Breeding at a low weight

[peppered...leopard]

When I ordered my geckos from TUG I had asked them what the weight should be when I start breeding them, they said that you should have no problem breeding them at 35 grams. They are the pros, so I think that they are correct.

 

[Ccrashca069]

Well its your choice. Pretty much every breeder here waits untill 50+ grams. I am not going to spend the energy telling you what I have seen happen to leopard geckos that have breed at that weight.

 

[Airilith]

I'm sitting here wondering why you would post a thread like this. You're not asking for opinions. You really seem to be either starting a fight or responding to a fight.

35g is dangerously low. I love my geckos and would never want to put them in danger. Therefore I waited for my female to reach almost 65g before I bred her for the first time. And I'm glad I did. Even with the care and attention I give her, she still dropped as low as 40g while laying. Assuming the same weight drop your gecko would be at 15g!

But back to my original point. If you don't want help and/or opinions there's really no reason to post something like that.

PS - There are lots of 'pros' on GF and many enthusiastic hobbyists.

 

[Mel&Keith]

Males are able to breed starting at 35g but once they start they can lose interest in food and they're not really full grown. For females that's just really too small. They can definitely start ovulating that early but that doesn't mean you should breed them. There can be a lot of complications for females tat size and many will just re-absorb the eggs anyway so you can breed them at 35g and risk the health of the female + not get as many babies or you can wait until they are at least 50g and have a much healthier mother and more prolific season.

 

[fallen_angel]

Very well said Jessica

I don't know how many horrific pictures I've seen of babies that died inside of the egg, or were mutated and died, etc.. all due to a female breeding at too low of a weight

 

[Mel&Keith]

I'm closing this thread for now because it really isn't in line with the TOS anyway and I can see where this is going.

from the TOS:
"Posts and threads commenting on any business or individual with regards to their business and/or reptile husbandry ethics are not allowed on GeckoForums.net. This includes complaints about retail pet stores."