Leopard gecko breeding questions

[Bogertophis]

Raising animals sure helps us appreciate how fragile all life is.

Another example- yesterday, I played paramedic to 4 tiny* pinkie mice. I raise mice (& have for as long as I've kept snakes- decades, lol) & I just happened to look in on them to see how a new mouse-mom was doing- she's been looking like a tennis ball so expected she might have trouble. Sure enough, she was overwhelmed & kept setting some pinkies aside without cleaning them up. (pinkies are about .75-1.0" long- hers were on the small side)

Contrary to popular belief, it's not always because they "know there's something wrong with them". So I kept taking those out to do the clean-up for her- wiping away the membranes, making sure their tiny face was uncovered & snipping off the placenta, then stimulating them to breathe by doing tiny & rapid chest compressions with my thumb or finger. They slowly went from blue in color to pale pink, gasping for breath, & wiggling their legs.

When I was sure they could keep up in the pile of pinkies she was already sitting on, I put them back. Of the four I worked on for her, 2 of them took longer, going back to blue & not breathing until I did more compressions- I thought those 2 might not make it. No idea how long they'd been set aside, but in my experience, about 30 minutes can go by where I can still save them- pinkies don't need a lot of air quite yet, if their placenta is still attached.

Anyway, each of them finally turned pale pink & were breathing on their own & were given back to "mom", where she was finally figuring out what her job was, lol. And today, there are no dead pinkies in there- just a big healthy squirming pile of cherry-pink pinkies with white tummies to show for it.

This is way off your topic but I thought you might enjoy it- I think you'll be keeping animals for a long time & you never know which ones you'll end up with. (I sure didn't!)

You're doing great with your geckos...

[Lizrd_boy]

Oh wow thats cool! How often do things like these happen with mice?

The lil fella seems to be doing okay. At what point should I move him to the shoebox?

[Armiyana]

If there's enough space, you can set him up with a shoe box in the incubator. A small smooth hide of some sort and a shallow dish of water. But still keep the paper towel moist until the yolk detaches or absorbs more.
If the yolk detaches and he has a pink nub, still keep him on moist paper towel until it heals over or looks more like an outie belly button than a nub. You can also try a very shallow bath to rinse it clean if it looks a bit dirty.

I wouldn't try to move him out to a rack or tank until the belly is looking good.

[Lizrd_boy]

Cool, thanks. I may move him into a shoebox in the incubator but then again maybe not because I don't want to stress him unnecessarily. Do you think I should or no?

[Bogertophis]

Oh wow thats cool! How often do things like these happen with mice?

The lil fella seems to be doing okay. At what point should I move him to the shoebox?

Never know how often- I've raised a ridiculous number of mice- every once in a while, one needs help is is lucky enough for me to be able to help in time. If this happens overnight, obviously it's too late. But I can guess which one might have trouble, & this mom was HUGE & looked over-due, so I was looking in a bit more often. Pinkies look so tiny & delicate, you'd think this wouldn't even be possible, but when you see how rough the moms can be (stepping on them, stealing them back & forth from each other sometimes, etc) the first time, I just figured I had nothing to lose, but I couldn't have been more surprised either, when it actually worked!

Sometimes that's all you can do- take your best guess & run with it. Incidentally, that's also my advice for when you should move this little gecko to a shoebox- I've never raised geckos, though I've kept them, so this makes you the "voice of experience" between you & me, hahahaha!

[Armiyana]

Moving him will be your call. It wouldn't hurt for him to have a small dish of water. If you can maybe fit a little bottle cap in with him for now? Otherwise if you do move him, I would maybe do it at the end of the day so you're asleep and not tempted to peek in on him constantly while he's settling in

[Lizrd_boy]

Last night I gave him a bottle cap of water. I didn't move him yet. When I checked on him tis morning to refill the water dish, he seemed relatively active, so maybe he'll make it.

[Erie_herps]

That sounds good, I think he will do just fine. Since he's active I think you could move him sometime soon, if you want to be safe you could wait a little bit but you have a lot of options of what you can do.

[Lizrd_boy]

Great, thanks. The "belly-button" is looking less pink and more skin-color. I'll try to post some pictures of him soon.

[Lizrd_boy]

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/sho...mageuser=85563


https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/sho...mageuser=85563