Ok. I wanted to do some brain-storming (way ahead of time, as I'm not even _getting_ my unsexable trio until next week) to see how you guys go about your breeding projects. The way I see it there are a few options as to how to proceed.
1. Two+ cages of 1.1 ratio each, allow reproduction, and any holdback offspring just breed them with members of other cages to avoid inbreeding. Simply keep offspring in rubbermaids that detail what cage group they came from. Allow all cages a 2 month cooling period in the winter to recoup, remove any females that produce undercalcified eggs and allow them to recoup for a couple of months or so giving extra calcium/D3.
2. Two+ cages of 1.2(or 1.3 if in possession of enclosures that large) ratio each because this would prevent too much breeding pressure being put on a single female. Re: Handling of cages/females in option 1. Additional info, it would be fairly impossible to know what offspring came from what female (unless they were markedly different in appearance or you had a video camera on the laying box), so it wouldnt be possible to take a nice looking male and breed him back to the female who wasn't his mother, because you wouldn't know which one she was.
3. (This option is based on the assumption that females store sperm, I've read in several threads on this board that this is true. Is it always true or just occasionally?) Several cages in which the geckos are usually housed individually most of the year, introducing 1 female with 1 male until she produces a first set of eggs, then put her in her own enclosure and let her produce all the eggs that she's going to, then rest a couple of months before breeding her again. For the males just give them more females, but still allow them a two month or so cooling period. This option would require more bookwork, but if it would work seems like it would allow for more genetic experimentation while still avoiding inbreeding.
I'd assume that 1. and 2. are widely used, but has anyone considered using 3. or something similar?
Wow, didn't mean for that to be such a long post, but I want to start getting my ducks in a row. (And I'll try to avoid counting my geckos before they're hatched too
)
Thanks,
~Melissa
oh an additional note: everyone on these forums has been soo consistantly helpful to me. you guys always seem to answer my weird questions like this, even the dumb ones, and i really appreciate it, you make herping a much more enjoyable experience!
:grab:
Breeding Organization/Methods
Threaded Mode