Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all,
My brother and I have recently begun breeding our first few geckos. We bought two females and a male. Well, as it turns out either the male wasnt very dominant or he was actually a she. So we got the guy to send us a proven breeder male and just assumed that the other "male" was a female and put "her" in with the other girls. That was several months ago and we have since had two clutched from the two real females. The other "female" has not done anything. I dont think it is a "male" because the dominant male would have kicked his arse by now if it was another male. When you look at the gecko from the top and side it looks like it could be a male or a female.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Jeff

no offense but dont you think you should know how to tell the difference between male and female b4 you start breeding? sounds a little bit unprepaired. you gotta look at its crotch not just the top of the animal. do some web searching and look for some sites that tell you how to tell the difference! how the hell are you gunna tell if the babies turn out to be male or female? do you have an incubator set? do you have seperate caging for all the babies? clutchmates can be raised together but still not a good idea, and siblings from different clutches can not!! they will eat each others tails and bully one another. i suggest you do a lot of reading if you havent already, and if you have; it probably wasnt enough if you cant tell male from female. good luck!

To be read with sarcasm ----->Why would they want to learn what they are doing first? Just put a bunch of Leos together, get some babies, make money. That's all you need to know, right? How much easier could it be?

Some people are a joke.....

"no offense but dont you think you should know how to tell the difference between male and female b4 you start breeding?"

I do know the difference, and he looked male and was sold to me by a very reputable breeder as a male. He didnt have a large bulge like the dominant male i have now, but his lumps are larger than the females.

"sounds a little bit unprepaired. you gotta look at its crotch not just the top of the animal. do some web searching and look for some sites that tell you how to tell the difference!"

I did a great deal of research before beginning, thank you very much. In fact, many of the people i talked to are the top people in the industry, and even they dont know whats wrong with this Gecko. I just thought someone here MIGHT know

"how the hell are you gunna tell if the babies turn out to be male or female?"

By seeing if they are more into football or shopping. WTF?!?!

"do you have an incubator set?"

Yes, the two females have their first clutch in right now

"do you have seperate caging for all the babies?"

Babies.... is that what comes out of the eggs....

"clutchmates can be raised together but still not a good idea, and siblings from different clutches can not!!"

Yep, i have several setups ready to go that should last me through all the babies this and next season. Depending on how many i keep for breeders i may need more space the following season

"I suggest you do a lot of reading if you havent already, and if you have; it probably wasnt enough if you cant tell male from female."

Thanks but this was the last stop in a season long quest for answers that had me talking to people like Ron Tremper and others who couldnt help me

"good luck!"

apparently i need it.

well if you knew the sex then why did you ask? maybe your females just werent ready at the moment and they started ovulating when you got the other male. weve all been there and talked to the "reputable breeders", they are not always as reputable as they seem though. i am not talking about Tremper! i mean others, but we wont go there. aparently you take me sarcasticly but whatever. dont ask questions if you know the answeres and then get mad when we tell you. your male could be perfectly fine. you answered your own questions in the last post so i dont know what to tell you.

sigh. a sure way to get people uninterested in your hobby is to be sarcastic ans short with them when they attempt to ask a question and to automatically assume they are dumb for asking. If you looked, i described my situation above and i said that the "male" was acting very "non-male" and i wanted to know if a male that was doing the things he was doing could potentially be a female or a very undominant male. I usually don't post on this forum because of the tenancy of alot of its users to be very unsympathetic to beginner and intermediate questions. When i get the sarcasm that i got from both of you addressing me as if i was a complete moron i tend to get sarcastic back, as would most people. I really hope that you dont usually treat beginner hobbyist this way and that this was just a freak thing that both of you didn't really mean.

Anyway, i feel the need to address my questions to a more receptive audience. I'm sorry that you felt the need to be sarcastic with me and i hope your attitudes change in the future.

I'm with you captotterboy. It does seem like there are a lot of people here that get upset when questions are asked. I think you outlined your questions well and presented them in a thoughtful manner. I am not a breeder, but my guess would be the male in your original post is just, well, kind of a wimp. Maybe he's the gecko equivalent of a 45 year old virgin who still lives in his parents' basement and loves Sci-Fi. In all events, sorry you didn't get very competent or courteous answers. Have a good day, and good luck with your project.

Hey,
That seems to be the popular answer of everyone I asked. The place where i got the gecko game me a REALLY good deal on the dominant male i got from him because of the lack of sexual appetite from the original. But i think you are right, its a male, just so undominant that the real male just ignors him when they are in the same cage. Its a shame too, because the original male (the wuss) was a het aptor. oh well, he's still really docile and a great pet.

Anyway, thank you very much for your help. My first ever clutch of eggs (from the dominant male) should be hatching in the next week or two. Maybe some raptors.......

Thanks again,
Jeff

it could have been a female that was incubated at 90ish, they are often females that act like males and don't ever lay eggs.

Wow, ive never heard of that. Is there anything i can do about it to encourage her to breed if that is the case?

Thank you for the help

it would be called a (hot female) which is an egg that would have been incubated between 92-95degrees. if that is what it is it wouldnt make sense because hot females are very agressive and try to dominate everything. you said your gecko seems to be passive and or non-horny. also if it were a hot female it will never lay eggs because they are infertile. however this is all what i have read, heard, and so forth, luckily i havent had that problem befor. like i said you may just have a female or a non-horny/aggressive animal. you also may have a female or if it is a male like i said your females just may not have been ovulating yet and now that it is breeding season that is why they are laying. you may not realize it but those eggs could be from your problem male because female leos can store sperm up to a year. you just may not have seen them humping. anyhow i was gunna say something else but i forgot now, been @ work for like 10hrs....but if you thought it was maybe a male why did you risk your males lives by housing them together?

I risked putting them together after observing the "male" in with the females and him displaying no want to breed. After a month and a half of him ignoring the females I got the dominant male. After a quarantine period i put the dominant male in with the "male" and closely monitored their behavior all night. The male and the "male" ignored each other. After several weeks of introducing the male to the tank with the "male" and females the females laid their first clutches and the male ignores the "male." Thats what led me to believe that it was either so non-dominant that the real male doesnt see it as a threat and ignors him or its an infitle female.

as far as i know there isn't really anything you can do, they aren't of much use as breeders. i think they are referred to as "super females" so you could google it or something. they have the female reproductive organs, but act like a male and are much more agressive than normal females. what did the person you bought it from say? that is was female? it's hard to tell if you don't try to breed them if they are super females.

The person i got them from wasnt sure but he said it could be an nondominant male or a female in disguise. He has male bulges, but they are not very pronounced compared to the dominant male.

oh well, he/she makes a pretty pet.

i looked in a leo book i have and they are called hot females, not super females, my bad. they do make nice pets, good luck with him/her!