Care Sheet Information: | Sexing: It is possible to sex Leopard Geckos at a very young age after you’ve been doing it for awhile, but if you’re new at it, you may need to wait till the Leo is 5-9 months old. By 9 months, it should be really easy to sex them (although there are some exceptions) since males become sexually mature when they become 9 months old. Males will have two hemipenal bulges at the base of their tail and a V-shaped set of pre-anal pores (usually consisting of around 13 pores). Although females also have these pores, they aren’t as pronounced, and look like "pits" under a microscope instead of true pore. They are also harder to see with the naked eye.
Mating: The breeding season for Leopard Geckos is usually January through September, but sometimes you may get a clutch of eggs in October. In order to have fertile eggs, you obviously need a male Leopard Gecko and at least one female Leopard Gecko. The female should be at least 45 grams, but 50+ is preferred. The male should be at least 1 year old in order to mate, but will become sexually mature at about 9 months of age. You will need to put the male in the tank with the female for about one week. In this time, the male will follow the female around and eventually bite the female on the neck. He may start nibbling on her back and gradually get up to her neck as well. This is normal, so don’t separate them if you see this, unless he keeps biting and you can see that he is going to injure your female Leopard Gecko. After he bites the female Leopard Gecko, he will kind of crawl onto her back and sort of line up his vent area with the female’s vent area. This will only take a few minuets, and you should not disturb them. You can quietly observe, but don’t bother them or make any noise. You can take the male out of the tank when he is finished mating to reduce stress on the female. Females can retain sperm, so you won’t have to put a male with her until the next breeding season. In the next few weeks, you should provide a small dish or a water bottle lid with calcium that doesn’t have D3 in it in the female’s tank (if you do not already have one in there) so that she can get calcium whenever she needs it. You should also dust all of your feeder insects with calcium every time you feed your female while she is producing eggs. If you don’t think your female Leopard Gecko is gaining enough weight, you can offer her some silkworms (which are extremely nutritious) and maybe a wax worm or two (but watch out with the waxworms, as they are very high in fat and may become addicting to your Leo).
Choosing/Making an Incubator: An incubator can be made out of many different things. You can just buy an incubator like the highly recommended Hova-Bator, or you can make one from scratch. If you choose to make one, you can use an aquarium with an under tank heater underneath. Fill the aquarium up half way with water. Then you can place two bricks in the water, but the top of the bricks have to be at least an inch out of the water. Then put a deli cup or the container that you are using for the eggs on top of the bricks. The deli cup or the container that you are using should contain either vermiculite or perlite that is damp, but not wet. You should make a dent in the incubation medium to stick the eggs in. You should have tiny air holes in the container so fresh air can come into the container. You should also have a digital thermometer with a probe so you know what temperature it is so the eggs don’t get too hot or too cold. You should set the thermometer on the bricks next to the container that you are going to put the eggs in. You should have a lid on the tank to keep the evaporating water in so it makes the tank sort of humid. You should also have little holes in the lid but not too big, otherwise you will let all of the humidity out. See, what will happen with this incubator is the under tank heater will heat up the water which will make the water evaporate and make the air humid. The heated water will also heat the air which will, make the temperature rise. You can also just take deli cups and set them on a counter with a thermometer and a heat lamp, but then you will have to make sure that the humidity isn’t too high or too low. You can also make an incubator out of an old refrigerator or freezer, but we won’t go there!!
Egg Laying: Egg Laying will normally take place 3-4 weeks after mating takes place. A week or two after mating, you may be able to tell that your female is going to lay eggs because her stomach will be wider, and if you flip her over or hold her up in a clear container and look at her stomach, you might be able to see the eggs through her skin because that skin is partially transparent. If you can see the eggs through her stomach, then she is gravid. A gravid female should be provided with an egg-laying box to lay her eggs in. An egg-laying box can be constructed by flipping a Plastic Container over and cutting a hole that is 2-3 times the width of your Leopard Gecko. (To make sure your female Leopard Gecko doesn’t get stuck.) You should make sure that the sides of the hole in the plastic container are smooth as to not injure your Leopard Gecko. After you have done this, you should fill it up with damp, but not wet vermiculite, peat moss, or sphagnum moss. People have successfully used moist paper towels as well. Over the next few days, your female Leopard Gecko will spend lots of time in the egg-laying box. This is where she will most likely lay her eggs, although some females get extremely active while gravid, and prefer to lay their eggs in their water bowl or elsewhere around the cage. Eggs, when laid, are usually about 1 inch in length and roughly 2/3-3/4 inch wide. You should set up your incubator when your female Leopard Gecko is gravid or when you let your Leos mate because you need to have your incubator up and running at the right temperature before you actually get eggs. Females usually produce a clutch of eggs every 3-4 weeks with an average of 8 clutches (16 eggs), but some females have successfully laid more than 10 clutches (20 eggs) in a single breeding season. If you see your female laying the eggs, do not disturb her. Don’t take out the eggs until she has finished burring them (if she’s laying them in the egg-laying box), and if at all possible, until she goes away from the eggs. When you first find eggs in the egg-laying box (or around the cage), take a sharpie and make a line on the side of the egg that is up. That way, you can always tell which side should be up incase it rolls over or turns during incubation because the baby Leopard Gecko forming inside can drown inside of the egg if the egg is turned from the position in which the egg was laid. If you see that the egg has rolled a bit, you should immediately move it back so the line on the egg that you made with the sharpie is up. After you have made the line with the sharpie, you should take the eggs out and put them in the incubator, even if you are positive that they are infertile. The only time you should ever throw away eggs is if you never put a male in with the female or you don’t even own a male. A fertile egg will be white and will feel firm like a stale marshmallow, while an infertile egg will feel like a hot water bottle, will have a yellowish ’tint’ to it, and will look more translucent than a fertile egg. Females will sometimes produce eggs without mating with a male, but these will obviously be infertile and should be thrown away (unless the female had been bred the year before because females can retain sperm). First time females may only produce one egg for their first clutch, but this is normal and nothing is wrong with your female.
Egg Binding: If a female doesn’t weigh enough, or can’t support egg growth, she can sometimes absorb her eggs (she gets all of the nutrients from them). Sometimes, it’s too late for that though (the eggs have developed too much to be absorbed). This is when egg binding occurs. Egg binding is a condition when a female cannot lay or absorb her eggs, so they just sit there. If you think your gravid female is egg bound, feel her underside where the eggs are. If the eggs feel hard, then she is egg bound. Take her to the vet and get the eggs surgically removed as soon as possible. Egg binding is a serious condition and can kill your Leo if not taken care of. If you think your Leo may become egg bound since she won’t lay her eggs, soak her in luke warm water for 30 minutes and make sure your temps in her cage are correct. Also, make sure she has a place to lay her eggs.
Prepairing the Incubation Container: The container in which you will be incubating the eggs can be anything from a deli-cup to a 24+ oz Rubbermaid container. The container that you choose should be filled about halfway with moist Vermiculite or Perlite. Many breeders carefully weigh out the water/medium ratio, but a friend of mine (a very well known breeder) just wets it until a tiny bit of water comes out when you grab a handful of it and squeeze. If lots of water comes out, then you’ve added too much and need to add more medium. Anyway, once you are ready to put eggs in, just take your thumb and make a thumb print for each egg. Place the egg in the thumbprint and bury it about halfway. Be careful not to turn the egg at all otherwise, you may drown the growing embryo inside. You should also add 2-3 holes in the container for proper ventilation.
Incubation: After you have your incubator up and running and you have eggs, you can start the incubation process. The incubation process can take from 35 days-70 days. One of the cool features of the Leopard Gecko is that you can almost decide which eggs you want to be males, and which eggs you want to be females. This is called Temperature Dependant Sex Determination. For the first 20 or so days of incubation, the temperature decides what the sex of the babies will be. You will produce mostly males at temperatures of 88-90 degrees F, you’ll get mostly females at temperatures of 79-83 degrees F, and you’ll get a mix of males and females at 84-87 degrees F. If you incubate above 92 degrees F, it is said that you will most likely get "hot females" meaning a female Leopard Gecko that was hatched at a very high temperature. "Hot females" are normally very aggressive and are incapable of producing offspring. It is recommended to house them alone because of their aggression. The way I see it is the warmer the temperature of incubation, the more territorial and aggressive the Leopard Gecko is (since males are normally hatched at higher temperatures and are territorial). Anyway, after the first 20 or so days, the amount of pigment is determined. The higher the temp (in the 79-90 degrees F range) during the rest of incubation will give the offspring less pigment. The babies will have more pigment at lower temps. Also, the higher the temp, the faster the babies will hatch.
Common Incubation Problems: During the incubation process, you may encounter some problems with the eggs. If the eggs become dented, this is most likely from dehydration, and you should gently mist water around the egg and within a few hours, the egg should rise back up. Do not spray water directly on the egg; otherwise mold may start growing on the egg, killing the developing baby inside. If you do see mold on the egg (from having too much humidity in the container or directly misting the egg), wipe it off with an anti-bacterial athletes foot powder (apply to tissue or towel and gently wipe the mold off of the egg with the spot you sprayed the athletes foot powder on) and then leave the incubation container (the one with the egg, not the actual incubator) open for 30-60 minutes or so to lower the humidity as to discourage more mold growth. When the egg is getting ready to hatch, it will collapse, so be careful not to throw away collapsed eggs when they are nearing time to hatch. I do know people (even professional breeders) who have thrown away eggs that they figured were either infertile or collapsed because of dehydration, and then have found baby geckos in their trash can.
Candling: Candling is a process developed by farmers long ago to see if their chicken eggs were fertile. They’d put a candle by their eggs in a dark place and they’d look for veins so that they could see if there was an embryo growing inside. You can use a very similar method with reptiles. After the egg has been incubating for at least 4-7 days, take it into a dark room (you can leave it in its incubating container or take it out, but if you take it out, remember to be careful not to turn it as to not drown the baby inside). Once you have it in a dark room, put a small flashlight (small pen lights work well) right next to the egg. If the egg is fertile, veins and/or the growing embryo will be present. A fertile egg will also have a ’reddish/pinkish glow’ when placed next to a small light. You should not take very long to candle and observe the egg, because you do not want the egg to be exposed to cooler temperatures for too long.
Hatching Process: You can begin to anticipate the hatching process about a week before the process actually begins. Some of the signs that the hatching process is well on its way to beginning is when the egg gets noticeably bigger than it was when it was laid (sometimes up to twice its original size!) The egg will start to sweat and then collapses if it is hours away from hatching. When it is hatching, the hatchling will make little slits in the egg with its egg-tooth and then get its nose out. Then it will get its head out of the egg, and then it might retreat for a quick brake. In this time, it will absorb the final remainder of his yolk sac. Then it will go at it again, and it might clean itself as well. It will keep on working until it gets its front legs, back legs, and its tail out of the egg. The whole hatching process takes about two hours. After it hatches, it will explore the container that it is in. You shouldn’t bother it for at least a few hours, although some breeders choose to leave them in their hatching containers until they have completed their first shed, which will take place about 2-3 days after the hatching process is complete. If the hatchling hatches with its yolk sac still attached, it was probably scared or stressed while hatching, so don’t bother it for at least a day so it gets calmed down. The new born Leopard Gecko won’t eat until it completes its first shed, so you don’t need to offer food until then.
Raising Hatchlings: Hatchling Leopard Geckos will start eating after they complete their first shed. They should be kept on paper towels, and should be offered 3-5 crickets (or other prey items such as Silkworms) daily. If there are still feeder insects in the enclosure, don’t put more in unless there is only a few left and the hatchling is looking for food. You should change the paper towels weekly if not every 4-5 days. Hatchlings should have a little bit more humidity than adults, and should have water available at all times. They should be provided with a hide box and a moist hide (because they shed constantly because they grow a lot more than adults do). You can start telling if a hatching Leopard Gecko is male or female when it’s about 3-5 months old, but it is sometimes hard to tell until it reaches 6-8 (sometimes 9) months of age. |
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