Care Sheet Information: | Cooling down period: I have never cooled down my AFTs. With that said - If you feel that you need to cool them down, to get them in the breeding mood this is how. Start cooling them in October or November for 2 months or longer. The temperature will the geckos are hibernating should drop to 68-72 F. No food should be offered. Water should be in the cage at all times, but don’t spray the cage. After the 2 or more month cooling period, put the geckos back onto a normal schedule. Food should be offered every other day. Make sure they are getting calcium!
Mating: The male will probably try the violent approach first. This consists of simply biting her on the neck, as he would a male in combat, and, well, you know. If this doesn’t work, and she manages to escape, he will become more chivalrous by "nibbling" at the base of her tail, and working his way up to the back of her neck. This usually works the best.
Incubator: You may choose to buy a commercially produced incubator, which costs around $50-60. One can be constructed with a ten gallon aquarium, a plastic shoe box, a submersible aquarium heater, plastic wrap, vermiculite, two bricks, a reliable thermometer, and water. Sound complicated(?), its not! I built my own very large, reusable incubator.
AFT eggs will mold and or rot quickly if the humidity level is to high. I have had my best luck when the humidity level is 60-70%
Gender determination: Fat-tail eggs are incubated in the same way as leopard gecko eggs. If you want female geckos, incubate at 80-82 F. If you want males, incubate at 88-90 F. And if you want a mixture of male to females, incubate at 84-86 F. The recommended incubation temperature is 85 F. A steady temperature of 85F will produce half females and half males (in theory). A constant temperature is mandatory, so set up the incubator before you need it to work out the bugs. After the 4th week, if you are trying to incubate for all females, you can increase your temperature to the high 80’s to speed up the hatching time.
Gestation period: 50-90 days
Perlite and water mixture: 1 part Perlite to 0.7 part water by weight.
Weigh on a scale an empty container without the top.
Record the weight or Zero out the scale
Add the Perlite into the container until 2/3 full
Weigh the container again.
Take the weight of the perlite and multiply it by 0.7
That is how much water weight you need to add.
So, if the Perilite weighs 10 grams, 10x.7= 7
Add 7 to the 10 grams, 17 is your number, add water until the Perilte weighs 17 grams.
With the container with Perlite on the scale, take a water mister and mist the whole area until the right amount of water weight is added.
|
( 2 )
( 1 )