Hows the season going?

[viridis]

Well after a warm March its turned colder.My female bilineata and strigata haven`t been out for about a week.The males are still coming out daily but hopefully it will warm up soon so they can all come out again.Down here near London its about 12c in the daytime and near freezing at night.I still dont know if a couple of my females are still hibernating as they never emerged in the warm weather or if they have perished.

[chrisd]

Hi Viridis,

Quiet on this forum isn't it ? Where is everybody gone too ? All my lizards are out now but I've had a bad year unfortunately, I've lost all my female Exiguas including the large female that never surfaced and a male. My Bills and Viridis are out and feeding but not much action on the mating front. The weather has been similar to you Viridis but a little colder during the days not reaching over 10C most of the time. These last few days have started to be a little sunnier even if it's just part of the day.

I'm very tempted to give it this year then consider bringing them inside either the greenhouse or the porch. When I used to keep them all inside I used to get double clutches each year. That was 5 years ago and since then after moving them outside I've had nothing. It's got to be the unpredictable weather that we experience.

[lizzerd]

Hi all
This is without doubt the worst start to a season I have ever had. The winter was the mildest I can recall yet I have had so many losses and I rarely loose animals over winter. Most of them were last years young including eyeds, argus and bilineata but also two of three adult brachydactyla and one adult blue spiney. all are kept in a greenhouse or cold frames.

[chrisd]

Hi lizzerd,

Sorry to hear of all your losses. Very strange that after such a mild winter we should experience such large losses; especially after such a severe winter as last year. I expected losses last spring and didn't loose anything then. Weird !!

[barb1]

Hi Guys,

All mine are out. The Lepida have been out for ages since that first hot spell. They don't eat yet, not till May. I lost a Bilineata, no idea why, looked great in November. Strange really when the previous winter was so harsh and they all came through OK. I had one Bilineata that dug down last July and surfaced late February! Seems like most of us have had some losses with small lizard species.

[viridis]

It would seem that hard winters are better for our lizards than mild ones.Certainly I have had more losses this winter than the last few.

[chrisd]

Maybe you're right Viridis, some lizards may need a minimum temp to rest properly over winter and if the don't get it then it depletes their reserves. Just a guess though. It certainly makes me re-consider re- housing my animals in a greenhouse which you would think that with a more stable temp and slightly higher temps in the bad weather would be better for them.

[ameivaboy]

I am now starting to see mating activity here. 3 days ago I saw my podarcis sicula campestris going at it and today saw my male lepidus showing interest in the female and trying to copulate but apparently me video recording them on my iphone did not suit them well !!

[chrisd]

My Viridis and Bills paired up when we had the earlier warmer weather but I didn't see any mating going on. Unfortunately, the weather turned for the worst 3 weeks ago and there hasn't been any activity since. This happened last year too when the females and males laid together for a few months, the females seemed to get fatter then nothing happened.After waiting with baited breath what an anticlimax !!Maybe this year is my year !! Fingers crossed !

[viridis]

Dont give up hope.I have had a female bilineata emerge today for the first time this year.The temperatures outside are only about 14c,strange that she didn`t come up in the hot weather about six weeks ago.Anyway good news ;D

[viridis]

Well I was pleasantly surprised later this afternoon,my last strigata emerged.I strongly recommend anyone in northern Europe to give this species a go outside if they have the opprtunity.The males are bright green and the females look somewhat like a female exigua Sand Lizard.the only drawback that I found is that they are very nervous but that could be my animals.

Now we need some warm weather to try to get them mating.

[chrisd]

That's great news Viridis, well done ! I'm glad that your strigata has appeared. It is so late though, I wonder what makes them come out so late, have you any ideas ? As they have missed most of 'spring' (if you can call it that.) could they have missed the chance to breed with the others that appeared earlier ? How long does the window for breeding last ?

Chris

[viridis]

I think that its the weather Chris but why they are so late compared to the others I am not sure.My bilineata and others are just starting to pair up.I think that if we get a good week or so of weather things will be fine.I am a little concerned that that the lizards are not eating because of the weather,but fingers crossed.

[mark68]

I would second the recommedation of Lacerta strigata. Really nice lizards and they can be quite productive egg layers too.

I mean no offence, but Chris its still very early yet, don't panic ! Plenty of time for breeding in the Uk.

Even here in sunny Portugal, most of my lacertids have not layed yet. The only exceptions are my argus that have produced eggs in the last week, and my strigata. I dug up a second clutch for the later about a week ago, but these were started off indoors initially only because I hadn't space indoors early in the year. Now they have a 1 metre square outdoor viv devoted to them.

I am hoping I might even get a third clutch of strigata eggs.

[viridis]

I find my strigata very nervous ,more nervous than any of my other lizards.What about you Mark?
Mine ionly laid a few eggs last year, four or six in a clutch,have yours been laying bigger clutches?