Our newest family members have settled in really well by all indicators. I am in two minds as to whether or not the female gecko is gravid (pregnant). She is certainly looking 'chubby' as you can see from these photos taken when I took her out of her enclosure briefly to try and get a better idea of the situation.
I've asked around the appropriate traps of the intermaweb and the collective wisdom is that it is very difficult to tell with the Strophorus family generally. Apparently with some of the more commonly kept species you can actually see through the skin on the undersides of their bellies when they are gravid and the eggs are clearly visible. It can be a simple matter of placing the female in a clear container and looking at her from underneath! Oh for it to be that easy.
Additionally from what I understand, female Golden Tails are larger than their male counterparts and can carry a bit of size around the belly. This can also make it hard to tell when they are carrying eggs of course as from what I am seeing now, my girl is just as likely to be settling in and feeding well as anything else. I am also tending to think it is more that she is just faring well in her new home as at this time of year, it would be unusually late to see her produce young. Not unheard of given the right environmentals, but, unlikely. So at this stage it's ready on watch for the next couple of weeks. I had planned to turn the temperatures down for the winter cooling period in preparation for the next breeding season this week. Now it looks like a couple of weeks just holding station for now. I have also made a 'lay box' just in case. This consists of a relatively small plastic container with a hole about the size of a twenty cent piece cut in the top, filled with a moist sand, vermiculite mix. This is so that the female can dig a tunnel to lay and bury her eggs (should she have them in this case). It will break the natural look of the enclosure somewhat for the time being. But, better to play on the safer side of things as it were.
