their cage?
* With these little guys being precocial (Species in which the young are relatively mature and mobile from the moment of birth or hatching.) Would they have a better chance to release them now, only 2 days old? Or should I nurture them for a couple of weeks?

These little guys are really awesome and I would really love to give them the best chance available, I am open to any advise.

Many thanks,

[Rishaad]

I also hatched a few out not too long ago. They are very cute and super fast. It's a pity that no one is really working with these. I reckon they would give bearded dragons a run for their money.

[rolandslf]

Rishaad, I find it interesting that you mention nobody working with these.

I have been thinking of seeing if these can be raised from babies to adulthood under the same conditions as Beardies. UVB, Basking Light, feeding regimes etc. , might have to do temperature adjustments however.

Now I just need to find some babies.