frustrated

[UnDeRtOw00]

This is my first year breeding geckos...i have done all research needed and spent alot of money trying to do this right. I have a brand new incubator that is getting very very bored. Purchased a rack to house babies and my first season has not been good yet. I only started out with 2 females(housed together in a 20 long) and 1 male in his own tank. I Witness only 1 copulation between my raptor female and my super snow male. Since then she has laid 3 clutches of 2, the last being this morning and i don't think these are going to be fertile either. The last 2 clutches were very soft so i upped the calcium to almost every feeding. The cluth she laid this morning was the same. My other female has been ovulating for over a month and has been in with my male almost every night.. i have not witnessed a copulation between the 2 as she has not been very receptive to him. she fights him off everytime. Anyone ever have a female that won't let the male do his thing? If I introduce a different male would she be more receptive? All 3 geckos i have are first year breeders, they are all heathly and 60 grams and up. Anything else i could try to get my other female pregnant? Getting a little frustrated but i know it will come with time.

 

[tlbowling]

This is probably NOT the case, but Im just throwing it out there...could your male be shooting blanks??

 

[TokayKeeper]

Definitely a possibility Tara...

Under, did you cycle them? Some on here will claim you don't need to cycle, or cool your geckos, but it is a natural process and typically aids in ensuring fertility within species that experience definite seasons in the wild. Years ago work was done on corn snakes as many breeders of them simply don't cool. But those same people were also getting low to no fertile clutches. I forget who it was, but someone ran some "unscientific" trials and found that cooling their males resulted in higher fertility rates within a clutch. I've always cycled my leos, though I still get infertiles.

Some will brush this off as they are first year breeders. My first time breeding leos was in Spring 97. At the time I had 1 male and 5 females, all first year breeders. My season resulted in 90 eggs, all fertile, but my 89th egg yielded a fully formed stillborn. My first year females averaged 18 eggs or 9 clutches each going off those numbers, all of which I have written down in a stenobook somewhere buried with other written notes from then. Point I'm making is I don't think it's just simply excusable for others to brush infertile first year breedings as the reasoning.

Are you introducing the male into the females' cage or other way around. That might be the reason for unreceptive behaviors from the other female. I introduce a female into my male's territory for pairing. Although I'd suspect from a natural history standpoint that it'd be the males wandering upon the females. Though it can go both ways.

 

[UnDeRtOw00]

THanks for the replies.... I have considered the fact that he could be shooting blanks...is this common? i hope not. I have been introducing her into his tank/territory every night for over a month now. When i think its going to happen she usually gives him a few good swats with her tail and he gets startled and gives up. I have a freind who is breeding with lots of success. I am thinking about having him bring over one of his proven males and introduce her to him on neutral ground. I think maybe my male is not being aggressive enough and just gives up to easy. Maybe an experienced male would just take control over her. Can i reintroduce the female who has already laid 3 clutches of infertiles?(have still not candled the 3rd clutch,just assuming because how soft they are-laid this morning) Or should i just wait until next season?

 

[acpart]

I think the output and fertility, while they can be affected by cooling and supplementation, can also depend on the individual females. As an example, I'll give you a brief history of my current female breeders, all of which I've had anywhere between 9 months and 6 years and all of whom have been housed, fed and supplemented similarly (I keep my females and males in 1.2 together throughout the breeding season):

Zora: 1st time breeder, 6 clutches to date, 3 clutches hatched, all eggs good

Butterscotch (by contrast to Zora): 1st time breeder (1 month older than Zora), 6 clutches to date, 5 of them laid outside the lay box, none have hatched and are either infertile or didn't go far

Safira: 3rd season breeding, laid 23 eggs as a first timer 22 of which hatched healthy babies, produced 3 offspring last season, produced 3 single egg clutches this season, 1 dead underdeveloped baby and the others infertile. She has been with a different male each season but all the males are well proven

Ginger: 2nd season breeding, has laid 6 clutches, first clutch hatched 1 baby very small which died after 2 days, second clutch 2 healthy babies, all other eggs looking good

Ruby: 6th breeding season (produced by me 2005), originally retired as a breeder after not producing last year but bred with a new male for tang trait, 1 egg due to hatch, 2 single clutch eggs laid subsequently obviously infertile

Nectar: 3rd season, moderate producer, has produced 3-4 clutches, but tends to take more than 2 weeks between clutches, 1 clutch no good and the others due to hatch

Ivory: 3rd or 4th season, moderate to good producer in the past, has been producing single clutch eggs this season and so far only 3 viable eggs.

So here's my point: my results would have been very different if I had started with 2 Zora's as opposed to 2 Butterscotches.

Good luck. The best bet may be to purchase another female, quarantine her and see if you can get in on the end of the season, or purchase a few females and prepare them for next season.

Aliza (sorry such a long post)

 

[NinjaDuo]

I feel you for sure. I had 2 females breeding, this was also my first season. I had 6 eggs from my normal and all were duds.... I think she was just a smaller gecko. ( she was 64 grams) by small I mean her head and body were abnormally small, but she ha a fat body/tail. But I won't bred her again. But my raptor laid 5 good eggs! So I'm pumped!

 

[UnDeRtOw00]

thanks aliza..i was thinking of gettting another female...might just wait till next year.
SO....Risky move but i had to see if my freinds male who is a bit bigger than mine but same morph would be able to handle my females unreceptiveness. I brought her over to his house(5 min drive) and introduced her to him. They instantly started biting at each other. He bit and held onto her tail and then really started to fight. No damage done by either gecko so we left them alone for about an hour. His male is relentless and looks like he gets what he wants so im praying something happend. I hate that i had to come to this and stress out my girl like that. I won't do it again and if she won't mate with my male then i'll just keep her as a pet and get another breeder female I think.

 

[UnDeRtOw00]

But i still need to figure out if my male is the problem here..he could be shooting blanks..lol who knows.

 

[UnDeRtOw00]

tokaykeeper...is it too late to cycle them. I did not lower their temps before the breeding season or anything like that....is it too late now? should i wait until next season?