Females that WILL NOT BREED!!!

[Golden Gate Geckos]

OK, guys. Instead of calling up all you breeders and discussing this, I want to post this so we ALL can learn.

I have 3-4 females that have been ovulating for a couple of months, and WILL NOT BREED!!! All (except one) are about 2 years old, in great health, well over 60 grams, and refuse to breed. Period.

My oldest Enigma female is over a year old, weighed 58 grams at the beginning of the season, and I can see 6 (yes, six!) good-sized follicles in her abdomen. I have had her with 3 separate males, in 5-week intervals. She will not eat. She is losing weight to the point that I'm not sure it would be safe for her to lay eggs. I've never had a female tripled-up with follicles like this! I'm very afraid she has follicular stasis, and she's seeing the vet on Saturday morning.

I have tried cooling ovulating females that were too young/small to reproduce to get them to stop ovulating with limited success. Mostly, I just had to 'sweat it out' for the season, and they all seemed to recover and do fine the next year.

What do you all do when (or even 'if') you have this issue?

 

[david13]

That is weird, i never heard of that. I don't know what i would do, I guess just keep trying.

good luck

 

[nwheat]

I certainly have the issue of small females ovulating too early and then just losing more weight. This absolutely drives me crazy!! I have two that are doing that now. I have them on the bottom level of my rack - where it is a bit cooler. I just ordered some silkworms, though and they are both actually eating those!

As far as females that won't breed, I do have a few females that don't do well for me. They just don't lay eggs, or they lay infertile eggs despite being paired with proven breeders for the past two years. I suppose some females just aren't good breeders. Two of these girls are on the skinny side now, after giving me several infertile clutches - but when I didn't pair them because they ovulated early, they lost a bunch of weight too. They are both eating like little pigs, so I expect they will be back up to weight after the season.

 

[acpart]

This is why my very first project (hybino) has taken me 4 years instead of 2. The Hines line female I was counting on took 2 years to give me *one* viable hatchling by my tremper albino male. She is now with my normal male just for the heck of it and despite numerous matings which I've witnessed, she isn't gravid and probably won't be. When I get my new tanks next month she is retiring and will live with the other female I'll retire at the end of the season.

Aliza

Aliza

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

The girls I'm having problems with simply WILL NOT let a male apprach them. It's a fight every time! They have been ovulating for 6-8 weeks now. I even woke up the other morning to an empty enclosure that was last seen closed with a female being chased around by a male. I know she scratched her way out of that tub! Fortunatley, I found both of them!

 

[yellermelon]

I am very small time and dont have many breeding females. That being said, I had one female that ovulated for around 2 months before she would let a male near here. She was very much up to weight, and I just put her with one male over and over for a few days at a time. That didnt work out so I thought it was the male, tried a different male...still nothing finally at least 2 months later she bred with a completely different male. I however have yet to get eggs from her..I think i see them forming though...so hopefully soon..

 

[Mel&Keith]

We have a few doing that this season. One was a great breeder last year (a Normal) she eats like a pig and always has really healthy babies. This year she won't let a male get near her and she's re-absorbing. ???? We had another proven breeder ovulate and attack the male we tried to breed her with so we put her with a Giant that she couldn't bully and they bred. She became egg bound with 2 huge infertiles and then finally passed them before her vet visit. She re-absorbed the next set and then just quit ovulating. I don't know what's going on this year.... Even my Cresteds laid 2 clutches each and then quit laying.

 

[Franks_Geckos]

I have a female that I believe is re-absorbing eggs and is not keeping her weight up as well as usual after being a great breeder for the last 2 or 3 years. I suspect it may be due to the fact that she used to be paired 1:1 with a male for breeding and now she is in a 1:2 or 1:3 group. I have another that was in that same group that wouldn't ovulate and I had to separate her to try and get weight back on her as she had lost 15 grams, probably from not eating due to stress. I have 2 that laid a few clutches each (some hatched already) and lost weight to the point that I was paranoid they would not make it. Luckily all of the weight loss females eat enough to maintain and have gained some weight back, but it is always scary when this happens. I have one female that fights most any breeding and inevitably get scarred every year in some way. Eventually, after she gets roughed up she settles down and produces great hatchlings, but she has had her fair share of antibiotic cream on her body. I wish it were easier, but there are trials and tribulations every year. The thing that pains me most is when a female is 70-80+ grams and does not ovulate for the whole season. Knowing that they are of sufficient size and perfectly healthy but feeling that they are not going to produce beautiful babies until the next season is depressing, especially when you have limited number of females involved in any project.

 

[GroovyGeckos.com]

I don`t know, but I feel for you. I`ve been having the same problem with my Enigma female. Figures, I waited sooo long to even try to breed her, now I am just having a hard time with her.

Not sure what to do about it really, I have had a gecko in the past that WOULD NOT breed also, and never did anything for me. I REALLY hope that is not the case with this one, but what are you going to do?

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

what are you going to do?

Well, I'll keep trying with the others, but I am very worried about my Enigma girl. She's seeing the vet tomorrow morning, and if she has follicular stasis, it may require surgery so she doesn't become septic and die. In the meantime, she's on my slurry.

 

[GroovyGeckos.com]

My fault, I did not mean to say she is having the exact same problem. Just not interested in breeding. Very sorry to hear Marcia, I hope she is OK.

 

[malt_geckos]

Hope all goes well with the vet today...

I have three females that are ovulating (one enigma, one SHTCTB, and one blizzard) all have follicles developing but are not backed up with follicles. Mine are however eating a few mealies every week. So I think mine are ovulating, reabsorbing, eating, and then ovulating again.

My female SHTCTB has actaully attacked the male I put in with her....I've never seen this behaviour even in a non-ovulating female. She was lunging at him, bit his head, and was waving her tail like mad...and the male wasn't even paying attention to her. She was just making un-provoked attacks on him.

The enigma female is ovulating as well...has been for about a week now. I put a proven male breeder in with her and he was licking her tail. Everytime he touched her, she would jump and run away....so maybe I missed the window or she hasn't reached the point yet where she wants to breed. We shall see...

Keep us updated Marcia...If you want to talk more about it, just give me a call...

Mallorie

 

[david13]

ho0w did the vet visit go?

 

[malt_geckos]

She's three hours behind me...so she's probably there now.

 

[david13]

o ok..

 

[GeckoRing]

Marcia, could you tell us more about follicular stasis. This is not something I have heard discussed before. I am sure it is something that we could all benefit from. We have had problems with a SS Bell this year, ovulating when she was too small, having trouble with infertile eggs, not eating well. Interestingly, the vet told us it was better to breed her even though she was a little small, that often having infertile eggs causes more problems than not. But she is not interested in the male either. Let us know what the vet says!

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

Well, I got back from the vet. My girl does have follicular stasis (explanation coming), and the first follicles were not re-absorbed and started to turn into infertile eggs, so they are calcified. They are still small enough to pass unless they have adhered to the wall of her oviducts (uterus lobes). If this is the case, she will have to have surgery to remove them before they become septic (infected).

Dr. Harkewicz gave her an injection of calcium and Oxytocin, which is a hormone that will cause the oviducts (uterus) to contract... just like inducing labor. If she does not pass them by Wednesday, I will give her another injection. If that doesn't work, she will have surgery to remove them next Friday.

The word stasis means... "n 1: an abnormal state in which the normal flow of a liquid (such as blood) is slowed or stopped 2: inactivity resulting from a static, or still, balance." In other words, the egg follicles are not progressing. They are in suspended animation, and now beginning to degrade inside the gecko's body.

Usually, the female gecko reabsorbs unfertilized egg follicles. In the case of my girl, the follicles did not get reabosrbed and began to turn into infertile eggs.... then just stopped. The gecko's body tried to reabsorb them, but calcium already started to form as a shell around the immature egg.

My gecko continued to ovulate while the first set of 'egg's were at a stand-still... and then even ovulated again!!! She has 3 sets (6 total) follicles in her abdomen, and for some reason her body is not reaborbing them. She needs to get rid of the original set before the next ones can do anything.

So, this is 'follicular statis'... everything is at a stand still.

 

[GeckoRing]

Wow! I hope she does alright. Thanks for the great explanation, Marcia.

 

[yellermelon]

Honestly this is a scary post. I would not have known what to look for had this been my gecko. Marcia, I wish you the best of luck. Hopefully she will pass them, or absorb them...or whatever it is she needs to do.

 

[PacHerp]

Marcia, Thank you so much for the informative post. I hope that she does not need surgery and can pass those eggs as soon as possible. Keep us posted.