Lay box in naturalistic vivarium with bonus complication

[c0ld]

Hi all,

Purchased a finished naturalistic vivarium and plan to put a proven breeding pair of gargoyle geckos in soon.

Issues:

-How can I entice the female to use a lay box over the substrate? Will she be inclined to keep using her lay box in the new environment which is full of soil rather than paper towel?
-There is no mesh barrier between substrate and clay balls. If the female digs her eggs down...will this become an issue?

I rather not replant everything etc. but if I must I must.

Thanks
C

 

[acpart]

I have found it easiest to let the garg bury the eggs in the substrate. If the enclosure is heavily planted this won't work so well and maybe she'll be happier to have a lay box with clear digging space. You could always offer it. I have found the gargs (and my crestie) to be pretty hard on the plants anyway, so you'll have to see how they do.

Aliza

 

[c0ld]

How do you end of finding the eggs? Is it an issue if she can dig down to the clay balls?

 

[CrestedRick]

First there should be a screen separator between your substrate and drainage layer. 2nd finding the eggs will be tough, I put my cresties together in January and just found two hatchlings last night and I check for eggs often. Offer a lay box and see what happens worst case she ignores it and you find some babies in a few weeks lol

 

[acpart]

When breeding season is active, I weigh my gargs every evening. Once a female has lost 5 or more grams from one evening to the next, I start to look for eggs. This has worked well with 2 exceptions:
--late last season I found a garg hatchling in the enclosure (I'd probably assumed breeding season was over and stopped being so diligent)
--a month ago one of my gargs lost 5 grams and though I dug up the cage, I never found any eggs. We'll see if a hatchling shows up in 2 months.

Aliza

 

[c0ld]

Thanks for your inputs. It seems that the eggs are pretty durable? I have a few options now, and in any case I need to dig up all the dirt and install a screen separator between the layers.

 

[CrestedRick]

The eggs are durable just remember that when you remove them you need to keep them in that orientation, chances are they've been there a day or two and have started to develop where the air pocket will be.