I have an 18-month-old male with a great temperament. He’s been very respectful with females and not overly aggressive.
I recently acquired a female I’ve been looking for for a long time. She’s 2 years old, unproven. The breeder planned to use her this season but decided not to breed. She wasn’t inexpensive.
My usual approach is to introduce the male into the female’s enclosure. When I did that, the male was his normal curious self, but the female repeatedly chased him off. It didn’t look aggressive, but she was clearly not receptive, so I removed him before it escalated.
After waiting two weeks, I tried the opposite and placed her into his enclosure. She was clearly unhappy but not aggressive. He came out, she went straight into his hide, and he stayed at the bottom of the enclosure. Over two days they mostly avoided each other and she wouldn’t leave the hide, so I returned her to her enclosure.
I’d really like to make this pairing work. I don’t believe the issue is the male. The female is flighty but not aggressive, even during handling. Looking for input on next steps or things I may want to try differently.
• How long have you had her exactly? You say you recently got her… A little over 30 days.
• Do you have photos of her and the male? I can get them…
• What are their setups like? Cork, pool noodles, bioactive, hatch box, some live plants and artificial, and hides top and ground level.
• What is the temp and humidity in her enclosure? Temps are 70s during the day and 70 at night. They are in their own room. I have several reptiles. On an auto mister for 7PM- brings the levels up to 80% at night. Dry out during the day. LED grow light. No UVB.
• What and how often is she fed? Every other day plus dusted insects one of those days.
Once we get these questions out of the way we can have a better understanding of whats going on and how we can further help.
I’m not a crestie breeder, but perhaps she is still stressed by the move and change in environment and so is unreceptive to breeding?
Also, if you have had her for a month and are already pairing her, it sounds like a short or no quarentine, so be careful exposing her to your other animals
If you’ve only had her a month, that’s not enough time to settle in, so really you are just stressing her out. Give her a few months to settle atleast. Also just because she’s hit breeding weight, doesn’t means she’s ready, I would let her gain a bit more first. As they can drop when laying.
Breeding wise for me, I also add the female to the male, so the male scent doesn’t stay in females viv and stress them.
I’d give her a few months to settle in, and try again. Usually I put female to male and I leave them for a few days together. They won’t always do the deed as soon as meeting. There can be some ‘aggression’ or back off attitude from a female, but usually they’ll let the male have their way after a little while. If not, then not a great match unfortunately.
The female might also be too young to be receptive. They mature at different ages depending on the individual. I tried pairing a female about 7 months ago to a male of mine. Both geckos had been in my care for over 6 months and were fully settled in (I produced the female so had had her for two and a half years). She was very aggressive with the male, to the point where I removed him after about an hour with a couple of (fairly minor) bite marks. I just gave up on it and waited about 7 months. Re-paired them about two weeks ago and no aggression whatsoever, they locked immediately.
If there keeps being aggression, they’re probably just not a good match.
General question - do you think the animals will reject a match because they can sense genetic incompatability? Or even because there might be a personal taste preference for a partner? That might be anthropomorphising compared to the former option, but it is interesting to consider