Oedura egg laying

mikew1234

New member
I just got my first clutch of eggs from one of my pairs of Oedura Monilis yesterday. This is my third clutch from Oedura so far, two being from Castelnaui. My question is, all three of my clutches have been of one egg. Is this normal? I will update with pics of the geckos later.
 

mikew1234

New member
No one wants to comment on this? I just got another individual egg from my trio of O. Monilis. This is the fourth clutch I have gotten from Oedura which consists of one egg.
 

mad4400

New member
No that is not normal. Oedura family should lay two eggs per clutch.
Have you checked the females for a retained egg? Are you sure the wayward eggs are not in the enclosures anywhere?
 

mikew1234

New member
Neither female seems to have retained eggs. I only saw one egg in the female who most recently laid (very noticeable when they are on the glass). The O. Castelnaui laid two individual egg clutches last year, and she is still thriving with me.
All of the eggs which have been laid have been in the lay boxes I leave for them. The rest of the enclosures were searched when the eggs were laid, expecting to find the second one.
 

mikew1234

New member
The one Castelnaui egg went full term, but didn't hatch. It never molded until around days 60-70. The second egg hatched.
The Monilis eggs are very white, and I saw veins when candled. There is no mold yet.
 

Elizabeth Freer

Well-known member
My Oedura castelnaui most often lay double egg clutches. Not all are fertile.

Are you cooling the pairs during the winter?

Brumation Guidelines for Oedura castelnaui: USA
by Jerry Peebles (February 2004)

"If the animals are fat and healthy, I normally start tapering the amount I feed them about September 1st – maybe only feed about half as much. However, if they are recovering from a long breeding season, I recommend feeding all they will eat just to get as much weight on them as possible before cooling. And obviously if they are not in good shape, they are not cooled.

On October 1st I begin cooling and reducing the light cycle on my geckos. Between October 1st and November 1st I gradually reduce the lighting from 14 hours per day to 8 hours per day. I stop feeding everything that I’m going to cool clear down about October 20th to give these geckos the chance to clear their systems of any food. Starting November 1st I drop the temperature to 55-60 F for brumation and leave it there until January 1st. The lows I use for cooling Oedura castelnaui are 55-60 F at the lowest at night. During brumation days (~8.5 weeks) I let the temperature rise to the upper 60s at most. Commencing January 1st I warm these geckos a degree or two a day until they are into the 70s and gradually increase their lighting. I start feeding them again around January 10th. By the end of January I have the light back up to 14 hours a day and the heat back up to 75-80 F during the day.

I live in the Pacific Northwest, USA and lightly mist the brumating Oedura castelnaui about every other day for water and humidity. If a person was keeping them in a more arid area, I feel the misting could be really beneficial for them. In the Pacific Northwest, it probably is not much more useful than just supplying them with a drink.

Although I personally don’t do this, fresh water can always be available in a dish during this time.

There is no exact right way that I know of to cool geckos, but what I have described here has worked for me."
 
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mummabear

New member
I haven't had any experience with Oedura but i have had a number of Nephrurus lay only one egg. I see it as normal just not common. As long as they continue to act normally with eating etc i wouldn't worry.
 

mikew1234

New member
It's not that I'm worried about them, just found it odd. As for the care, I did brumiate the Castelnaui this year, and expect eggs within the next few weeks to month or so, but the monilis were a recent purchase which I got already ovulating.
 
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