Breeding Question

[Ultrakd]

I have a pair that Im gong to be breeding soon I was just wondering what I shoud do to get them ready. The male is 30g and the female is 30g.

[Ultrakd]

30-35g

[justanotherfroginthepond]

Put them together.   

Just fyi, I know some people will start as low as 30 grams, but I would definitely caution against jumping the gun.  Other breeders with more experience will hopefully weigh in, but if you want to start her light, I think I would give her a short first season, and definitely watch her calcium intake and make sure she's maintaining her weight.  Everything I've seen and heard says 35...

[monster]

i think if it's your first time, wait until at least 32/33 grams. after a year of that, you've got the eye to see how well your other females are doing and what they SHOULD look like/behave like etc...
it's completely possible to breed smaller, but wih the higher weight you have more "wiggle room" to catch something befoe it is too late.

[Ultrakd]

Ok, Yeah this female is different from the Opal Dalmation female that I posted pics of. This female is a nice chunky gecko, I can post pics if you guys like.

[firecrested]

Put them together.   

Just fyi, I know some people will start as low as 30 grams, but I would definitely caution against jumping the gun.  Other breeders with more experience will hopefully weigh in, but if you want to start her light, I think I would give her a short first season, and definitely watch her calcium intake and make sure she's maintaining her weight.  Everything I've seen and heard says 35...

I breed earlier than most, they usually dont have a short season if bred early but it all depends on the gecko, and it takes 2 to 3 months for them to start laying.  The diet needs to be perfect, no baby food, lots of cgd sometimes with extra calcium mixed in if eggs start looking under calcified.  I havent had any health problems ever with younger females but you need to know what to watch for just incase it happens.

[Travis590]

At what weight do you start breeding firecrested?

[firecrested]

I put groups together when they get around 22 to 25 grams when I know for sure that they are male and female and they start breeding when they are ready.  If I am raising up a pair as babies or juvies and the ones I want to breed turn out male and female I keep them together as babies to adults.

But like Julie said, if you are new to Cresteds and dont know what to look for incase something does happen then I would probably wait until they got a little bigger.  I only had one problem when I first started and it was a diet issue.  They were getting baby food, but feeding cgd I havent had any problems.

[Travis590]

Ok cool, I was just curious because I have a male that wont breed anything and everyone kept saying maybe the females were to big so I put him in with females that were 28 and 29 grams and I caught some crap on another forum how you should never put them together under 35 grams no matter what. Well I found out the male simply wont breed, and my thinking was in the wild there isnt anyone there telling him wait for it wait for it give it another month and a few more grams. I wasnt worried about this causing any big problems for the females either, the one is just simply smaller. With smaller females the eggs would just be smaller correct?

[justanotherfroginthepond]

I don't know that it's a matter of the eggs simply being smaller....which, at least with mine, they are....as much as the stress of constant breeding and egg production once they start.  The bigger they are, the more they will probably be able to take, and the easier they should be able to recover after the season. 

One of my smaller moms gets as low as 31g after she lays, and while she is doing much better now, 4 months ago she looked like she was TIRED!  Also, her calcium sacs were completely depleted (even though I was supplementing during her time with the male), and if she had been too much smaller, I don't know if she would have recovered as quickly. 

Also, I think smaller babies would maybe be less likely to survive?

[Travis590]

True, all my breeder females tend to stay around 32 to 36 grams unless they just laid and then the first thing they do is go straight to the cgd. I would definately agree with smaller hatchlings having a less chance of surviving. My thing is some people are dead set on them being at least 35 grams, and yet I have gotten lots of clutches from my first year breeders that are under 30 grams, the babies are large and healthy, and they are growing what I would consider to be at a normal weight. This guy post on the other forum I am on how you should never do that even if you believe the male wont breed them, and I am like it might have been a wrong idea, but the conclusion was exactly what I said it would be.