[Monique]

Hi all,

I'm from Melbourne, Australia. I have a couple of marbled velvet geckos. They are about 2 years old I think and are close to full size (in length), just starting to fill outwards now. The breeder didn't feed them up much when they were younger, so I think they're a bit behind on normal growth rates.

The help I need is basically I thought I had 2 girls, so wasn't really going to breed unless I found a boy in the future, but one of mine has just completely matured, and is showing he is defintely a boy now. Anyway most of the time they sleep apart and sit around different parts of their enclosure. But recently they've been sharing a tree trunk, and some times during the late arvo I can hear noises coming from the tree trunk, like a scratching noise.

As I wasn't intending on breeding this season, I am not prepared, and haven't bred geckos before. I was wondering if there is anything I can look for to see if this is mating behaviour? They are nocternal, and I don't see them very often, so I was wondering if there is anything I can do just in case; like prep a egg laying site or something? They don't like being handled at all, so physically checking the girl would be out of the question, cos I don't want to stress her. And when I look in the tree trunk they're laying quietly next to each other, so I don't think they're fighting.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Monique

[Monique]

Sorry to be impatient, but I really need to know something. It doesn't necessarily have to be from people with marbled velvets experience. I just need some mating/breeding advice for geckos.

Anyone....???

[snakeprint]

I just wrote a big long reply and then accidentally pulled the power lead out the back of the laptop. Grrrr!!

I have a trio of oedura monilis which have just finished their first breeding season. I only had one egg laid, I presume because I was very late introducing the male. The egg was just laid in the substrate (I use coco fibre) directly underneath the ceramic bulb and one of the hides. I had provided them with a laying box which also had coco-fibre soil stuff and moss in it, but I suppose she chose the spot that was best at the time. I always keep a dish with calcium powder in the viv at all times so they can help themselves if they need it - egg production is obviously going to take it out of them a bit.

The only way you can guarantee that yours will not breed is to separate them. You could try cooling them a little (easier said than done in an Australian Summer I'm sure!) which might put them off, but that's not really going to stop the male having a go if he fancies it! I suppose if you do get eggs and you're not ready for hatchlings yet, the answer is don't incubate them, or give/sell them to somebody else to incubate. It seems a shame, but it's better than having little babies with nowhere to live!

Have you heard any vocal noises from them at all? My trio were very noisy when they were courting, and we also noticed a lot of tail waving. We never saw them actually mating, but the hatchling I have is proof enough of what they were up to!

Hope that helps.

[Monique]

Thanks for the reply. If they did lay eggs I would love to keep them. I heard you can hatch them without an incubator as long as the air temp stays constant, not too hot and not too cold, and not in direct sun, correct me if I'm wrong.

I have a small enclosure to put them in if they hatch.

I haven't heard any mating, but not sure what it would sound like. They tail flick me if I come too close while cleaning but I haven't seen them doing it to each other.

Thanks for the info

Monique

[PassPort]

Breeding marms is pretty straight forward and you should be able to find a care sheet on this forum if you do some searching. Just make sure you cool them properly and that you provide a proper nesting area.

Be glad you ended up with a pair - females are highly territorial as adults and will violently fight just like males.

[snakeprint]

Originally Posted by Monique

Thanks for the reply. If they did lay eggs I would love to keep them. I heard you can hatch them without an incubator as long as the air temp stays constant, not too hot and not too cold, and not in direct sun, correct me if I'm wrong.

That definitely wouldn't work in my house (but then it has been snowing overnight!) but I'm sure you could do it if your house stays at a steady temperature. After all, they don't need our help in the wild! If you find any eggs, you could always incubate them in the viv with the geckos. Just put them in some kind of plastic tub with damp vermiculite or something similar and leave them to it. With small day geckos I've heard of people just covering the eggs over with a plastic container (to stop the adults eating the babies when they hatch) and incubating them in the viv as they found them. Sometimes that's the best way if the eggs are stuck to something.
We recently invested in a herp nursery II incubator for incubating our eggs which is fantastic for maintaining the same temperature, and also for getting air around the eggs. My monilis egg hatched 40 days after I found it, which seemed very early. We also had a rankins dragon hatch on day 38 using it, whereas the previous clutch had taken 60 days in our homemade incubator (polystyrene box with heatmat and thermostat). Both were set to the same temps, but our homemade incubator was nowhere near as reliable. It seems that the more constant you can keep the temperatures, the shorter the hatching time.