madagascar hisser breeding

TheSwarmThing

TheSwarmThing

Second Instar
Hi everyone,

I just bought a new enclosure for my hissers when I saw my female with an ootheca. In your opinion would it stress the female, If I'd relocate her to the new enclosure? I don't want to her to abort the babies or anything. 

Could the time until "giving birth" be estimated somehow?

Thanks for the help!

DSCF3183-min (1)-min (2).JPG

 
It shouldn't stress her too much. I handled and feed and check my colony every few days and there is almost always a gravid female. Sometimes an ooth breaks but the remainder incubates just fine. I have changed out egg carton hides many times with females having ooths hanging out with no bad effects. If it makes you feel better, you can relocate her first so she has a chance to hide then relocate the rest of the colony.

 
Sorry to hijack TheSwarmThing's thread, but thanks dcfarms for answering the question as to whether a half broken off ootheca will incubate, as this has just happened to one of my females and I wasn't sure whether she would be OK or not. Sounds like she should be OK which is good news!

The only difference with mine is that the ootheca was a bit misshapen but I think this is because the female it has happened to had a small prolapse during her first birth which seemed to be fully recovered, but I am thinking perhaps she can't now produce a "perfect" ootheca. It seems that they are a bit "rough" (i.e. not a smooth line of eggs in pairs  like the photo above but a bit "bumpy") and although she can push them part way out to "air" she can't then retract the part she has pushed out. The first time this happened (it has happened twice) she aborted the ootheca completely but this time the part she couldn't retract broke off and the rest stayed inside her, so I am now hopeful she will be OK and it will go to term.

 
To awnser the op's question on estimating time till the ootheca hatches. Its my understanding that halfway threw a typical 2 month gestation period hissers exudes the ootheca and rotate it 180 degrees before pulling it back in. So provided there is adequate heat the ootheca will hatch in a month. I'm pretty sure gestation is 2 months but it could be 3 I am only 80% sure. 

 
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