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NOTE: Please find other gecko species' breeding sheets above.
- Before You Breed Your Gecko....
Before beginning a discussion on breeding, I must ask the following question- Are you prepared to breed your gecko?
That seems fairly obvious otherwise you wouldn't have visited this page. However, there are several points I would like to bring up before going any further
- Do you have the knowledge? Well, hopefully that is why you are here.
I have heard so often, or read on the internet so many times, "I have eggs, what should I do now!". Gaining the knowledge before breeding will benefit you, the new babies, and the parents.
- Are the Parents ready? Geckos generally do not breed during the cooler months of winter. Are you sure you have a pair? Are they healthy? Are they the right size? Is this the right season?
- Do you have the necessary equipment- incubator, scale, etc.?
- Are you prepared for the babies? Do you have the extra time and facility to check and care for the eggs and to house up to 20 babies per female you breed?
- Do you have a home for the babies? Who will take them once they reach sellable size?
- Oh Boy! It's a boy!
The first thing you need to determine is whether you have a male and a female. Do not assume that while you may have purchased two geckos as a pair you actually have a boy and a girl.
Do a check before introducing them together. As I've mentioned in the husbandry section, males do not tolerate each other and will fight with resulting injuries.
It is a straightforward process to determine the sex of an adult gecko.
For sub adults you can use an inexpensive magnifying glass (10X is sufficient). Gently flip the gecko over on its back.
A male will have a distinguished bulge (hemipenes) just past the vent at the base of the tail.
A male will also show large preformal pores in a row right before the vent (where the tail meets the body).
Females will not show the bulge. The preformal pores, if they show at all will not have dimpling in the center.
Here is a great link that helps.
- Size Does Matter!
So how old does your gecko need to be to breed? It's not so much a matter of age as it is of size. Geckos can begin breeding quite early.
However, female leopards should not be bred before they are 50 grams. If you do not have a small gram scale, they are available on e-bay for under $30.
Males can be a bit smaller (over 40 grams). However, if there is a significant size difference in the pair, especially if the male is much larger than the female,
there may be rejection from one or the other. Watch them closely for over aggression.
- The Happy Couple
Ok, you have a male and a female. Now What? Well, there are a few ways to go about this. You can either leave the male in with the female continuously,
you can keep them separate and only introduce them during the breeding season, or you can only introduce them briefly for a few days at a time just to mate.
This is really your choice as to how you wish to keep your geckos.
If you are keeping more than the pair,
you may have one male to many females and may prefer introducing the male to the female only a couple of days during the breeding season,
perhaps rotating him through the females and then starting over again a couple of times.
Following mating, the female will be able to lay eggs continuously through the entire season without remating with the male.
When putting the two geckos together, some aggression may be displayed. The male will first swiftly tap the end of his tail against the bottom of the enclosure then confront the female.
Some biting around the neck may occur. Be careful to observe this activity as it can get rough and the pair may need to be separated and re-introduced at a later time.
- The Honeymoon Suite
Following mating, after about 2 to 3 weeks, the female will start to show the eggs. If you hold up the female and look underneath (do not turn her over),
you should be able to see the two eggs on the sides of her stomach.
She will then start looking for a moist, warm place to lay her eggs. This is where the lay box comes in. Many breeders use one box for both the lay box and the humid hide.
See this link for a DIY humid/lay box. Also note that it is extremely important to keep up the feeding schedule, especially after laying her eggs when she becomes hungry again,
and to continue using the vitamin and calcium supplements. You can provide these in a dish that she will lick from.
The female will almost always lay 2 eggs. This will continue about every 2 weeks for up to 10 lays! After mating, the lay box must be checked daily for eggs.
Once the first batch is found, start checking after about 10 days.
- On your Mark, Get Set....
While you are waiting for those first eggs, there are a few things you can do to prepare. First, get your incubator ready. Don't have one?
A good, inexpensive one is available from Hova-bator and can be found on
eBay for about 40 dollars. I'm fortunate to live in the Midwest as I find mine at the local feed store for about $35.
Setup your new incubator BEFORE you get eggs. Set it at the temperature you prefer (see below for temperature ranges) and let it sit. This may take a couple of days of adjustments to get it just right.
Also, what are you putting the eggs in? You could use margarine or whip cream cups. You could also use deli cups. Some breeders buy/cut holes in their cups, some do not.
Next you will need a medium to hold the eggs in the cup. This material will hold moisture in the cup while the eggs incubate.
The preferred products are vermiculite, perlite, and newest on the scene is Hatch Rite (which is similar to Turface).
- Eggs!!!
Your first eggs! Congratulations. Don't get discouraged if they do not hatch out.
Young geckos can initially lay eggs the first few times without producing fertile eggs. Be patient.
Once you find eggs, the next step is to transfer them to be incubated. Since you planned ahead (see previous section) you have everything ready to go.
Prepare the cup by filling it up half way with the medium. Add water until the contents are wet but not soaked.
This is a very difficult judgment until you get some experience. If you are using perlite the mixture is 1 part to .8 parts water by weight.
If you choose to use Hatch Rite, their directions are listed on the packaging. Put two indentations in the medium to prepare the eggs to sit half way into the mix.
Now you can collect the eggs and add them to the cup. Gently lift the eggs and keep them from shifting at all.
Some breeders mark the tops of their eggs with a sharpie to make sure the eggs never tip or move. If the eggs do shift momentarily, they can be put back to their original position.
It is important to avoid shifting the eggs because the embryo attaches to one side of the egg and could potentially "drown" if turned.
Place the top on the container; use something to mark the top. I use a small piece of masking tape so I can reuse the container. Record the hatch date, the number of eggs, the mother and father and the species (if have more than one male and female or you care for more than one type of gecko).
Now you can put the cup in the incubator. You should have a gauge to monitor both the temperature and humidity in the incubator (details to follow on temp and humidity). Check this on a daily basis.
- My, It's Getting Hot In Here! Temperature and Humidity in your Incubator
Do you want baby boys or baby girls? Yes, it's true, leopard geckos are temperature sex determined. The temperature you incubate the eggs for the first couple of weeks determines the sex of the babies.
If incubates between 79-82 degrees Fahrenheit mostly females will hatch. Between 87 and 91 will result in mostly males. Somewhere in the middle results in a mix of males and females. This is one reason using an incubator to keep a consistent temperature is so important.
Of course if kept too cold or too hot the eggs will not hatch.
Temperature will also impact the timing of the eggs hatching. Lower temperatures will require longer hatch time while warmer temperatures will provide for a quicker hatching.
Generally, temperatures in the low 80s will take the eggs about 60 days to hatch while if incubated in the upper 80s the eggs may hatch out as quickly as 40-45 days.
Humidity is underrated when considering its importance related to temperature requirements in hatching gecko eggs.
It is important to keep the incubation medium slightly moist but not wet. However, it may be more important that the humidity in the cup is kept high as well.
A container of water can be kept in the incubator to raise the humidity. Hova-bators, as an example, have air holes provided on the top of unit.
I prefer to block one of the two to help increase the humidity in the unit.
Monitor the eggs in the incubator. If one egg goes bad, take it out. Infertile eggs usually start to look bad after a week or so by turning brown and developing a fungus growth.
I usually do not remove eggs unless I see the fungus starting to grow then will get it out right away.
Also, if the eggs do not hatch when you expect them to, it doesn't hurt to leave them in the incubator. It is far safer to continue incubating the eggs than to try hatching them manually yourself.
- Finally, Your First Gecko Babies
So you look into the incubators window one morning and there it is. Your first gecko baby. Congratulations!
The baby can be kept similarly to the adults- water dish, vitamin dish, gradient heat source, etc. The baby still needs a humid hide but instead of vermiculite or other medium, use paper towels.
These will need to stay moist all the time as the little ones go through many sheds as they grow. The hide will also need to be small enough to allow the young gecko access.
A hole can be cut in the side of a cup rather than the top. I also use a half of a breakfast sandwich box (can be purchased in bulk) with a hole cut in the side.
Young geckos can act a bit skittish when you first transport them to their new enclosure. I prefer to move the cup to the enclosure and slowly tap behind the gecko to motivate it to crawl into their new home.
Handling of small geckos under 20 grams should be minimized.
These babies will eat small crickets and mealworms to start out. It has been written that the size of their meals should not exceed the width of their head.
With proper care and feedings, your baby gecko should grow quickly. It should be mature in a little less than a year.
- Gecko Genetics
This section will discuss the genetic process in leopard geckos- to aid you in creating the next "Neapolitan" leo.
next topic- Foods and Nutrition
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Copyright Walter Kern, Supreme Gecko ©2007
All images and text Copyright Supreme Gecko ©2007 unless otherwise noted
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