Lafayette St., New York
4 years ago
I go to clean Petey's cage, but Petey looks smaller than usual. Then I notice he has a different pattern on his back than before. I'm super confused. Then upon closer inspection, I realize that's not Petey at all, it's a younger crested gecko and oh my god, his cage is full of little crested geckos from the size of pinhead crickets to almost as big as Petey (no part of that makes sense but we're gonna roll with it). Eventually I find Petey too, who jumps into my hand when I call his name (HA!). I surmise that the following has taken place: Petey (now Petrie) has actually been a female the whole time and was gravid when we got her (this much was inspired by true but non-Petey related events). She has been laying eggs under the substrate in her cage this whole time but now they have begun to hatch, judging by the size difference in the little Peteys, five clutches at least (also, either the incubation time on those eggs was really short or I haven't cleaned that cage ever). Anyhow, having solved the mystery, I go to work feverishly cleaning and setting up spare cages so that I can sort out Petrie's brood before the big ones start eating the little ones. I even think to myself, "I'm gonna have to e-mail Valerie and tell her I can't take any of her collared lizards since I will have my hands full." (Aside: In real life there's a lady named Valerie who's going to be shipping me a baby collared lizard sometime very soon.) I've just started setting up the first new cage when I wake up.