Care Sheet for Geckos: Leopard BreedingAverage Rating Given To This Care Sheet Is 4.21 (1=lowest, 5=highest) Last Updated: 01/05/2005 |
Main Category: | Lizards |
Sub Category: | Geckos: Leopard Breeding |
Care Sheet Submitted By: | Kagome100 |
Years Experience: | 5 to 10 Years |
Species: | Leopard Gecko Breeding |
Other Species or Phases this Care Sheet May Cover: | Just breeding Leos. |
Sexing and Characteristics: | Adult Males have a V-shaped row of enlarged per-anal pores and hemi penal bulges. The Female does not have the bulges and she may have a V-shape but its not enlarged per-anal pores and you cant really see them on the female at all. You can sex Juveniles around 4 months of age. Males may be bigger than female and have a bigger head but some times it’s the female with a bigger head....
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Mostly Active During: | Night |
Substrate and Water Needs: | During breeding season keep a full bowl of water and don’t keep them on sand. Put them on Reptile Carpet it’s safer. Make sure you have liquid calcium in the water. You can get this from your vet. |
Lighting and UVB: | Well some people say they don’t need a UVB but I say they do. So get a UVB and a lamp and put it over the tank and keep it on 12 hour. They need 12 hour day and 12 hour dark. |
Temperatures and Humidity: | Temp can be 89F-94F day and 78F-83F night. For Humidity put a moist hide in the tank. |
Heating and Equipment: | Use a lamp or UTH. |
Caging Provided: | 2 leos per 10gallon. When Breeding it’s best to use a 20gallon long BUT that’s only if you are breeding 2 leos. If more than 2 use a bigger tank. |
Diet: | Omnivorous |
Description of Diet: | During Breeding season feed female a pinky every month or so to keep her fat and full of calcium. Feed Crickets and meal worms every day. Feed some Peach baby food if they will take it. |
Supplements, Nutrition and Usage: | When feeding Use calcium dust on the food. Put liquid calcium in water(if have). |
Maintenance: | Ok here is where I will put on how to breed, egg care, and baby care........
Breeding:
Leos are one of the most easily reproduced gecko species, and usually mate without any extensive pre-breeding conditioning. Before considering breeding your leos, thought should be given to your ability to provide the proper conditions and requirements for the eggs and baby geckos. You will need an incubation system for the eggs, extra housing and food, and a source for your surplus animals, unless you plan on keeping and caring for all the juveniles. The fist consideration to successfully breed leos is to have sexually mature pair, in good health and of acceptable body weight. Most females reach sexual maturity between 10 months to 11/2 years of age, and are usually between 40 and 60 grams in weight. Many breeders will not even consider a female for breeding until she has reached a weight of 60 grams. Females should be offered calcium supplemented food items, and vitamin/mineral mix ad libitum in a small dish several months prior to breeding, to help build up their calcium reserves for egg production. Males should be in top condition and minimum of 10 months of age.
Eggs:
Fertile eggs should be placed in a suitable container such as a deli cup or plastic container with a moist medium for incubation. The most commonly used medium is vermiculite. The vermiculite should be moist. Eggs should be placed in the containers on their sides and half buried in the medium, and the container placed in to the incubator (don’t rotate the eggs). Mark containers with dates they were laid. To keep humidity levels high within the incubator, a container of fresh water can be placed inside the incubator. Fertile eggs will remain light colored and feel somewhat leathery to the touch and feel like a old marshmallow. Infertile eggs will feel like a hot water balloon. As incubation period progresses the eggs will appear pinkish as blood vessels start to form. Towards the end of the incubation the eggs will appear larger and darken somewhat as the baby grows.
Temp for the eggs:
Leos are temp sexed. The temps can go form 79F to 90F. If you want females set the temp to 79F-83F. If you want males set temp at 87-89F. If you want mix set temp at 84F-86F. 90F some times gives Hot Females which will not breed. The high end of the temp scale will hatch in as little as 35 days while eggs incubated at lower temps can take up to 100 days.
Humidity:
Make sure the humidity is between 70%-88% in the incubator. Don’t let the humidity get to low or get to high. If the humidity gets to high the eggs can become water logged or mold. If the humidity is to low they will fall in or harden up and die.
Babies:
Baby leos are delicate when fist hatched. They should be housed individually and have paper towel in the tank NOT sand. They should eat after there first shed and fed pin head crickets, or baby food, or fruit flies |
Some Words on this Species: | Breeding is easy but still you need to know what your doing. Don’t just say "I want to breed them". You half to think about this first. If you need more help just e-mail me for it. wrwildwolf@cox.net thanks for reading all my info. |
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