My secret to breeding? Patience and forgetfulness!

Well I've been trying to pair this guy with a few different females since about mid October. He's been trying super duper hard - lots of caressing and tail wrapping, he could just never find the "right spot". Well this past weekend I was put him with my mojave girl, as of Tuesday still no locks after three days so I was going to separate them.

But I got distracted making dinner and other household stuff that I plain forgot. And didn't even remember until today at work. Well when I got home I was surprised to find this! They were locked up!

I'm glad I forgot to separate them as they wouldn't have ever locked. Looks like this guy will be left with the ladies for 5+ days from now on. Anyways, for those of you still having trouble getting males to pair, try leaving them in longer than normal, it might just do the trick!

http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r...DSC_0002-3.jpg

Gotta love it when a plan comes together.....lol. Best of luck this season.

Indeed patience is the trick in this business, and perhaps all. Good luck. :gj:

Let them do what they're going to do, and trust them.

That's the key to 99% of herpetoculture. Food, water, security, and trust go a long way.

It's when you start trying to work with species that we haven't figured out captive breeding techniques that it gets tricky.

When I first started breeding crested geckos, I would PAMPER my baby geckos. I would hand feed them to make sure they were eating, check on them every day, and monitor just about everything I could think of.

Right from the start I had trouble with a few that failed to thrive.

As soon as I started leaving the babies alone, save for food, water, and a good home, I had 100% survival rates.

They just needed extra time to figure things out :P

Everything happens for a reason! Congrats (:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by joepythons

They just needed extra time to figure things out :P

---

I guess so. I've just never had a male take this long to figure it out. Every other male I've had would be locked up within 24 hrs, even the young breeders.

Usually this guy, prior to this lock, would "try" for a couple of days and then give up and just go curl up. Same thing this past weekend, and the night I meant to remove him he was curled up not trying anymore. Guess he needed a breather after so much effort with no success.

So long as he's breeding I'm a happy camper - hopefully this pair will give me the BEL I've been trying to make for the past two years. Third year's a charm (hopefully!).

Good luck to you on 3.3 BELs. My little guy didn't even start showing interest until the end of December. I've been pairing sense nov 1st.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LotsaBalls

Good luck to you on 3.3 BELs. My little guy didn't even start showing interest until the end of December. I've been pairing sense nov 1st.

---

Hahaha!! I'd probably literally poop enough bricks to build a house if I got 3.3 BELs! This past year was a great year for me, I had two clutches (both codom to codom) give me all morphs. So I'm worried that Murphy is a gunning for me this year.

I'll be perfectly happy with 0.0.1 BEL and 5 normals.

Yay! Congrats!

I currently have my male Mojave with my normal female and things haven't happened yet! When I first put him in her tail was wagging like crazy but I still have yet to see any action.

Hope you get some gorgeous babies soon! :gj: