I’d like to start this post by saying I never meant to have gecko babies. I ordered my first lily white from a breeder, and picked up a second lily white at a reptile show. I had hoped for 2 girls, but one turned out to be male.
No problem, I thought. The internet says that lily whites do not produce viable offspring together. My geckos are now a year and a half old, and they are so gorgeous and amazing.
Last month, I casually looked in the tank and noticed a baby. Two days later I found another. Both healthy, now living in a small tank on their own and growing.
This month, I got a call from a neighbor that she has stopped by to say hi and noticed 2 new babies in the tank. They are also healthy and growing.
Now I am building a second tank to separate the parents, but I feel like, what the heck? I thought lily white geckos couldn’t produce viable offspring? Has anyone else had this happen?
This is why I always suggest checking multiple sources and making sure those sources are trusted. This is absolutely not true. Due to the mode of inheritance of Lilly white, breeding two together will give you a 25% chance of a lethal two gene animal, 50% chance of a Lilly White, and 25% chance of a normal.
Like noodlehaus said, they do produce viable offspring, only the babies that inherit the gene from both mom and dad will be unviable, so about 25%.
Once the female had been bred, they can store the sperm for a while, so seperating them won’t stop her from laying. You should absolutely still seperate them, but even so, you should still be looking for eggs, and I would recommend freezing any that you find.
The few times super lillies do manage to hatch, they have severe neurological problems, and need to be euthanised, and i don’t imagine you want to potentially deal with that. That’s why pairing two LWs is very much frowned upon
Yes, that seems to be right. I haven’t figured out where she likes to lay, but I’ll keep an eye out for eggs. I talked to a vet about the possibility of neutering the male, but also sounds like a no-go.
Yes, I had hoped to avoid this kind of heart ache. I think in the internet communication, the conversation focuses on the 25% that don’t make it. And people rarely mention that 50-75% will hatch!
I think it’s to avoid people putting them together altogether tbh if you focus on the 75% that survive people might be tempted to, especially back when LWs were all the rage
Agreed, and to add to this, TSD isn’t a thing in cresties at all - some people have noticed a slightly higher rate of males when incubating at higher temps, and slightly higher rate of females when incubating at lower temps, but it is not nearly enough to determine anything. They can typically be housed together fine for the first few months, but even then it isn’t without risks. Siblings also don’t care that they’re siblings, if you house a male and female together, regardless of age, size (to a degree), genetic relationship, or traits, they will make babies.
100%.
I don’t even agree with it at all I won’t lie, I’ve had eggs hatch between 18-28 degrees over the years. Many heat waves etc which bumped temps right up, and all geckos ranged male to female and mixed clutches so for me it has never worked
@herpgirlphd , I am sorry you’re having this worry and the extra work entailed with unexpected babies, separating your adults. It is clear that you care and want to do right by them. I do want to say that I am glad you’ve found the MorphMarket Community. It’s chock-full of experienced, caring people who want to help without the negativity you find in some venues. You’ve already heard from several. I don’t work with geckos so I have no gecko-specific wisdom to add but I wish you and your animals all the best.
Yes, no intention to sell the babies! I’m gonna keep any girls in a tank together and rehome any males — hopefully with friends and neighbors! This was decidedly not the goal!
Just a heads up, girls don’t always do well together either, certain pairs can live together ok, but even that might change - i know several people who’ve stopped cohabbing altogether, because their geckos went from fine to almost killing eachother over night after months/years of doing fine. If you wanna cohab, you should always at least have enclosures ready to seperate - also know that a gecko can lay 10+ eggs after a single pairings so you’d need a huge enclosure.
I hope none of my stuff comes off as negative, a lot of stuff about cresties you can find online is horribly outdated and unnuanced, so you’re definitely not the first person to have unexpected babies, even though they thought they had done their due dilligence, and misunderstandings obviously do happen from time to time
Just wanted to jump in and say your two adult cresties are stunning! I hope you’ll post pictures of the babies. I’m sorry they reproduced, but I’m happy you have a game plan to try and rehome them to close friends and family.
I’m gonna be honest, some of these babies are so dang cute I’m going to at least cherish this experience, while working to make sure it won’t happen again!
They are so cute and they seem healthy ATM but keep an eye on them as they grow.
Hopefully you’ll get to separate them soon
I have found that if the temperature is lower (still within range) at about 21c then the females tend to stop laying the next year… But this isn’t always the case.
I just need to get through this clutch and make sure it doesn’t happen again.
I’m going to at least cherish this experience, while working to make sure it won’t happen again!
. These babies are such a blessing to you and were meant to be for sure!
and they seem healthy ATM but keep an eye on them as they grow.
