How likely is it to lose breeding females?

[bethanboys]

I was doing some more research today and read that it can be somewhat "common" to lose females due to poor health from producing eggs, or from becoming egg bound...

How really common is this? How many female breeders have you lost?

Thanks!

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

I don't think it's all that common as long as the female are over 50 grams and about a year old, with plenty of fat reserve. Egg-binding seems to occur most in smaller females, first-timers, or late in the egging season after they have laid several clutches (uterine inertia). Egg-binding tends to happen more frequently with infertile eggs. In the 12 years I have been breeding leopard geckos, I have only had 3 cases of egg-binding.

I have lost females that continued to lay eggs long after breeding, and literally laid themselves to death. I have also lost a few females that laid one clutch of eggs and never ate again... wasting away. On the flip-side, I have also lost a lovely male that never ate again after breeding. Very tragic.

Sometimes is not preventable, but the best way to insure this doesn't happen is to make sure your females are old/big enough to breed, are kept very well fed with plenty of calcium, and have an appropriate place to lay their eggs.