another silly question...

[LZRDGRL]

I'm embarrassed to ask this here, since it reveals I'm not good at genetics -- but if you buy a female leo and she's already gravid by some male, and you put her together with your own breeder male, by whom will she have offspring -- the unknown one first, or mixed? Or do you have to wait a year til she's used up her "stored sperm" before you can put her together with your own breeder male???

 

[GeckoRing]

Usually about three clutches. You could let her lay eggs until you get a clutch that is infertile, then put her with your male.

 

[LZRDGRL]

thanks!

Thanks for your reply; that helped a lot!

Chrissy

 

[Halley]

He said it all. If you breed her before she lays infertile clutches, they will most likely be some mixture of babies, from both fathers.

 

[fallen_angel]

This is a question that really cannot be answered with data/facts because most people choose not to breed females with several males, and there really just isn't that much known about sperm competition in leopard geckos (yet). I am sure there are some breeders that are doing research on this, but because it can be really hard (some cases - impossible) to figure out which baby came from which father, many breeders never breed one female with multiple males because knowing the genetics behind each gecko is very important (obviously).

However, I can tell you that we have done this, and our results thus far. Because of the genetics behind the males that were with our female, we will undoubtedly be able to distinguish who's baby is whose. HOWEVER, our results thus far haven't really been much of anything.

We had this particular female breed with one male first. We got our second male right after the female's third clutch and decided that it was a good time to put her with him because we too had heard the "third-clutch-theory" (although every female is different when it comes to egg-laying - some can lay 6 clutches from just one breeding).. that's just something that I didn't realize/think about at first.. but anyway...

Since the second pairing, this female has laid three more clutches. Unfortunately, all three clutches of eggs appear to be EMPTY inside. Some of them have been incubating well past their time, and there is literally nothing inside of the eggs (that I can see) when I candle them. I know that my lack of results doesn't really help you, but that's our experience with it, and I thought it would at least give you some insight

edit: I should add that this female is an experienced breeder, so infertile eggs due to "first-year-breeder inexperience" is out of the question. All of her other clutches were fertile and great (one egg didn't make it due to a turning incident from another hatchling, but that's it).. the very last clutch that she laid was pretty recent though, so maybe that one will be viable.. We can't say for sure yet.

 

[LZRDGRL]

thanks

Hi fallen_angel,

Thanks for your interesting comments! Maybe you could post the results about your female's most recent clutch on this forum some day...

I made the mistake of pairing up my breeder male, a Jungle Albino, with the wrong girl after I had purchased her, but she's a Raining Red Stripe, and I just read on the Net yesterday that you cannot breed Tremper Albinos to Rainwater Albinos due to the different albino strains, and that the babies would be normals het for both.

They've just shared a cage together for three or four days or so, and are separated now. Now of course I wonder if I can still pair him and her with a suitable mate for each, without her having normal babies. I didn't observe them around the clock, so I don't know whether they have at all.... I guess I'll just watch and see what her first clutch will bring. I'm still looking for a beautiful Red Stripe male for her.

Thanks for coping with my question.
Chrissy

P.S.
Re.: Your previous question - I have three freshwater community tanks. One cannot hold about 60 aggressive fish together ;-) Mostly mollies, one or two angels per tank, and one shark (black, rainbow, and albino) per tank. The mollies multiply quickly. I have a couple of "aggressive" pea puffers that are fin-nipping occasionally. But they look funny.

 

[Leopardgeckosunlimited]

There's no way to know for sure- just as Jess and Michelle stated, you may get lucky or may not, if you put another male w/ her right now. That's just the way genetics work, putting the right genes together help and if yours mated or not but still never know. If they're both sexually mature, and she's ovulating when in w/ him the chance they mated are about 100%.
So this is a question no one can answer for sure, but w/ your lucky to easily be able to tell the difference when they hatch Just like you said either be normals double het for both albino strains (tremper and rainwater) or Rainwaters Albino's! I think that's cool either way. If you do end up w/ some double hets you can keep some offspring to produce some of both albino's w/ them the next season. Did you see him cleaning himself down there? I usually the male doing after mating. If see starts refusing food is another sign too, other then visually seeing the eggs. So you could know what the eggs are going to be if she lays or is producing eggs before you get the male your going to put w/ her. If they mated she should lay eggs in about 14 days, maybe a couple more. Also if you do find a male for her and get him, I'd go ahead and put her w/ him. The only reason I wouldn't is if she's lost weight and/or about to lay eggs soon (you can tell when they're bellies bulge out around the sides and are reddish) then I wouldn't. I usually don't have males around the females when they're close/getting ready to laying eggs. I think they may get stress of mating while laying, isn't good,they look so big, I think it's not good. But that's just my opinion. I've never read that anywhere, I don't think. Good Luck!
Jessica