Dragon Eggs

July 4th & 5th

We still have only two hatched dragons... However... on July 4th, Kila laid 17 eggs . Apparently she liked riding in the car... we had been waiting for her to lay all day... it wasn't until she was in the trunk in her hatch box on our way to Laura & Chris's house that she began laying... We did get to see her push a few out... really cool experience...

After church on the 5th we went to the store to pick out parts to build an incubator... the cage is hard to keep a steady temperature and now with two sets of eggs... we want to be sure to do it right! We opted to purchase an incubator instead as the weekend was already packed full and the eggs needed to be stored properly and fast.

The brown egg has been slowly collapsing, but not completely. We haven't given up on it yet. The last white egg still hasn't hatched... no change in it at all.

Trev will be here Wednesday... maybe the white egg is waiting for him to get here so it can hatch!

We have been calling them Drago #1 and #2... we are waiting for Trev to name them this time.

Dragon #2

And to us... children were born!

Thursday morning, as usual, I was running late... but nothing about this day would be normal...

Something told me to check on our dragons... as I check the food dish I noticed something rather strange... Kila was digging... like a dog burying a bone... and Kilo... laying behind her with a look of utter disgust... was beneath a pile of walnut shells... Kila had just nearly completely buried him in the substrate.

After having 3 sets of eggs laid this year, I knew what this meant... we have a pregnant dragon and ifI didn't think quickly I would have dehydrated baby dragon eggs when I got home!

I scooped up Kila, grabbed our prepared "Pregnant Dragon Container" and ran out the door...

Upon arriving at work, with my pregnant dragon in tow, I got a phone call from Donna (Ron's Reptiles; Chico, CA) telling me we have dragon's hatching! Wow, I could have a delivery and a birth all in one day!

Quickly, I asked to take the day off opting to work the holiday instead and ran out the door.

... Flashback... to last December...

Ben had created a great habitat for the dragon's simulating true Austrailian seasons in hope of brumating them as we were wrapping up construction of our new home. After 3 months, the testing grounds began... we reintroduced our dragons on "dates" and prayed our dragon's would be very "happy to see each other". We had no idea... just HOW happy they would be...

Since then, Corkscrew has laid a cluster of 14 eggs... Kila has laid 24 and then 4 more. This being thier first time and ours, only 4 of the eggs have made it through incubation. (Some eggs weren't fertile, others were too dehydrated). However, today... we would see new life!

... In just 20 minutes from the phone call yesterday telling me an arm was poking out of the egg... our first lizard was born. In hopes of viewing the rest of the births firsthand, I took my eggs home.

After many hours of monitoring their temperature to assure they had a cage at exactly 82 degrees... a second dragon began to emerge face first out of the egg...

Our second little guy took much longer than the first. He waited till quite late in the night to emerge and at that was quite timid but much more willing to be held. As you can see they are smaller than Ben's finger and quite willing to give him a hug!

Our first little guy is still skittish, but enjoys basking on the rock with his brother. He has eaten his first cricket today and has enjoyed running quickly here and there in the cage.

Our Bearded Dragon Family

A little over a year ago, Trever received two pet Bearded Dragons for his birthday. It didn't take us long to fall in love with "Kilo" and "Kila". They had brought us so much joy and laughter that we knew quickly a third one was destined to join our dragon family.

We wanted this third one to be unique. It was equally important that it be another female that would happily share a home with Kila and Kilo. After a few visits to Ron & Donna's (Ron's Reptiles; Chico, CA) we set our eyes on a feisty and resilient dragon named "Corkscrew". We were drawn to her immediately as she was of similar age and yet a different demeanor and breed than our existing pair.

Imagine Trever's excitement when he discovered there were not 2 but now 3 dragon's living in his room!

How did we name them?

Kilo: Short for Kilimanjaro, since he is always climbing to get to the highest peak
Kila: Named after one of Trev's favorite movies; Akeelah and the Bee
Corkscrew: Named after a unique "corkscrew" characteristic in her tail caused by a "tussel" with a dragon in her previous home.