Breeding question

I feel stupid asking this but I can't find the answer anywhere. I just acquired Gecko Dens big boys and are they amazing! I have some girls that I had already set up with some of my less amazing males. My question is this. If I pull the girls away from their current mates, and put them with the big boys, will their clutches be from the original male or would they be from the new guys?

Thanks!

Shannan Donivan

Hi Shannon-

Have your females already laid eggs this season, or are they currently gravid by your other males? Leopard geckos retain sperm and thus only have to be successfully bred one time in order to lay several clutches throughout the breeding season. I would think that the remainder of eggs they lay this season will be from the males that they are currently housed with. I guess it couldn't hurt to go ahead and breed them to your new males, but chances areyou will have to wait until next season for these females to produce offspring from your new guys.

Kelli,

Thanks for the response. The two females in question have already laid a clutch each for me! I have a few other females that I recently got from Stone Cold Reptiles that have not laid for me yet but had been housed with their mates for the last two years and are curretly still housed with them. I just wasn't sure if they retained sperm only when a male is absent or if in the presence of a male they don't since he is there and there wouldn't be a shortage of it! Guess I'll be looking for some new girls for these wonderful Gecko Den boys!

Don't forget to quarantine your new fellows, regardless of who you got them from. If you quarantine them for 90 days, and remove your females from their current mates now, they may very well be finished laying from the prior breeding and be ready to start over with the new guys at the end of June!

I wonder if female geckos can select which male they want to father their offspring? I know this has been documented in some animals that retain sperm.

Another possibility is that offspring might be from BOTH fathers, if you put them in with the new males. (Obviously each egg would only have one father, but it's possible that it could be either one).