Tail loss/ Breeding question

[MKHerps]

1.Well last night i came home to find my male breeder tailess. No one had messed with him, so kind of stumped as to why he lost it. He is housed with our three breeding female at this time. Last night I noticed them making alot more noise than usual. Almost as if they were not getting along, but it is breeding so i didnt thank much of it. Today I checked on everyone, cleaned cages and was unable to find the males missing tail in the cage. Came home tonight and one of the females was missing a tail. I recently found out that my diet of baby food supplemented with calcium, was no good. I have alreasy ordered a complete CGD and super calcium. Could the loss of tails be from poor diet, or injuries from breeding/fighting. Only one male in the cage and these four geckos have been together for over a year minus there cool off/seperation period.
2. My wife also says she read somewhere that a guy only housed his males with females for a few months and they would continue to lay eggs the entire season. Is this true or is the male needed, after each egg lay, to fertalize the up coming eggs.

[Mettle]

What size is your enclosure? And how is it furnished? Four geckos can be a lot for certain small enclosures and you can definitely run into issues with aggression. With animals, things can be fine for a very long time and suddenly explode. In smaller enclosure this is the crowding effect where the animals are tense and partially stressed, thus appear to get along. However, when things bubble over it can result in a lot of other issues.

Regarding the missing tails, they were most likely eaten by another one of the geckos.

I would recommend separating the two geckos who have lost their tails. Or perhaps even separate all four geckos for the time being. The two that lost their tails should be housed alone and on paper towel, at least temporarily, so they can properly heal while lessening the chances of infection.

As for females laying after being separated from the males.. yes, that is entirely true. Many breeders have reported females producing viable, fertile eggs from females who have stored male sperm, for months after being separated. I have a friend who purchased a crested female from a reptile store that had her housed with a male and thus far he has gotten 5 fertile clutches from her. She is not being housed with a male, either, simply another female.

[Ben Biscy]

sounds like you have a teritorial female. separate or be prepared for a tailess collection.

this will not hinder breeding, though the tailess male will probably never mate with the female who took the tail. my experience, not book info here, take with grain of salt. i have had good luck swapping males from two fighting trios. my best breeders though are those who have not been very agressive, both male and females still have tails. this trio produces 2x more eggs than my fiesty sets. i've sold most of my "high energy" cresteds off. i'm done on breeding for awhile, raising babies. the only breeders i have left are a group of super dalmations (mom and dad are white with black spots during the day, dad fires up orange, mom fires up yellow).

good luck with your groups!

[mlededee]

Aggression between geckos can happen at any time (even if they have lived together for years). It could just be that one of the females got fed up with the male or one of them is becoming more territorial. Your best bet is just to make sure that the geckos have enough space and that the two with the now missing tails have a clean environment to heal up in.

Most males will still breed with a female that bit/ate his tail unless for some reason the female has become very aggressive or grown much larger than him. I have one particular girl who ate the tail of 2 different males during different breeding seasons and both males continued to breed with her quite well. Tail loss can be a risk associated with breeding, but generally it does not cause any other ill effects as long as everything else is in order (space, diet, etc) .

You definitely only want to keep your male in with your females for part of the year--females will retain sperm and continue laying fertile eggs for 3-6+ months after they are separated. Once the females have laid all of their eggs they need a period of time to rest before being bred again--I give all of my females a minimum of 9 months off between each season to ensure both healthy breeders and babies. Males often need some time off as well, in order to put on some weight and rest (some males do not eat as well while breeding as they tend to just focus on that one thing).

[MKHerps]

I knew they needed a cool down time, but i thought only like 3-4 months. My plan was to keep the male with the three females till about september or october then seperate and re introduce about march or april.

[mlededee]

They will need longer than that apart, as the females will likely only have stopped laying just prior to March or April (or may still be laying depending on how long they retain sperm) if separated in Setember or October. If you cool them temperature wise they may stop laying, but can still retain sperm and start laying again in the spring when it warms up, so keep that in mind too. A proper rest is one where they have stopped laying completely and then had at least 6 months or more to rest.