Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have roughly 15 leopard geckoes and out of the 15 , 4 are males. I put them in with females in January for about two weeks.. but.. I continue to get infertile eggs. I had only one hatch.
My question is.. the males have really been aggressive with females.. to the point of cutting deep gashes into the females heads. This is why I separate them so early.. also.. if eggs are forming.. and I can see them slightly smaller than a jelly bean.. is it too late to introduce the male to fertilize the eggs?? I ask because a friend with snakes and gilas has done this and got results. Sorry for such a novice question.. I'm embarrassed to ask..but want to hatch more.. it was such a great feeling to get my first one! Thanks whom ever takes a second to help me out! All the best.

Did you see them in action? If the male has mated with her then the chances are, the female will produce fertile eggs. I think the your females are first time breeders and are still young, so naturally, there will less eggs.

The mating wounds that most females get when being mated are fairly superficial though they may "look bad" to some people, especially first time breeders. Generally, with leos, each new clutch of eggs is fertalized by a single mating. They can produce from previous mating but I've only seen it on occassion. Therefore, keeping the males with the females during breeding is a better and more sure way to go.. Also some of the fighting may be to establish dominance and removing the males just creates more fighting when you reintroduce them. I bred for 7 years solid.. got burnt out for a bit and now I'm back again to restart. With mine I set up permanent colonies of between 1.3 and 1.6 depending on the genetics and then leave them year round with several feeding stations, large belly heat areas, and plenty of hides in many areas on 2 levels in 33 gallon sterlite bins. A ramp of corkboard connected the 2 levels. Oddly enough I found more eggs in the second level hides where the temps were only around 73 degrees than I did in the hides at 81 to 83 degrees on the bottom. Always baffled me but such is nature.

Also, as stated, young, first year females will give fewer viable eggs and fewer eggs that stay viable. I've noticed that this usually stops ocurring by the second season and no later than the 3rd season for any of the several hundred geckos I produced and those I kept for breeding.
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Mel Goodrich
RavenCrest Reptiles
drune@charter.net

1.2 Leucistic ratsnakes
2.3 Kenyan Sand boas
1.1 BCI
3.3 Corns (varied morphs)
1.1 Namibian Housesnakes
1.1 Black Housesnakes
1.0 Malagasy Speckled Hognose (Looking for breeding/loan female)
0.1 Malagasy Giant Hognose (looking for Male on loan for breeding..Pick of clutches for either as payment)

my male was hard on my females also
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