Gravid Female Care

[katie_]

So I bought a female crestie off a young guy today. He told me she was recently in with a male, but he suddenly passed away. He also told me she was currently laying eggs.
I have her in a small critter keeper cage, quarantined.

My question is, how long to a keep her seperated to rule out disease?
How long can she lay witout a male present?
I'm going to be feeding her repashy diet and crickets. Do I need to add anything special to her diet? Will she need extra calcium in a dish like a leopard gecko?

When IS crested breeding season? I always thought it was later than leopards...

 

[Rancorrye]

1. I usually keep mine in quarantine for about 3 months.
2. I've had mine lay 2 months after being with a male, but I've heard stories of longer.
3. Repashy has everything in it that is needed for their diet. You do not need to add calcium or vitamins to it and you don't need to provide a dish. I will feed mine roaches once every 2-3 weeks(usually more often with gravid females) and dust them when I do.
4. I start pairing my cresties in March and go to about August or September.

Hope this helps.

 

[marauderhex]

1. 3 months MINIMUM
2. Latest I've had was 3 months
3. I just use the Repashy diet, bugs are treats. No extra supplementation needed.
4. Depends on how early you want babies. I've got friends who pair up as early as late Dec- early Jan.

 

[darkridder]

For one I would get a fecal done on her, with a mystery disease that the male might had died from, you need to know if that is something she has or not.

Normally QT is 90 days as Justin stated, from breeders I know and trust I do 60, but from random nobodies that I know Jack from Jill from, they get 90.

Personally myself I do add a little extra calcium to the CGD during breeding season, I do not do it for every feeding, but usually every 2 weeks I personally add a little more. Some females honestly require more calcium than others do, and you will see it in their eggs, they will be under calcified. So each female is a little different and you really need to monitor their eggs, and check their calcium sacs to really determine if they need it on a more regular basis.

Crested season for most people in the USA is March-October (when the last eggs are usually laid). But you can manipulate the seasons also by adjusting your temps and photo period of the tank and room. I personally do March-Oct simply because I go with what nature says, it naturally warms up and the nights get longer. Rather than having to heat the house extra warm in the winter, I just figure ehh do it the easy way. But it isnt to say females will not lay in the off season, I have had eggs randomly in December and January before, my first hatchling this year was from a December lay. So it is best to keep an egg laying box in with the female all year round just incase she does decide to lay a random clutch.

A female can lay an entire seasons worth of eggs from one simple introduction. And here is the tricky part, she can actually store sperm into the following season and lay eggs again the next season from that same male. This is why most breeders do not buy already gravid females, they have to deal with another males eggs, then they have to worry about the following season who s the daddy. Like in your instance if breeding is what you plan to do, I would give her next season off so if she does lay any eggs they will be the first males and you will know who the father is (myself for example, I wont buy "uhh the dad could be this or that one), so that in 2 season from now you can change her male up and know who the proper father is.

I would move her out of the KK though, get her into something at least 10 gallons, just because she is in QT doesnt mean she should have to be resorted into something smaller than a 10 gallon, remember you need space for her and her egg laying box, anything smaller than a 10 gallon tank will simply not give her any room. If you dont have one, but planned on moving her into a colony of females, just buy a storage container to keep her in, it will give her the added space without investing as much in a new tank or the xl kk she should be in.

 

[katie_]

My friend let me borrow an 18x18x18 tank, and she'll be going in there today.
I have a male in a 30 gallon tall that I planned to put her in, but after what you said about retaining sperm, now I'm not so sure.

Shes a nice yellow partial pin (post pictures later for possible morph i.d) and my male is a perfect pinstripe. I'm not so concerned with knowing exactly who daddy is, I just want to make sure shes nice and fat before you has to breed again.

I will keep her in the 18x18x18 for 90 days, and try to do a fecal (but crestie poop is hard to find fresh).
I do have an incubator I bought ages ago for my leopards, If she does pop some eggs out, what temp do you find best?

 

[darkridder]

See the thing you may not be concerned with who the father is but your possible future buyers may. Like I said I know I will not, and many other people feel the same way and will not buy from unknown daddies. Sometimes it is easy to tell, other times you simply wont know. Being it is the females first time breeding there is no telling what she would produce even with a full pinner male, herself may have been a lucky strike at producing a high percent pinner. have had 2 blonde harleys produce a nearly full red pinner before so weirdo babies can occur from even well matched adults, it all has to do with the line that they come from and how strong it is. So like I said you may not be overly concerned but for people who want to build a solid line from geckos maintaining a certain trait or morph desired will be.

Incubators are not needed for these guys, you can use them to maintain an even temp, or to keep them cooler, but honestly room temps do just fine. The eggs incubate at the same temps these guys are housed in. However the warmer the temps the faster the incubation. Sounds great right? Except it can cause for deformities, small hatchlings, and cooler temps have been down to improve both over all size of the baby, better colors, and a stronger head/crest structure. So by keeping them around 68-70 tends to produce better outcomes over keeping them at say 76 degrees. I personally keep mine around 70-72. I have been considering getting an incubator that cools however the ones on the market I have heard mixed reviews on, and they break down pretty easily. If you find you cant keep them cool enough you can also use the old method of putting cold water bottles in a styrofoam incy to help keep the temps a more stable cool temp, but the water bottles usually need to be changed daily.

And getting fecal is actually pretty easy. Just keep her on paper towels and check daily, or try giving her a sauna on a regular basis and they usually will poop in a sauna, then just run it over to the vets and have them run a fecal on it. If there is an issue then you can bring the animal in for further analysis.