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Looking for a place to purchase some female cresties are they hard to find?
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1.0 Uromastyx
0.0.1 Sulcatta totoise
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2.2 Corn snakes
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1.1 Brazilian Rainbow boa
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2.2 Ball pythons (1pastel 2 normals)
2.1.1 crested geckos

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signature file edited. [phw 10/23/04]

it's hard to say, go through the classifieds.
otherwise your best bet is to buy 2 or more very nice babies or juvies and go from there. nobody wants to get rid of any awesome looking cresties if they're old enough to sex.
look around, best place for juvies in my mind is acreptiles.com or sundialreptiles.com

crested geckos have a very high percentage of females to males, so you have very high chances of getting females when you buy babies from vendors.

most of the time vendors want more money for sexable crested geckos, however, if you check out the classifieds you will notice that females are pretty common, most people dont want to part with good male breeders, but females are fairly common at least from what i've seen.

Denpending on what type or quality of animal you are looking for.

Kevin Dunn from Dragons Den has some of the nicest animals out there. Most are of the high color variety such as high end reds, yellows and oranges and some crazy super dark chocolate fires with and without dalmation spots. He always seems to be selling sexed pairs and sometimes runs deals with pairs and such.

I've had great experiences with dealing with him. I wouldnt hesitate going there.

Eric

"crested geckos have a very high percentage of females to males"
atleast in my experience it's the opposite. you have to know that i only have 8 sexable cresties, but as of now i have 6 males and 2 females
which is the opposite of what you're implying
i know these aren't the kind of numbers you would need to prove it and i've got 4 more juvies coming. does anyone else have any input on this?

a lot of depends on incubation temperature, some temperatures will lead to a more balanced female/male ration (50/50). However, the most common ratio is 40/60 male to female, and these are studies taken directly from breeders.

it has been reported by breeders such as Frank Fast, and others, that ciliatus eggs incubated at temperatures on the lower end (68-74F) have had a high percentage of females to males, in most cases at least 2:1 female to male and some times even 3:1 female to male.

However, when incubated at higher temperatures, 72-78F the clutches have been a bit more balanced, although usually more females are produced.

at high temperatures, such as 80-84 the clutches are predominantly male, however, these high temperatures can also have detrimental effects, and one effect noticed was that ciliatus maturity took up to 10 months before it was noticably sexable as a male.

Wow interesting thread .
Buying females... Of all the countless adds Ive looked at over the last 10 months .Sticky feet seem to sell some of the best looking sexed females. (Many breeders have great looking cresteds but most dont put the great looking sexed females ones up for sale) .Im comfortable recomending Sticky because my 8th baby from a female I bought from them as a adult hatched about 45 minutes ago. (nice investment)
If your looking strictly for a oportunity to breed a few cresteds with color and pattern a secondary concern the classifieds are beginning to have some adult females show up.But they tend to be plainer looking cresteds that the breeders are replacing .The reason for the scarcity is one good looking male can service 3-4 females so its the females that make the breeders the $$$.
The only way to get really great looking females is buy babies and raise them into adults..its a investment of time but pays off in the big picture .Plus theres the added advantage of you can be sure the female youve raised has been given a proper diet and is ready to breed.
As for percentages .in 16 babies Ive purchased 16 have been female and 3 have been male to date. Only one has turned out to be a male late .(He was about 10 months old) .
On the incubation temps...most breeders seem to agree that temp doesnt affect cresties like it does other species .I only incubate at 78 degrees because its given me a great hatch rate and I dont want to fiddle with sucess.

My experince has been that of the cresteds that I have hatched and raised to a sexable size it has been 55% females and 45% males. I incubate at room temp (between 70 to 77. The primary reason for excess males is lack of room to house them singly and you only need one good male to breed with numerous females. Just my penny and a half.

drk fantasy whats sticky feets website Id like to check it out?
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1.0 Uromastyx
0.0.1 Sulcatta totoise
0.1 Leos
2.2 Corn snakes
0.0.1 Childrens python
1.1 Brazilian Rainbow boa
1.0 Rat (as pet not food)
2.2 Ball pythons (1pastel 2 normals)
2.1.1 crested geckos

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signature file edited. [phw 10/23/04]

n/p

Ok people here's how it is. Crested geckos as a whole normally produce a fairly even number of males to females 55% to 45% or vice versa under almost all temps. Cresteds have not been "trully" determined to be temp dependent. Temperature only seems to scew the sex ratio to a very small extent. And don't you think if they were temp dependent there would be so many females for sale it would boogle the mind. Think about this logically people. There is the factor of dumb luck which is what you've got if you have a large amount of females. Unless you hatch thousands of cresteds you really cant claim personally that you have any eveidence to support temp dependency. And there are so many other factors and examples of human error that just don't make for good science.
By the way if descent mature females are so easy to find and so incredibly affordable sell me some! Or a trade perhaps, I tell you what I'll give you my dark flame with orange dorsal fire pattern for only two of your high end females OK? What a deal dont miss it while it lasts!
-Eli
ps: that post was not directed at anyone specifically.

Thank You I totaly agree untill someone can figure out how to get hatch rates up to 80% female there will always be surplus males.

my facts were not made up, my facts were pulled straight from Allen Repashy and Phillipe de Vosjoli.

These men have hatched out cresteds by the hundreds and even by the thousands and compiled the information that I presented in this thread.

although they used temperature gradients there also isnt any hard evidence that varying temps matter, but they gave the results of the study according to the temps they used.

in most cases they had a higher female to male ratio, the best they did was around 50/50 except for the higher temps when it was predominantly male.

atleast the way you posted.
first quote from beginning of thread
"crested geckos have a very high percentage of females to males, so you have very high chances of getting females when you buy babies from vendors. "
second quote
"although they used temperature gradients there also isnt any hard evidence that varying temps matter, but they gave the results of the study according to the temps they used.

in most cases they had a higher female to male ratio, the best they did was around 50/50 except for the higher temps when it was predominantly male."
according to your information there is however a change from the sex ratios to temperature change. you just put it on there!!
lower temps, more females, some 50/50 and some higher males to females.
i don't understand where people are coming up with this information. i understand there are certain people who have hatched out thousands of crested geckos and probably have the best information. but back to the beginning of the thread where someone posted something like... 80% females 20% males?
this makes no sense to please be quiet and stop confusing me. i'll stick to hoping that the odds are 50/50 and i just got screwed on the first 8 that i raise ( 6 male / 2 female)

1) i never said 80:20

2) my post makes perfect sense, from the beginning i said i have read that there is usually a higher female:male ratio, so i went and got the facts I had and reposted them so I had evidence to backup my statement.

3) there really isn't hard evidence that temp gradients matter, they posted results using different temp gradients but that doesnt mean it is 100% the same every time, those were just averages.

4) dont tell me to be quiet because you are confused over something really simple. read my post!

im not sure what you are confused about, maybe i typed a few things weird, but overall i stated my opinion and then i brought facts to back it up, i dont see whats wrong with that?

sorry, i guess this quote
"crested geckos have a very high percentage of females to males, so you have very high chances of getting females when you buy babies from vendors. "
VERY high seems me like like greater than 60% females to me, so i exagerated it a little. however VERY high percentages still seems like quite a bit more than 55% females to 45% males.

my mistake, i shouldnt have said very, that can throw people off a bit.

i am just going off the studies i have read, i dont breed enough to come up with any hard facts of my own. im a hobbyist breeder, i was going off of commercial breeding studies.

I wouldn't by any means say there's a super high chance of getting a female, it doesn't deviate from 50% by that much (ie more than 10-15%). So I would say you have a god chance if you buy a couple unsexables, but then you have to wait for them to mature, then if they end up being male you'll have a hard time selling them, and will have to sell them relatively cheap.
I also wouldn't say that females are a dime a dozen in the classifieds. They are anywhere from 2-5x more expensive than the males. Most males will run you anywhere from $35-75, and females can run up to and over $200. On most producers' sites you will find 10 males to each female for sale, because as someone pointed out, it doesn't pay to hold back lots of males since you only need one to service a harem.
Good luck. If you have the cash now buy a sexed female, it will save you time, and there are some nice ones out there if you look hard enough. Carnivorous orchid as a female for sale, and I think there's a few others.
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Want to know about vet school? go to www.vmth.ucdavis.edu

While it is true that a male can deal with as many as 4-5 females, not everyone does that. I try to pair up my animals up for genetic diversity and cleaning up the lines. I try to put reds with reds and super dalmations to supers and yellow chevrons to the same and so on and so forth. That way you can be sure of selling completely unrelated babies to people. I also have a few groups I outcross the colors and morphs to see what does what.

The point being is that not everyone pimps them out.

Also, it is true that no one has definitive knowledge of temp dependencies for gender odds. I am not saying I know all or anything but I have produced over 1000 cresteds and I have kept roughly a 1/4 or so till sexable ages and were within 55-45% at different temps. So I can say I have never noticed a difference and still believe there is no influence of gender by temp differences.

Eric

Thanks all wasnt looking for a debate but hey...I will check out some of those sources..And yes I have money in hand and willing to pay for nice females. I also plan on buying a group of babies right now I just have two males and one female sub adults and was interested in getting at least one more sexable female.
any more places spring to mind let me know thanks.
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1.0 Uromastyx
0.0.1 Sulcatta totoise
0.1 Leos
2.2 Corn snakes
0.0.1 Childrens python
1.1 Brazilian Rainbow boa
1.0 Rat (as pet not food)
2.2 Ball pythons (1pastel 2 normals)
2.1.1 crested geckos

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signature file edited. [phw 10/23/04]

I personally have had a better success producing females than males and average 60% female to male ratio if not better. I only hold back the best geckos to sex otherwise they get wholesaled or sold via website. I cant imagine any difference in sex due to geckos not being as brightly colored so I would say the ratio should be the same as my holdbacks. If you have been to my site (www.StickyFeetExotics.com) or seen my ads on the classified I sell a higher ratio of females than males. I dont do any specific temp checks and dont try to control it at all. I use a air tight container and keep temps in summer between 75-80 and winter 70-78 everyday. I have been told by numerous people on here, at shows, and via emails that I have some of the best looking crested available. I am bias but I do agree. I am holding back 31 geckos from the month of october. I will know for that month and those set of conditions what ratio I have, but I wont put any scientific proof behind my findings. I will then release all of them after they are sexable. Anyway everyone relax and enjoy your crested. I know I do.

hello,

i am breeding cresteds since the beginning of 2004 now(first hatchlings), and all the responses from buyers i got told me my animals are females.
i incubate with temperatures from 78.8° to 80.5° fahrenheit. at the beginning i bought 6 unsexed juvies and 5 of them turned out to be females.
with the right temperatures i think you can have a percentage of 80% females.

best regards

ingo

.

well, the breeder i got the 6 cresteds from, even said he usually has 80% females, and 5 of them turned out to be females.
he writes articles about rhacos for the german herpetological society.
i have no way to proove what he says though...

cya

Ingo
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Ingo Hess
My Reptiles

ps: sorry for partitial strange english, im from europe, austria.