Male and female, first meeting gone bad...need advice

[nuggular]

Well last night I put my female crested gecko in with the male in the new 50 gallon tank. The male has been in the new tank for a week or so now. First I held them in my hands and let them see eachother and smell one another. I held them together for a few minutes and then put them in the tank. I stayed in the room on a chair watching them for an hour and things were fine. When the lights went off they both started exploring all over and the male kept trying to get closer to the female, but she kept running away. But still, things seemed fine. I kept checking up on them every five minutes or so. Then I was just about the leave to go to a buddies house since they were doing so well for about 3 hours now. I went to check on them one last time and the male had the end of the females tail in his mouth. She looked like she was trying to get away. I quick opened the tank and he let her go. I got her out of there and put her back into her tank. I checked them both out and they are fine. The females tail had a tiny mark on it, but nothing serious at all. So he must not have been biting her tail that hard. So for now, they are separated. But I really want to breed them and get them in the same tank.

Can anyone suggest things to help me out and help them get along. I heard of gargoyle gecko males killing females, but I have never heard of this with crested geckos. Any advice would be great.

~John

 

['stoph]

I'm no expert but I have some thoughts.

First of all are they both same size/age?
Is he/she used to having company?
What about putting the male into her territory?

 

[nuggular]

They are the same size roughly. The female is just a bit larger. No, she has never had company before. Her territory is a small exoterra. So keeping them in there is not an option. But having short meeting together in her tank might not be a bad idea. I will wait for more replys. Thx.

 

[Jay]

You can try what stoph said by putting him into her territory. I have 3 crested geckos, still to young to sex, but there have been times when I have caught in of them trying to chomp on another tail. Out of all the times it happened it was when the one having it's tail bitten, was on the back side of a leaf or somethin and all that was sticking out was it's tail. Probably mistaken for some food is my guess. They can get very intense when live food is offered.

 

[droogievesch]

I wouldn't try breeding them now. The female needs to cool down for the winter. Keep them singly until Feb or March, you have much less risk if killing your female by doing this.

The tail biting sounds like normal mating behavior. You will also notice the male biting the back of the female's neck. If you want to get them used to each other you could rotate them in and out of each other's tanks. But like I said earlier, don't breed them now.

 

[nuggular]

Thx droojievesch. I wasnt planning on breeding them until after winter. So I will keep them separate until then. Can they stay together all spring and summer? And then separate them again during fall?

 

[droogievesch]

You can keep your male in there all spring/summer/fall if you want. The female will store sperm, so you could also keep the male in there for two or three weeks. It's really up to you. The important thing is to give the female a good 4-5 months of no egg production so she can get prepared for the next season. Most people do this over winter because the photo period allows for the gecko to naturally halt production (as does cooler temps). It's hard to cool them down in the summer due to higher temps and more light.

 

[nuggular]

I see. How long can the female store sperm for??

 

[droogievesch]

I've read up to a year. My females stored from October until March.