Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey,

I just noticed one of my females digging this morning, however as far as I'm aware, I have TWO females in the same tank. She has never been with a male? Is there a reason why she's digging?
When I got home from work, she had successfully made quite a pile and even buried the food dish! Does anyone know why she is behaving strangely? I was going to dig through the pile, but I'm nervous as to what I may find!
If anyone can help me out, let me know.
Thanks!

Male and female crested geckos are very easy to tell apart (males have very obvious hemipenial bulges) so unless you had a late bloomer (be a good ideal to take both out and check to make sure, it has happened before). If neither show any hemipenial bulges, then it could be one of two things.

Your female is gravid with infertile eggs and has or is looking for a good place to lay them. Provide a smaller lay box with moistened soil or coil (coconut husk) that is damp enough to hold it's shape when squeezed but no water oozes out. Eggs can be discarded when found in the egg laying box or substrate. Make sure your female has access to extra calcium to prevent calcium crash from shelling eggs.

Second posibility, your female likes to dig. Might be a good ideal to make sure food and water dish are light weight or buried into the soil so she can't dig underneath it and possibly injuring herself if the substrate collapses and the weight of the food/water dish presses down on her. If you feed live insects, it is possible she saw one burrow into the soil and dug in to get it.

If your other crested gecko does turn out to be male..folllow the procedures for the first possibility above (ie infertile eggs) but incubate the eggs at 70-78F in an incubation container filled with moistened vermiculate (2 parts vermiculate to one part water by weight. Or some also incubate on a one to one ratio, by weight). In 65-75 days you will have little baby cresteds

My crestie was digging and actually burrying herself. Try checking your tempurature(espicially where she sleep during the day). After i introduced a 50w bulb she hasnt done it since.

Either that or you do infact have a male and a female. Or your female isnt fertile a is laying "slugs"(not sure if this species does that though...maybe look into it because i know snakes are known for it).