Trials of a beginner breeder - A case of retained sperm?

[DaemoNox]

This has me totally shocked. Gully, an adult female amel aztec purchesed from Serpenco's adult sale has been a little off on timing ever since exiting brumation. She shed a week or two before the others, me thinking it just was a normal shed she started in brumation but I introduced her with the male anyways. A few weeks later on 1/18/07 I saw them breed (they could of bred earlier then that too. She refused feeding and went into shed, I didnt think much of it since she normally refuses in shed. After shedding she refused too though, and started to look extremely gravid; shocked with how quick it was I was thinking she was going to be one of those female who wont eat through the entire egg-carrying peroid. Boy was I wrong, today I pulled out her container for a cleaning and there she was in her waterbowl surrounding a clump of eggs! Thank the gods or devils the waterdish was empty. I am totally unprepaired, just by pure lazyness I had some of that brick coconut fiber expanded, moist, and still sitting on the bathroom counter from about a week ago, so they are in a delicup on that with damp paper towels on them sitting on the back of a rack where it should keep them between 70 and 80F, while the incubator is now assembled and the temps slowely evening out. While I was running around crazy here she is in a holding container laying another egg! So I clean her container and make a fast humid box with damp paper towels for her. Hopefully everything now will be alright; there are 15 fertile eggs total I believe, and she looks pretty empty.

My guess, unless my estimations of the time between breeding and laying are totally off, is that this may be a case of sperm retention. She wasnt due untill about another 2 weeks according to the date I wittnessed them breeding, and she had only been with him for about a week before they bred. It just seems like a much shorter time then last year that I had to wait for eggs.