Marmoratus strange behaviour

[philip]

maybe some of you regular marmoratus breeders have seen this. my marmoratus are just beginning to come into breeding condition, although no where near ready for egg-laying. but the other night i witnessed my very large female doing what i can only describe as phantom egg-laying. she was grabbing a leaf in the usual manner with her hind feet, and neatly clasping and folding the leaf as though she had layed an egg in there. this was repeated several times over the course of perhaps an hour, but obviously no eggs were layed. is this common behaviour? because in my many hours of watching newts i have not witnessed this before.

 

[jennifer]

I have seen this once before, also in marmoratus. The female had just started going into the water and the males weren't crested yet. Warm-up exercises perhaps?

 

[philip]

jennifer, in the instance that you witnessed this behaviour, did the female go on to lay eggs. the reason i ask this is that my female is huge, and therefore possibly very old. i know that in reptiles many of them lose the ability to reproduce with old age, and i was worried that this may be the case with my newt. it is a wc. individual and i therefore have no idea of the age. seems healthy enough though, so i guess i'll just have to wait.

 

[jennifer]

This female was fairly young CB. I believe that she did lay eggs a month or more later.

 

[meghan]

My karelinii are doing the same thing. It's almost as if it's wishful thinking