Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have two female cresteds housed together. one is 10 months old and the other 9. i also have a seperatley housed male, who is youger but not sure of his age, he was noticably smaller when i got him but has just recently outgrown one of the females in size.
my question is when to introduce the male? i had assumed it would be best to wait until they were all about a year, but just read elsewhe of over agrresive males being introduce to females and causing them to drop their tales. although i know this is not a real problem i would like to avoid it if possible. i am thinking maybe the sooner the introduction, the less stress/agressive mating...leading to the females not dropping tailes? so i am curious if introducong him know would be a good idea or a bad idea? thanks for any input nick

The real question is how much do you females weigh. IMO if they weigh under 35 grams dont risk introducing the male, you dont want your females breeding to early and possibly leading to a calcium crash.

There is another problem with introducing immature geckos too soon. Occasionally larger ones will keep smaller ones from accessing food. I had this happen with a pair where the female was over 35 grams and the male was well over a year old, but smaller than the female. She must've given him a hard time, but he lost ground and even developed a kink in his tail from lack of calcium/food. I had to remove him to his own cage where he is gradually coming around, but is super-skittish for no other reason (I got him as a juvie, and always handled him gently and he has never seen a cat). Just something to keep in mind.
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Terri
4:8:13 crested geckos: Popcorn, Goldfish, Harley, Bear, Big Red, Olive, Smudge, Blackie, Belle, Brilliant, Tina, Brick, Avis, Toni(y), Kermit, ChiliPepper, Zipper, ZigZag & Scallops, Bullseye & Tigerhead, 2 patternless (hard to name), Baubles and Pineapple