Female C.e. Popei laying eggs with no male present

[ira]

I have 3 female C. e Popei that i have had for about 5 years now. Recently one of the females started laying eggs. Thinking that I had mis-sexed one i pulled some of the eggs to see if they were fertile, and they were not. Has anyone else ever noticed female cynops newts laying infertile eggs with no males present? Would you think this is anything to worry about?

 

[Joost]

I keep almost 14 year C.e. popei, but never only femeales. I have never heard of it before, but it can't harm the newts. If she didn't lay her eggs, it also won't harm her. The egg will be absorbed in her body

regards Joost

 

[Jennewt]

It's unusual, but not unheard-of, for a female to lay eggs in the absence of a male. I've seen this happen in Notophthalmus, but I've never kept any female Cynops w/o a male around. I agree with joost, it's probably harmless for her.

 

[Otterwoman]

I don't know how relevant this is, but female snakes will lay "slugs" in the absence of males to fertilize them.

 

[Joost]

according to my knowledge, reptiles need always to get rid of their eggs. Salamanders don't.

 

[ira]

Thanks for the insight. I know its weird to keep 3 females, but i dont want them breeding. I like them as pets and cynops are so prolific that I really didn't want to deal large numbers of offspring that are difficult to get rid of.

 

[Jake]

I had two female L.vulgaris that laid hundreds of duds because they were never with a male.

 

[fishkeeper]

And here I was just about to offer you a male or too. You're lucky my group turned out pretty male heavy...at most two females from 5.

I brought am fattening up some female Pleurodeles seperate from the males in hopes of successful breeding next year...hope they don't pop on me in absence of the males!

Interesting to see this from Notos too. I suppose that it is either "use em or lose em"....eggs cannot be reabsorbed?

 

[Molch]

I found this old thread and would like to take it up again -

a question to those members who had females lay duds:

are they as careful laying those as they would be with fertile eggs? Or, if the eggs are duds, do they have a tendency to just, well, stick 'em anywhere convenient in a kinda sloppy way, without selecting laying sites as carefully?

 

[SpaceCadetHayde]

I had a female paddle tail that laid a whole mess of eggs a few years back that were all duds and they were all wrapped in ferns even neater than my Triturus laid their fertile eggs. I'd imagine it depends on the newt.