What age do female Chahoua start laying eggs?

[TroysGeckos]

What age do your female Chahoua start laying eggs?
I had a female that I produced in mid-February 2018 lay her first eggs in the middle of April 2019!
I have other females who do not produce any eggs until they're paired with a male at ~3 years old.
What are your experiences like?

 

[ArborealsAnonymous]

My youngest egg producer started at 14 months. Honestly, she looked like shit- this was before i changed the diet to primarily insects and I could not keep weight on her. I actually moved her to the coldest part of my house to try and stop her from laying, but then she went off food. It was a constant battle of supplementing her and getting her back into good shape and then she would drop more eggs and look terrible again. It was actually dealing with her that convinced me to switch to primarily insects- that was the only way I could keep her looking ok, and I figured if an underage, unpaired gecko needed that than likely my adults weren't doing too hot either they just didn't show it as badly yet. Ive had a few others that started laying duds very young, around the 18-20 month mark, but they do much better now and maintain their weight without looking raggedy.

 

[Michael]

My experience is pretty similar...

I've had one or two females drop their first eggs around 16-18 months of age, but most seem to start closer to the 22-24 month range. If they drop the eggs surprisingly early, I usually wait until a second set is laid before I think about pairing them up, just to be sure the first ones weren't a freak accident. In the few times this has happened, I usually don't get more eggs for 3-6 months, when they begin a normal laying cycle.

 

[ArborealsAnonymous]

If they drop the eggs surprisingly early, I usually wait until a second set is laid before I think about pairing them up, just to be sure the first ones weren't a freak accident. In the few times this has happened, I usually don't get more eggs for 3-6 months, when they begin a normal laying cycle.

Does this mean that you would consider pairing up a female that was younger than 2.5/3 years so long as she was already consistently laying? Ive recently decided to give it a try with one of my girls that has dropped a couple clutches already without losing significant weight or showing signs of calcium crash. I just left the male in with her for a week to see if that makes any difference to her next clutch but I was too worried about her age to leave them together. She was I believe 59g immediately after laying 2 well calcified eggs at 5g each. She is 2 years old. She seemed to get along fine with the male while they were together but I didn't see any courting behavior.

 

[Michael]

Does this mean that you would consider pairing up a female that was younger than 2.5/3 years so long as she was already consistently laying? Ive recently decided to give it a try with one of my girls that has dropped a couple clutches already without losing significant weight or showing signs of calcium crash. I just left the male in with her for a week to see if that makes any difference to her next clutch but I was too worried about her age to leave them together. She was I believe 59g immediately after laying 2 well calcified eggs at 5g each. She is 2 years old. She seemed to get along fine with the male while they were together but I didn't see any courting behavior.

Yes, I'd say so. Obviously the egg production and laying is what's hardest on their bodies, so if a female is in a rhythm of laying before 2.5, I would probably go ahead and pair her up. I definitely think pairing with a more gentle and similar sized male would help. I have some males who are large, dominant breeders and I wouldn't want them beating up a smaller, new female.

Let us know if they produce anything for you!

 

[Gray Sky Exotics]

I usually pair my girls with similar aged/weight males once they are around 1.5yrs. Of those pairings, the girls seem to wait 6-9 months before they start laying.