Geckos Mating

I hear a couple of my gargoyles mating. They growl and grumble a lot--sounds like "RRRR rrr RRRR ggrrrrr whhh wh wh wh." When rhacodactylus geckos mate, it can be rough business! The male usually bites the female on the head or neck to hold her still. Sometimes he will shake his head like a dog with a rat in its mouth! Gargoyle geckos have pointier, needle-like teeth in comparison to cresteds. My females inevitably get a bit scarred up. But I'm hoping this means some eggs soon!

Sounds like bizzness.

Ouch! Do you ever worry about them just being aggressive and hurting each other rather than mating?

A lot of rhacodactylus family geckos and other lizards for that matter can get over zealous with breeding and can cause harm. Most don't know to stop which is why especially with Cresteds, gargs you should never leave the males with the females.

Hi Docwade, actually it is acceptable to keep the male with the female for a few days, as it is unlikely they will breed immediately when you put them in the cage. I don't know if you are being informative or reprimanding me, but please don't assume anything about how I keep my reptiles. I just placed this pair together the day I wrote the post.

Don, they may or may not hurt each other, but a good keeper always looks out for injuries incurred during mating. What Doc says is true--you would not want to keep a male and female together for an indefinite period of time, as it may result in weight loss/scars from fighting. I believe many crested breeders keep trios together for most of the year except during the cooling season, because cresteds aren't quite as rough.

I was not trying to be negative any way shape or form nor accusing you of whatever you thought I was. I was just saying to keep them in there for any period longer than a few days probably should be frowned upon, was just trying to answer the question Don had asked with a little bit of explanation. Not trying to hijack your thread either.
A lot of people want to breed and breed and breed (again not against you) everything they can get there hands on without much experience at all and most don't even have the basic husbandry down. There are a lot of newbies/novices around on here and I just want to pass good info so that all the animals are kept to the best standards possible. Again no offense towards anyone just explaining as to why I said what I said in my post earlier. Would rather enunciate more on a topic than to not put any info out there at all.

I apologize for any confusion and hurt feelings I may have caused

As far as breeding cresteds, same applies with the species. I have found that even pairs of females in the same enclosure normally do not fare well either. There is always some type of bullying going on and one ends up not eating like they should etc. etc. .....this is a little off the initial post topic but again putting out good info for anyone who choses to read and learn

Lol, I am not mad, I was just not sure if you mean anything about my reptiles since the thread was started by me.

It is true; many people will also keep reptiles together indefinitely to conserve space, above anything else. Too often you hear people saying that they want to have a "community" setup of different species. Regardless of whether the different species would be around each other in the wild, people don't think about the fact that "the wild" encompasses an incredibly large amount of space. To have, for instance, 3 different rhacodactylus in the largest Exo Terra one can buy, is still unnatural and stressful for the animals.

What's funny is that sometimes for all my careful planning, careful caging, careful feeding, careful pairing...sometimes I have no luck breeding my geckos, whereas some newb who knows nothing and has no care for the animals' well being will throw some critters together and get fertile eggs immediately!

Don't worry, Doc, it is good to put out as much info as possible.

agreed with all said above. No hurt feelings here either, it sometimes is hard to voice information on forums without someone initially interpreting it wrong.

I recently had an altercation on Facebook with some people who I thought were my friends, and now I am incredibly paranoid!

I think you two better calm down before you get banned!

lol oh the joys of social networking!!! Why I never pay any attention to either

Don please no not me!!! lol don't be mean?!?!?

Haha, is that a threat, Don?? I'm gonna take you down with me!

I think that husbandry can be a really touchy subject anyway. Most people have at least slightly varying opinions about the best ways to care for their geckos.

Actually, some good information was posted because of the misunderstanding. I don't breed geckos, because I spend a ton of time with my ball pythons, including working hard to learning more than I now know.

Learning about one kind of gecko may translate into other types of geckos, but only so much of that knowledge is in common with pythons, turtles and amphibians. The more I learn, the less I seem to know. That is why I stick to a narrow band of reptiles. My brain might get too full if I get too many different kinds.

Don wrote:

The more I learn, the less I seem to know.

I like this statement a lot. How wise you are!

With animals it seems as though one is always learning...especially concerning humans.