Gecko - Laying without mating

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Harry89

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Hello All,

I have a quick question, I have what I had assumed were two 'male' banded knob tailed geckos, I now very much believe otherwise as there are random eggs appearing in the sand... (I wondered why they didn't offer the previous owner issues being housed together since hatching.)

Both are the same gender (they have the same external tail base appearance, and I am new to geckos so seem to have sexed them wrong after buying them from another clueless owner), both from the same clutch, however I am finding more and more flattened 'eggs' in the enclosure and for a night or so, each one digs like crazy and stays out of the hides during the day to defend the disturbed substrate. The eggs aren't fertile, they start out round and quickly harden and flatten out. My question though, is should I be leaving them in the tank for the geckos to protect etc, or should they be removed and discarded? I haven't found much information on what to do in this situation (most people breed them after all), but this is the fourth lot of eggs I have now found in the last few months... (I am assuming 2 x laying cycles per gecko as they share an enclosure with no dramas)

I am just trying to avoid unnecessary stress to them either way and keep them healthy. They seem to eat less and change colour while guarding the eggs naturally, so I wondered if removing them would help break the guard cycle and sooner instate normal non breeding behaviors...

Thank you for the assistance.
 
Do you have pictures of your geckos' vents and underneath their tails? Are you providing moist sand for them to lay their eggs in? It's not unheard for geckos to lay infertile eggs. Removing them should be fine. Make sure that they're receiving adequate nutrition to recuperate what they lost when forming their eggs.
 
I will have to take new photos, the ones the previous owner sent me have been deleted it seems, yay for phones...

They seem to moisten the sand themselves, I have a water dish in there I have had to put a large rock under as they dig and tip it onto themselves (one got trapped a couple of months ago, thankfully I got to the little lady in time and she bounced back no issues after a panicked call to the vet!), I keep the desert sand at the front deep for them, about 2 inches, so they can dig in it, per the species enclosure setup info I have found, should I perhaps thin it out to stop the laying behavior, removing the suitable 'nesting area'. (see pic below taken a few weeks ago, I have excavator clay burrows in the back half for them with loose deep sand from the middle to the front)

They refuse to feed from tweezers, so I put new crickets in every couple of nights for them, close to their hide entrance and calcium dust one lot of offerings a week. They don't appear to be getting any slimmer or have less fat in their tails, so I am assuming they are getting enough food. I have put in small mealworms a few times, they seem unsure of them but try a few and they didn't seem to want the woodies at all when I gave those a go, should I try something else?

IMG_2456.JPG IMG_2268.JPG IMG_2271.JPG IMG_2263.JPG
[doublepost=1514501750,1514429345][/doublepost]As you can see, whatever they are, they will be the same gender and they are still quite chunky in the tail. (One has always been bigger than the other, so I separate them in the enclosure before I put the crickets in so they both get a decent go at feeding.

IMG_2533.JPG IMG_2535.JPG IMG_2537.JPG
 
It's hard, gecko sexing really seems to be species specific and I have struggled finding a guide for these guys in particular... I feel bad for thinking they are dudes, but really, they know no different and it doesn't affect them. Just glad I chose neutral names, not that they respond to them anyway hahahahahahahahahaha!!!
 
What species are they? I'm 99% sure sure they are female, males have very noticeable hemipenes.
 
Banded knob-tailed gecko Nephrurus wheeleri - http://www.arod.com.au/arod/reptilia/Squamata/Gekkonidae/Nephrurus/wheeleri

Nephrurus-wheeleri-thumb.jpg
 
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