Hides or no hides during mating?

[MagicalGecko]

How many people remove their hides when introducing the female? Right now we are putting the female with the males for 24 hours and then taking her out. The hide gives her a way to get away from the male easier, but it's also probably a good safe haven for her. Which do you think? Keep the hide or remove it?

And do you introduce one female at a time to the male or two females?

 

[gators0204]

I have a colony and I have seperated geckos. Obviously the colony has hides, but so does the singles. I have been doing it this way for years without any problems. Of course I guess you could take the hide out but maybe that would add more stress??

Either way to answer your question I leave em in and do one at a time. Hope that helps.

 

[snowgyre]

I had a very bad experience once where I left a male and a female in a cage with no hides overnight. The male was too aggressive and the female was too submissive, and she ended up dying 24 hours later from stress. Now what I do is I check my female and see if she's ovulating, then place the male with the female. If she's receptive they generally breed right in front of me and the whole event takes less than five minutes. Sometimes it takes a few days of trying, but I generally observe a mating within 5 days of noticing an ovulation.

I know some people like putting the female in with the male, but I think it's easier on the female if she's in familiar territory while being courted by a male. It's what happens in the wild, since males generally seek out females during the breeding season.

'Course, my method only works if you've got a small number of leos. Right now I've only got one breeding pair (downsized from my former 30+ geckos due to grad school). It's a bit time consuming to do this with every pairing if you've got a whole bunch!

 

[LeapinLizards]

Actually....not to take the thread off track, but I do believe there is significant evidence (at least I read it somewhere) that with leopard geckos, the female actually seeks out the male when she's ovulating...not like usual (vice versa). Could be wrong, but I read it and have heard it before.

I do the same thing though...if a female is ovulating, I put them together, chicka chicka bow wow...he does his business right in front of me, then they both go back into their own tub.

 

[snowgyre]

No kidding? Huh, I'll have to go check up on that now. You've got me curious. ^_~ I just assumed that because it's the males who do all the displaying (rubbing their tails against the ground, scent marking with their pores, etc) that they'd be the one seeking out females, not the other way around. Hmmm.... fascinating. Gotta love these critters.

 

[MagicalGecko]

Actually....not to take the thread off track, but I do believe there is significant evidence (at least I read it somewhere) that with leopard geckos, the female actually seeks out the male when she's ovulating...not like usual (vice versa). Could be wrong, but I read it and have heard it before.

I do the same thing though...if a female is ovulating, I put them together, chicka chicka bow wow...he does his business right in front of me, then they both go back into their own tub.

I think that's the first time I've seen chicka chicka bow wow in print!

 

[gators0204]

I had a very bad experience once where I left a male and a female in a cage with no hides overnight. The male was too aggressive and the female was too submissive, and she ended up dying 24 hours later from stress.

I know some people like putting the female in with the male, but I think it's easier on the female if she's in familiar territory while being courted by a male. It's what happens in the wild, since males generally seek out females during the breeding season.

Thats kinda what i assumed, that it would be too stressful on the female. I usually put the male into the females tank but I have done it the other way and both ways work, at least for me.

 

[LeapinLizards]

I think that's the first time I've seen chicka chicka bow wow in print!

Lol well you're welcome

 

[Western Gecko]

I'm with Heather on this one. I usually put them together for 10-15 minutes and if the female is ready the mating will occur PDQ and if she's not ready she'll make it quite evident that she's a NO GO!

I used to always put the female in the males enclosure to prevent the male from exploring but this year I'm trying it the other way around. So far it hasn't made any difference. If the female is ready they get down to business PDQ anyway. The male goes exploring after the mating and cleanup ritual...:main_rolleyes:

 

[eyelids]

I also just place the male with the female for a little bit...

I do this when the female is ovulating and if the male isn't interested she will be all over him... Their courting isn't aggressive like males, but they can be just as anxious to mate...

 

[MagicalGecko]

Thanks for the tips.. We're just now starting to pair ours up. How do you tell when the female is ovulating? We're pretty much going by Tremper's book and it doesn't really mention a cyclic thing like that.

 

[snowgyre]

If you gently lift up your female by the hip's/base of tail (only do the tail if you're confident, and make sure her front legs stay firmly on your hand so she isn't tempted to drop the tail), you'll notice you can see through the thin belly tissue to the organs beneath. You'll first notice two noticeably white regions on either side of the midline, sometimes with dark above and between. These two large white regions (about 1/2" long each) are fat bodies. The dark areas are the intestines.

Now, when the female is ovulating, you'll see a pair of bright pink to white bodies that are almost perfectly circular above the typical white regions. The circular bodies are follicles that are ready to be fertilized. They're about as wide as the cross-section of a tic-tac when you first see them. This is when I place my male in with the female.

I found THIS photo off the net that shows what I mean. This particular female actually has four follicles, the youngest of which is bright pink in the center. There's a follicle above, below, and to the immediate right hand side of the pink follicle. The paler white bodies towards the vent/cloaca are the fat bodies.

Hope this helps!

 

[MagicalGecko]

Thanks snowgyre!