> Well, I just threw that out as possibly relevent. It may not be. If you
> think about it, though, I would imagine that laying a clutch is a strain on
> a gecko's physiological assets. I think the problem may be when a lot of
> eggs are laid and/or repeatedly in a relatively short period of time.
> Perhaps in the wild such geckos are more able to replenish their stocks of
> vitamins, minerals, proteins, whatever.
A lot of animals have an opportunistic breeding strategy, i.e rather than
being triggered by day length or other seasonal cue, they breed whenever
conditions are suitable. These animals are usually native to an environment
where conditions are not optimal all the time, so in nature they don't have
a chance to "breed themselves to death" before the food supply or good weather
runs out. In captivity, when conditions are always good, they have no way of
stopping before they exhaust themselves.
This sort of thing has been observed many times in birds and fish. It would
not be surprising to find it in reptiles, too.
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