Can anyone tell me why my leopard gecko is ovulating? I got her in Feb and she looked really fat when I got her and I just thought it was because she was fed a lot but now I think that it’s eggs. I hope she isn’t impacted by them because that is a long time to carry eggs.
@mblaney @erie-herps should be able to help.
But if like it since feb I wouldn’t say eggs, I don’t see eggs myself, look like it’s bloated?
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I’m not great at identifying eggs but those could be eggs (I’m really not sure). What are the temperatures and humidity in the tank? Do you have a hide on each side in addition to a humid hide? Can you add a picture of the enclosure? What do you feed her? Have you recently changed temperatures (sometimes an increase in temperature can stimulate breeding behavior)?
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On the warm side, it stays 84 Fahrenheit and is higher sometimes and on the cool side it’s usually 77 Fahrenheit, and the humidity I don’t check on because it stays in the 30s and doesn’t change unless she is in shed the only place that’s humid is the humid hide. Also, I do have a hide on each side but I don’t have a picture and I feed her mealworms and crickets every other week and waxworms once a month.
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I’m lost. You feed her once fortnightly?…
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You only feed once every two weeks? She should be fed every other day. How many worms/crickets do you feed per feeding? Impaction is a possibility. I would raise the temperatures up to ~88*F and see if you can change the staple food to dubia roaches (ideal), hornworms, silkworms, or BSFL. Crickets are a better staple than mealworms but still not ideal. I recommend decreasing the amount of mealworms fed and increase the crickets fed. Just be sure to gut load or dust the feeders with proper reptile supplements. When you feed crickets be sure not to leave any loose in the tank as they can injure the gecko. What substrate do you have?
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I meant I feed her 6 mealworms everyday and crickets every other week and the waxworms once a month sorry for the confusion. Also I do dust them and I make sure that the crickets don’t stay in there for too long because they can hurt her. The substrate that I use is paper towel, I used to use reptile carpet but I think it’s bad I don’t know how you feel about that but I don’t want to use it again. Also were I got her from she was on sand and I would never use that either so I think she might have a little impaction from that now that I think about it.
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The others raise some excellent points. I am not sure but it looks like those are just fat pads. It’s not possible for her to have carried the same set of eggs since February, and it’s not possible for her to have had an impaction for that long.
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I agree it makes more sense now that I have some people to help me just to be on the safe side I’m going to try soaking her in warm water every other day for a while. Thanks for your help everyone.
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I think everything’s okay, I don’t see any problems. Do you have a picture from above of the entire gecko? Mealworms aren’t an ideal feeder (nor are they sustainable long-term) so I would recommend looking into alternative feeders. Paper towels are perfect for substrate. Sand from that long ago shouldn’t have caused impaction. I don’t think soaking is necessary but if you want to it shouldn’t hurt.
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Yes I think I have a picture of her but I would have to find it. Also I will look into dubias online because I did want to try them but no stores near me have them and I heard mealworms are hard to digest so thanks for the recommendation.
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Your gecko doesn’t seem overly fat though changing mealworms to dubias should make it better (mealworms are high in fat and chitin).
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