Does Size Matter?

[Shem]

Good title eh? Sounds like a male enhancement ad:main_laugh:.

Anyway, the title is relevant to the subject.

Today as i was feeding my two leopard geckos, I was pondering why they were not breeding, this is my second year and it was flawless last year. I started thinking of what had changed when my female began acting slightly aggressive to my male. When I moved, she must have seen my reflection in the glass and was startled (which is odd because she is very comfortable around me). when she turned around and saw the male, she began to wave her tail in the air. When I fed the male a waxworm, she saw this and attacked him (I pushed her away from him). Now whats odd about that is my male is extremely aggresive, why he did not fight back is beyond me. Anyway, after that, he would eat neither crickets or waxworms. It then dawned on me that she had grown significantly since last season, both in girth and length.

Now, do you think that he may be intimmidated by her size? I realize that people breed normal sized males with larger and giant females all the time, but every gecko is different, and hes always been a little strange compared to most.

Another theory, this ones way out there and slightly out there, all of the geckos at my pet store (believe me, if I could find a private breeder, I would buy from him) are temp. incubated for female. Now I've heard of "hot females" that come from eggs temp. incubated for male eggs. do you think a similar occurance COULD happen in males hatched at cooler tempuratures. (doubt it, but a theory none-the-less).

 

[Kellyr]

From my knowledge, sex that is determined by controlling inc. temps are not 100% accurate. This just means that a majority of hatchlings incubated at lower temps (80) will turn out to be female and a high percentage of geckos that hatch from high temps such as 90 degrees will hatch out male. Middle temps produce a mixed combination of both male and females. So the girls that hatch out as "Hot Females" tend to be more aggrssive and more difficult to mate. What they call "Girly Males' are males that hatch from lower temps - for intance eggs that were incubated at 80 or in the low 80's - can tend to be more docile in temprement and less eager to mate or somewhat less aggressive. Someone correct me if I explained this wrong.. I am so tired right now!! lol

 

[SleepyDee]

What they call "Girly Males' are males that hatch from lower temps - for intance eggs that were incubated at 80 or in the low 80's - can tend to be more docile in temprement and less eager to mate or somewhat less aggressive.

I call them 'cool' males .. sounds better then girlie
I've found with the ones I have that they are more laid back and less aggressive then the males that are incubated at higher temps and I have to say that far from being less eager to mate they've all been right up for it I've also noticed that the 'cool' males all seem to 'court' the females more (as opposed to wham bam) and there's far less in the way of biting or aggression towards the females :main_thumbsup: