When do you retire your breeders?

[Boanerges]

When do you retire your male and female breeders? After a certain ammount of clutches or after they are a certain age or do you go by something else? Thanks :main_thumbsup:

 

[acpart]

I have been thinking about this lately, and have asked it on the forum before but not gotten a satisfactory answer. So far, obviously I would retire any gecko that has problems like poor recovery from breeding or high percentage of defective hatchlings. That hasn't happened yet. I have retired 2 geckos and will be retiring a third after this season, all because either they have stopped ovulating or their production has levelled off to the extent that I don't feel there's any point in putting them through another season. The gecko that I'm retiring after this season laid 20 eggs as a first timer in '06, all of which hatched. I think she laid 10-15 eggs in '07. In '08 she laid fewer clutches and kept laying them outside the lay box. I think I got 2 viable hatchlings from her. This year she is continuing to lay eggs outside the lay box, though I've been able to catch most of the eggs in time, and was able to get her to lay in the box this last time. I have 1 hatchling from her with 2 more eggs in the incubator. I don't know how many I'll get and have never gotten more than 1 viable egg per clutch. To me, this indicates I should retire her. She will join my other 2 retirees, possibly with a male that seems to like company and doesn't bother them too much.

Aliza

 

[ang3l3s]

i posted this once and got 1 answer.... so i bought a book on leopard geckos,and it was written after 4 years, i remember one reply said 2-5 years are the prime .... i think it was mogl who replied from golden gate

 

[Baoh]

Depends on their health, productivity, and importance to the project they are associated with.

 

[Boanerges]

Thanks everyone :main_thumbsup: