Preventing egg laying issues

[linkj154]

I have a 9 month old female leopard gecko. In a few months she will be sexually mature. She is the only reptile I own and I am not planning on breeding her, but I know female leos can lay eggs without mating, and occasionally egg laying can cause serious problems like becoming egg bound, follicular stasis, ect. What are some things I can do to minimize the risk of these issues? Also if she does lay eggs, should I feed her extra and use more multivitamain and d3 supplements to counter the nutritional depletion?

 

[acpart]

It's pretty rare that unmated female leopard geckos lay eggs. Currently, with my population of 16 female leopard geckos, some of which are retired breeders and some of which have never been bred, only one has laid eggs (one of the ones that was never bred, wouldn't you know). The most reasonable thing to do is to make her humid hide a Gladware container with some coco fiber in it that you keep moist and a hole cut in the top for her to go into. If for some reason she's going to lay eggs, she'll do it in there. Just feed her as much as she wants and continue your usual supplementation. In 13 years of breeding I only had one leopard gecko become egg bound. If she's well fed and healthy it's highly unlikely.

Aliza

 

[linkj154]

Awesome, thanks! The humid hide I am using now is an exoterra gecko cave with sphagnum moss, But the gladware container with coco fiber sounds like a smart addition to my enclosure just in case. It's also a relief to know that it is unlikely that she will lay eggs with out actually mating.

 

[Josh]

Providing a lay box will give her the option to pass the egg in a suitable way and place. This should hinder any binding issues even though they're pretty rare in leos. Good luck!