Leopard gecko breeding questions

[Bogertophis]

Please defer to others who have actually bred these, BUT, I suspect the UTH is safe as long as it's NOT under the entire container, maybe a third or half at the most- & of course, as long as it's controlled by t-stat. Keep in mind that in smaller containers like this, the heat doesn't all stay on one side either. I would think that it's safer to allow options- warmer & cooler areas. And "from where I sit", I'd leave those options 24/7- day & night.

No matter what some say, there is more than one way to safely raise most of these things- as long as you've got the 'big picture' correct, & as long as you're paying attention. I think it's valuable to get multiple opinions for this reason, then keep them all in mind but follow your gut, based on what you're seeing. Like, if you heat half the container with UTH, & they're always on the OTHER (unheated) side, you probably need to tone it down. Obviously, you need to pay the most attention at the beginning- so no harm is done. 90* does sound pretty warm for such tiny creatures to me, but I've mostly raised snakes.

Again, I won't be insulted if you defer to others breeding specifically these creatures- but keep in mind that in the wild they have temperature options too, not just 90* for 24/7.

[Erie_herps]

I've only raised 3 babies so I don't have a ton of experience but I'll share what's worked for me. I keep them pretty much exactly like how you mentioned. I keep them in individual 6 qt shoeboxes, paper towel substrate, and a small water dish (I use bottle caps). I used one main hide and additional half-toilet paper roll "hides" (they don't technically count as hides but using them is better than nothing). I kept the tubs over heat tape covering 1/4-1/3 of the bottom (I figured that the less area is better to create a gradient in a small tub) set to ~90* during the day and a few degree night drop just to keep a cycle. If you don't have the ability to set different temperatures at night then leaving it on 24/7 is perfectly fine. I keep the babies in the same rack as the adults except when placing the tubs I place them so they only cover about half of the heat tape.

[Bogertophis]

For tiny "hides" you might consider raiding your pantry- jello/pudding boxes would also work nicely.

[Lizrd_boy]

That sounds great! The UTHs I have are pretty small, but even so I'm thinking I'll put them sideways so they cover only about 1/4 of the floor space. Right not I'm calibrating the tstat, and I will try to give them a night drop as well. I may not be able to do it every night because I may get home to late and I won't want to mess around with tstats at 11:30 at night lol.

I'm basically glued to the viewing window of my incubator. Hopefully soon I'll see a dent in the egg!

[Lizrd_boy]

He hatched!!! I checked this morning and there was a BIIG dent in the egg, to the point where I was a bit concerned, and it turns out, there was no gecko in it anymore. He was hiding in the corner. He’s in his sterilite tub now and looking around. I love that little scream!!!
here’s a link to some pics:
https://ourreptileforum.com/communit...hatched.25231/

[Erie_herps]

That's super exciting!! He's super cute too! Congratulations! Keep us updated with how he does. How are the other eggs doing?

[Bogertophis]

A HUGE Congratulations! I sure know the feeling & believe me, it never gets "old".

[Lizrd_boy]

One of the others developed mold and stunk, and looked yellow so I removed it. The other has a bright red glow and is doing great, and Lenetta is due to lay her next clutch soon.

[Lizrd_boy]

So far the little guy is doing great! He mostly sleeps in his hide but at night he comes out to explore when he thinks I'm not looking. He's already trying to get out of his container. He also hasn't screamed since yesterday, and I think he's warming up to me.

[Erie_herps]

It sounds like he's doing good! Mine tried to get out of the container too, they still do to this day when they see food, lol. They get more and more used to you after time, especially when you're in and out of the container just doing maintenance (like filling the water/food dish). Mine still sometimes scream at me when I accidentally hit them with a water drop while misting, it's kind of cute when they do that, lol.