Giant Day Gecko Slugs!

[Dyesub Dave]

I currently have two female Giant Day Geckos that I had assumed were about 9 or 10 months old. I noticed a big white oval object on one of the pieces of wood the other day which looked to be a big POOP! Upon closer inspection I noticed that there was another one a little higher up on the wood and realized that they were eggs.

Neither of these females have been with a male so they were obviously infertile and they weren't nice and round and didn't look like the shell was hard. I was wondering if perhaps these geckos were a bit older since they've started to lay eggs already. And if they're laying eggs does that may that I can introduce a male at this point or should I wait until the spring? ( I don't have a male right now but I'm sure I could find one. )

So I guess the point is that I wasn't expecting eggs so soon and am not sure if this is an indication of anything. I'm also wondering if the eggs not being round and hard is showing me that they need more calcium?

BTW - The eggs were gone when I got home so I imagine that one of the geckos broke them open .... perhaps to eat the insides.

Any advice you can give from your experience would be appreciated.

Thanks ... Dyesub Dave. :biggrin:

 

[PhelsumaUK]

Sounds like one of them has laid a couple of infertile eggs and then eaten them. The fact that they weren't hard is an indication of infertility. Prob not a lack of calcium..they just don't bother to produce a shell if the eggs are infertile (although they occasionally do). I've had females lay their first eggs at less than 6 months. I wouldn't start breeding with them until they're 18 months at least though. If they're getting along together now, chances are that it will start to go wrong when you introduce the male so you're better off keeping them as 1:1 and 0:1 then

 

[zohariels]

Ditto UK. Even though they are producing eggs does not mean they are ready to breed. Every time one of my lonely ladies lays a dud they eat them, and they're always yellow and mushy. Yummy!

 

[Dyesub Dave]

Thanks for the replies! Yeah ... the eggs did look a bit yellow and mushy. I didn't assume that these females were old enough to breed but didn't have a hatch date on them and had to guess from my experience with other geckos. So I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't way off on their age because they'd started to lay eggs.

I was originally going to trade one of the females for a male but was told that sometimes they don't pair up well and that I should keep both females so I would have a backup if the first pair didn't get along. So this summer I will get a male and keep one pair together and house the other female separately and go from there.

I need a small warehouse for all of the reptiles that I'm housing separately until breeding season or until they're old enough to breed. :roll:

Thanks again for you helpful advice!

Dyesub Dave. :biggrin: