Reptile & Amphibian Forums

we have 1 female and 1 male crested gecko that we keep in seperate enclosures. the female never used to lay eggs until we got a larger cage to attempt keeping them together. the male was having a hard time getting food and was only interested in one thing- the lady- and she seemed really annoyed at his attempts always trying to bite him off, etc. it was during their time together that she laid her first pair of eggs, which turned out infertile, but ever since seperating them she has been laying eggs on a regular basis, like every month or so (probably 5 or 6 pairs in the last year). i've read that it's a big calcium drain (among other things) for females to lay eggs often and that you should give them a break from breeding, but how do i get her to stop laying eggs, or should i even worry? she seems perfectly healthy. any thoughts? how often do your females lay infertile eggs without a male around?

Unfortunately, once the female starts laying eggs and gets into a cycle it can be difficult to stop. You can try different things like shorter length of daylight and lower temp to make her go out of breeding cycle (make her think it's winter). Besides that, I'm not sure... hopefully someone else here will have a better suggestion.

Good luck. Just make sure you keep dusting all of her foods & have a Vit D added or a UV light for her to use the calcium.

-Bonnie

the only way to get her to stop is to drop the temp. anything below 70 and above 60 should do the trick.

I have just started a pritty big breading colony and I have one of the same problems. My female was in with one another female that all most over night got balls, so I removed him A.S.A.P. So now she is laying eggs about ones a month now, the funny thing is, is that I think that they are fertal. I also think they have the ability to hold sperm. That is just another steping stone to learning about these guys. They are about to hatch any day now so I will let you know what happens. I would like to drop the temp but I have about six other female laying. What I would sugest is what I am trying. I would seperate her from any other females so she gets her own food source, and make sure she has lots of calcium. I tried uping the calcium for all my females even the ones that were not having any problems because she was in with them. The result was there egg were over calcified (at least I think so). So much so that the babys were fully developed but could not break through the shell. I had to cut the little guy out and witness him gasping for air. It broke my heart. Any ways put a lay box in her cage so you might get some furtal eggs out of her. At least till she cools off. This will be good for researching purposes to.

Good luck,
Nicole Guy

P.S.
Wish me good luck to.