A friend of mine has a pair of cresteds that are about a year and a half old, however they dont look it. They have been housed together for the past 6 months, but have shown no sign of mating apart from the female nipping the male on the tail. So...what happens if they breed "underweight". I am not planning on it, but am curious as to what the danger is. Also, can one raise a juvie pair together and just let them do their thing whenever? Thanks!!
Reptile & Amphibian Forums
Welcome to kingsnake.com's message board system. Here you may share and discuss information with others about your favorite reptile and amphibian related topics such as care and feeding, caging requirements, permits and licenses, and more. Launched in 1997, the kingsnake.com message board system is one of the oldest and largest systems on the internet.
What happens if an underweight female is bred?
sebastian924
Jun 23, 2005 06:26 PM
Replies (3)
reptileking90
Jun 23, 2005 07:22 PM
The female could die or SERIOUS promblems may occur. Males can usually breed younger than females.
I would not raise juvies together as they may try to mate to early and then what I wrote above will happen.
As long as your female is 35grams or more things should be fine unless she doesn't get enough calcium and I have had males mate at 28 grams (without a tail) before with no promblems.
-----
Derek Dunlop
DDReptiles
http://www.freewebs.com/ddreptiles/index.htm
flamedcrestie
Jun 23, 2005 08:02 PM
i've had a couple breed at about 30 grams. smaller babies, a female that has a severe calcium crash, and 6 geckos that didn't hatch out ( too weak?) and now they're breeding size. doing well and 100% hatch rate now.
so.... lower hatch rate, higher likeliness of mbd or calcium crash, more stress on females, and slower growing.
gecco
Jun 25, 2005 03:35 PM
They are right don't do it. You will at the LEAST cause health problems for the female that will result in poor hatch rates and force you to not breed her again in order to save her life.If you wait you will get many productive seasons from her, if not you could kill her. It is not worth it to rush the process think long term.
