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  1. #1
    Registered User Lizrd_boy's Avatar
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    Leopard gecko breeding help

    Hi! So Lea (my leopard gecko) is getting big and I was hoping to breed either her or Lenetta. A friend of mine got a male and is okay with doing a breeding project, and so I am hoping to do that, but I had a few questions:

    1). What time of year is best? I know that their breeding season is January to September, but what time is best?

    2). How do I incubate the eggs? I have a hova-bator incubator for chickens (I can take out the egg turner) and I have a Sterilite plastic shoebox full of vermiculite that I can moisten and use.

    3). How do I raise hatchlings? I know how to care for juveniles but not hatchlings.

    4). I give all of my geckos a dish of Calcium w/ d3 but should I do that for hatchlings?

    5). Should I dust the hatchlings food with calcium and multivitamins?

    6). When should the hatchlings first feeding be?

    7). when should I give them a water dish?

    8). Do I need to have the adult male go through a cycling period?

    9). How can I be sure that my female actually uses her laying box? She doesn’t use her humid hide for shedding anymore and I’m not sure if she’d use a laying box.

    thank you all for your help, and hopefully I’ll have some baby geckos to show you soon!
    My name is Josiah, proud owner of Lenetta and Lea the leopard geckos and Bluebelly the fence lizard.

  2. #2
    BPnet Veteran Erie_herps's Avatar
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    Be sure that you actually want to breed, breeding can be very taxing on the female and sometimes life-threatening. Taking care of and selling the babies is also difficult. Breeding just to breed is not beneficial and unless you're working towards a goal it's unnecessary.
    That being said if you do want to breed here are some answers:
    1. Start pairing when the female ovulates, pairing around March to May is best but it depends on the female.
    2. Take a deli cup, put vermiculite or perlite in it, place the eggs in it, and incubate them at 80-90*F (the temperature depends on their sex, lower temperatures result in females while higher temperatures usually result in males).
    3. I started mine in a 6qt tub with paper towel substrate, 2 hides and I fed them dubias.
    4. A dish of calcium can be beneficial (I provide it), but a dish of calcium should be without d3, calcium to dust insects should be d3.
    5. A light dusting can support bone growth.
    6. After their first shed, usually about a week.
    7. I give it to them from birth, I also sometimes lightly mist the sides to increase humidity.
    8. For breeding lower both the males and females temperatures by a few degrees to replicate the winter.
    9. She might not, my female that laid fertile eggs moved the moss all over the terrarium and laid the eggs in her food dish, both times.

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    Bogertophis (11-08-2021)

  4. #3
    Registered User Lizrd_boy's Avatar
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    Re: Leopard gecko breeding help

    Sounds good, but I have one question. Should I cool my first year female?

    I don’t want to breed for money, I just want to gain experience breeding and raising hatchlings.
    My name is Josiah, proud owner of Lenetta and Lea the leopard geckos and Bluebelly the fence lizard.

  5. #4
    Registered User Lizrd_boy's Avatar
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    Re: Leopard gecko breeding help

    I just was setting up the incubator so I could calibrate it and I came up with a few more questions.

    1). The incubator has a water trough for raising humidity. Should I use that.
    2). The incubator has a fan. Should I use that?
    3). Should the incubation temp inside the incubator be the air temp inside or the incubation medium temp?
    4). The incubation medium with the eggs will be in a plastic shoebox inside the incubator. Should I leave the lid of the shoebox on or take it off?

    Thanks!
    My name is Josiah, proud owner of Lenetta and Lea the leopard geckos and Bluebelly the fence lizard.

  6. #5
    BPnet Veteran Erie_herps's Avatar
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    For cooling I don't think it needs anything more than replicating the temperature and light change. I would decrease the temperature by a few degrees and decrease the light/heat day cycle to 10-11 hours gradually.
    For the incubator, experiment. Run it before you need it and take measurements of temperature and humidity until you find what works best. I used the water trough in my incubator to raise the humidity. What kind of incubator do you have? If you have one that heats the air a fan often isn't necessary. But if you plan on incubating multiple containers at the same time a fan will help, especially if it heats unevenly. How do you plan on incubating the eggs? Do you want them to sit in the substrate or be elevated on a piece? Measure the temperature where you plan on the eggs to be. If you're using a large shoebox I would use the lid and add tiny holes on the sides. I had good luck with using deli cups with 6-9 thumbtack holes in the lid.
    Last edited by Erie_herps; 11-15-2021 at 10:48 AM.

  7. #6
    Registered User Lizrd_boy's Avatar
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    Re: Leopard gecko breeding help

    I have gotten the incubator to the right temp. It's a hova bator that I took the egg turner out of. I just bought a few deli cups and will put some pinhole in it, and I bought 100% horticultural vermiculite I mixed with water at a 1:1 ratio by weight. I will be resting them directly on the substrate.
    My name is Josiah, proud owner of Lenetta and Lea the leopard geckos and Bluebelly the fence lizard.

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