What the heck?!?!?!

[crestedgeckogirly]

Ok, I'm getting a bit frustrated w/one of my breeding trios. One female is apparently being territorial of ALL the lay boxes...not just one. I have lay boxes on both sides of the 40 gallon breeder cage, and for some reason, the smaller female isn't allowed to lay in either!

Yesterday evening I found the 2nd clutch of shriveled up eggs next to the coconut hide. I was SOOOOO angry!!

Has anyone else had this problem? This is the first laying season for both females...is inexperience playing a role?

I separated them out and put one female in a different cage. Since her first clutch was infertile, and the 2nd two dried out before I could find them...I'm not sure she has actually bred with the male. The other females eggs appear to be fertile since her first clutch.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I put the intimidated female in with a different male. He got the job done w/in 2 seconds of me putting her in the cage (poor thing). At least now the eggs should definately be fertile.

So, my question is...could she really be intimidated that much by the other female? Or is she just an idiot laying her eggs in random places w/out substrate? I use cage carpet, so, it's not like she could have mistaken that for a reasonable place to lay her eggs. Who knows...anyone else have these issues? I'm soooooo frustrated!! :confused:

-Andrea

[Niqui13]

That's a tough one. I do have a story though that might help you out a bit. So I used to breed leopard geckos, and at one point I had about 15 females. I have a suspicion that female geckos sometimes know when their eggs are infertile. My leopard females that were first timers, usually didn't lay in the moist hide for their first few clutches. Some of the eggs I would find before they would shrivel up, and they all were infertile. Then the rest of the laying season they would deposit their eggs in the moist hide. All the eggs laid in the hide (give or take only a clutch mate or two) were fertile. Then again near the end of the season, some of the females would lay outside the hide again, with all those eggs (that I know of) being infertile.

Maybe I'm wrong, but since the females (leopard and crested) can store sperm for such long periods of time, I think they actually know when they have or haven't released any sperm for a particular clutch. I had a few clutches laid where one egg was fertile and the other was not. So maybe for those they just didn't rlease enough sperm. (Or also at the end of the season, maybe they don't release any more sperm because they are exausted from laying.)

I could be wrong, so maybe someone more experienced in breeding could tell you more about this theory. That's simply what I observed my leopard geckos do during my two years of breeding them, and I know that those breeding habits are very similar for crested as well.

Hope this helps. I also agree that seperating her from the others was a wise choice!

[poison_iv]

I agree ... I've had females lay unfertile eggs right on their carpet ... but when they are fertile they always lay in the egg box ... I'm not sure how they know, but I know the eggs were infertile because I got them right after they were laid, and the female wasn't even protective over them ... I put them in the incubator right away, and every time they were infertile .... so maybe your female is still young, a lot of time first clutch or two are no good .. .or if the female needs a break, same thing...

[crestedgeckogirly]

Thanks for the feedback guys! Yeah, that may be what's happening. I do know that the one female was being protective of the lay boxes as well, so it could be a combination of both.

I mean, if I knew my clutch was infertile, I wouldn't fight someone to lay somewhere...ya know?

Anyway, hopefully this will fix the problem. Little Monster sure doesn't mind the company!

So, is it best to just have 1.1 breeding pairs instead of 1.2? I'm just wondering if anyone else has had issues w/multiple gravid females in the same enclosure.

Thanks again guys!

-Andrea