I have a lily white female that I have paired with a proven breeder
and this is their first season together and the very first breeding season for the lily-white. She laid her first beautiful fertile clutch 42 days ago. I have her set up with a lay box and I have checked it every day and I have checked on her at night to see if she is digging or nesting and I have seen no signs of her laying a second clutch. I have a fair amount of breeding experience with crested geckos and maybe I’ve just been extremely lucky but once my females lay their first clutch they usually give me three or four clutches That season and they are usually always around the 30-day Mark give or take four or five days. I’ve never had a female go 42 or 43 days past her first clutch without laying her second clutch so I’m starting to get concerned. Am I just being impatient and is this something that happens more often and I’m just unaware of it? Any help or advice that the community could give me would be much appreciated. I have a lot of time and money invested in this female besides the fact that I love her dearly and she is the pride of my collection. I definitely don’t want to take any chances that I am missing eggs or that she has become egg bound. She has a shoebox-sized lay box setup so it’s fairly easy to check the box and I’m positive there are no eggs in there I am missing. Could she potentially be laying eggs inside one of the cork rounds? Has anyone experienced crested geckos laying in side cork rounds or their hides?
1 Like
She is an absolutely beautiful gecko! Once the babies hatch I would love to see pictures of them. Is she on substrate? My cresties never used the lay box I gave them and they only laid in the substrate. I take all of the decorations out and take the substrate out little by little and check it all for eggs.
1 Like
This year is my first session breeding Cresties but one of my Cresties laid her first set of eggs on day 51 & second set on day 47. However she was digging from early on.
None of my Cresties used the lay boxes I provided, but they are in bio-active enclosures and found their own places to lay.
Another of my Cresties won’t dig until approx the day she lays, she has been bred before. But the male didn’t take too get right away. I had to re-pair them a month later.
If I’m honest, she doesn’t look like she is carrying any eggs from the pictures. But then, I’m not great at telling. I assume the first set of eggs are still incubating & look normal?
She might just be a slow egg producer maybe? Is she eating and moving normal?
3 Likes
Every Crestie is different. I actually had one last year lay all over the place, 2 months inbetween also!
So don’t worry too much, most usually start digging a couple weeks- a week before laying too so just keep an eye.
Don’t check her lay box every day as you will just stress her out messing it up, as they dig holes/tunnels for a while before hand.
3 Likes
Thank you guys so much for all of your input and it’s very much appreciated. She was in a completely bioactive 18 by 18 by 24 with about 5in of substrate above a drainage layer but I missed a set of eggs when I had another pair in that tank until a week or two after they were laid and they both molded and were a loss. My other breeding groups have always successfully laid in lay boxes but then again they don’t have much choice. They are set up with paper towels in the bottom and a lay box that takes up 1/2 of the bottom of the enclosure so they really have no option but to lay there just like this pair is now. There is no other substrate in the enclosure other than what is in the lay box which is a mix of Eco Earth, organic soil with a couple of patches of moss. She has always been more active during the day than most of my other geckos and I haven’t noticed any changes in her behavior. She is still eating well and she’s always being on a rotation of different varieties of Pangaea and repashy complete diet and she loves her dubia roaches that are always dusted with repashy calcium plus multivitamin which she gets twice a week. Her first clutch of eggs are approaching 45 days and they look perfect and look like they should when candled. Until I see any changes in her behavior and appetite I’m going to just be patient and assume she is slow producing. I will let you guys know if anything changes
4 Likes
I meant to reply, but forgot.
All three of my girls refuse to use a lay box. They very much prefer to dig. And we can never tell when they lay because we don’t see them digging. 
we have had four hatch in the enclosure itself (do not recommend) because it’s hard to determine their schedule. They have also not been paired since last year, so we are just dealing with the retained sperm. They are also in bio so we go through like paleontologists every month or so.
If she is acting normally, I wouldn’t worry. She’s just on her own schedule. She is absolutely beautiful, and so are the eggs! 
3 Likes
