Laying Unferilized Eggs

[Samantha12]

I have a really little red stripe girl who is almost 3 years old but can't break 40 grams. Because of her small size, I knew I would never breed her. However, this summer she's been laying infertile eggs. She's dropped 3 clutches already and another is brewing. It's making me worry sick because after the first clutch she sank to 27 grams. Now that I know she's laying I've been giving her more supplementation and offering food every day, but it still worries me a lot. I have seen people on here saying they have geckos that lay infertile eggs every year. Is that likely to happen with her or is there some hope that next year she will absorb the ovulations?

 

[acpart]

One can always hope . . .

Aliza

 

[DrCarrotTail]

I got some advice to keep mine away from males and lower the temp in their bins to about 88 degrees when you see them start to ovulate if you don't want them to lay or breed. I think I'm going to buy a second rack so I can keep my males away from the females that I don't want to breed or that I want to wait to start breeding till later in the season. Good luck with yours!!

 

[Samantha12]

I got some advice to keep mine away from males and lower the temp in their bins to about 88 degrees when you see them start to ovulate if you don't want them to lay or breed. I think I'm going to buy a second rack so I can keep my males away from the females that I don't want to breed or that I want to wait to start breeding till later in the season. Good luck with yours!!

She started laying them after I moved her for a couple months on my rack in a tub next to one of my male's tubs. I had suspected maybe seeing/smelling him could have triggered her to lay eggs since she didn't do it last year. I will definitely keep her in the terrarium next year for breeding season. Maybe I'll lower temps, but she does share the tank with a breeding female. Perhaps I'll isolate her in a ten gallon for next summer. Luckily I have plenty of time to prepare

 

[DrCarrotTail]

I would think she might be able to either smell the male's scent on the breeding female or be able to smell the hormones that the other female is producing while laying eggs, or even be stimulated by the other female's breeding behavior. I think separating them for the breeding season would be safest so she doesn't hurt herself producing eggs.

Good luck