Geckos too young to be fertile?

[Robsbot]

Hello and thank you for taking the time to read my predicament.

I've got two leopard geckos, a yellow super hypo male, and a tangerine super hypo female. I purchased the male as a super baby (maybe a couple weeks old tops) at a pet store in early October of last year. I picked up the female at a reptile convention in December. She's smaller than my male by quite a bit now, but when I purchased her she was about his size. I assume they are pretty close in age.

That said, I got some bad advice at the reptile convention that led to my unfortunate condition. I was going to put the female in a separate 10 gallon and wait a year or two until they were older to breed or see if I could pick up better mates for them. The place I purchased my gecko from said they wouldn't breed until they were about a year old, and that it would be OK to house them together in my 20 gallon long for a couple of months if I needed to. I decided to let them have each other's company while I worked up the money to purchase another 20 gallon with some nice furnishings. I tend to try to do themed tanks and spend about 200$ a setup so my gorgeous geckos can have an equally pretty tank. Lo and behold one day in February I see my female had laid two eggs in the cage and was sitting on them like a momma bird.

I separated them as I was very worried about her condition seeing as she's so small. I wanted to monitor her eating and nutrition. She became extremely standoffish and slightly aggressive and had horrid eating and sleeping patterns. I put her back with my male and she's been doing well ever since. They breed about once a week and sleep cuddled up and everything. I've never seen such a happy gecko couple. The male is very courteous and lets her eat first and if there's not enough food for him I'll throw a bit more in there. They are very good about letting me know when they want more. Overall they are both in great health and doing well.

I've had 4 clutches of eggs from them, every three weeks within a day or two like clockwork. One clutch on the roof of their big hut, two in the food dish, and one on the floor of the cage (I use tile for the bottom of the cage). None of them have been fertile and none of them have been laid in the breeder box. After every laying though she will rest for a few hours, eat and drink until her little heart is content, and then go dig in her breeder box and get bedding everywhere so it seems she has the instinct to lay them there. Is this something to do with her size? Could she have a nutritional problem that's not evident from her behavior and physical appearance? Could either of my geckos be infertile and incapable of having babies?

I feel horrible putting such a young gecko through this, but she's doing great and seems to be very active and happy. It could have gone much, much worse. Should I separate them and prevent them from breeding or does it even matter at this point? She's very healthy right now but if there is anything I can do to help maintain her health I'm certainly open to any suggestions.

 

[OnlineGeckos]

It could be any one or multiple things you mentioned. First year virgin females are very unpredictable when it comes to laying eggs. Some will lay all infertile eggs, some will lay fertile, some will lay 1 fertile and 10 infertile, some won't lay any eggs at all. It's just really hard to say. But it isn't too uncommon for first year female to not lay any fertile eggs.

First thing you did wrong from what I read is that you didn't quarantine the geckos. Geckos should not be placed in the same tank right away as you don't know if one of them has parasites or diseases. New geckos should always be quarantined for at least 60 days to ensure it's healthy.

Second thing is where you got bad advice. It's never recommended to place a male & female in the same tank while they are growing up because they will mate guaranteed, and may also fight & injure each other. Males reach sexual maturity faster than females, so the male would try to mate with the females early, and it could do some harm to the female's body if the female is not of the right weight, health, and age. So you never want to place a male & female together and think they'll only mate when they are both grown up and ready to breed. What usually happens is what happened to you here, the male mates early and the female is likely producing infertile eggs because she's not really ready to produce good eggs.

What's her current weight?

Also remember that females may not lay their eggs properly if either they know the eggs are bad, or they don't feel safe. The second reason is why you probably should separate them because the male may make her a bit more uncomfortable. I know you may think they are lovey lovey together but leopard geckos prefer living alone. They may be sleeping together because the particular hide they're in is the best hide available in the tank.

The behavior you described when you separated her are inline with how females can act when they are gravid. So it's not because you separated her from the male that she became aggressive, it's because she's gravid and you are changing her environment.

 

[Robsbot]

Thank you for the reply.

I did a lot of research on how to keep leopard geckos before I purchased them. I know from my predicament it doesn't sound like it, but I've got a good book knowledge on how to keep them. I just really did no research on breeding or keeping a breeding pair together and nothing I read about general care said much about it other than don't keep males together. I also do know about the quarantine now but thank you for suggesting it. I have a quarantine tank set up for any new future purchases.

Unfortunately I do not have a good gram scale. It's on my to do list. Anything you recommend?

So at this point, all my mistakes aside, what should I do with them now? Separate them? I guess there's no point worrying about why they are infertile if it could be something as simple as her age.

EDIT: from an estimate based on geckos of similar size my friends have mine are probably around 45-50g for the male and 35-40g for the female. I have a friend who has a scale so I'll get them weighed this weekend if I don't find a good scale.

 

[OnlineGeckos]

I personally would separate them. If she's truly as light as 35-40g, you don't want more stress on her and definitely don't want to encourage that she keeps pumping out eggs as the male will keep mating with her. As-is, she's looking to lose another 10-15g by the end of the breeding season. That would put her in a vulnerable position assuming your weight guess is right. You'll want a digital gramscale to check to be sure.

If you have to, move the male out of the tank instead of the female, leave the female in the tank so she's not the one that gets stressed out. That'll be the better thing for her at the moment I think.

 

[Robsbot]

That's probably best I do think. He's much more stable to swapping cages than she is in general even when I just move them to clean the tank. Her weight has been pretty stable throughout the season, so is it normal for geckos to lose weight during the breeding? If she looses 10g's I'd be extremely worried about her much less 15.

 

[OnlineGeckos]

Yes both male & females usually do lose some weight during the breeding season. Males would stop eating sometimes when they're put in with females. Females would stop eating off and on, not to mention the nutrients eggs take out of their bodies. A female breeder losing 10-15g during the breeding season is common, some lose more depending on how many eggs she decides to lay.

 

[Robsbot]

Awesome thanks for all the help. It's good to find some specific help on breeding as most sites I found were rather generalized. I'll see if I can drum up some traffic to your site for the help. Thanks again.