I immediately reached in and grabbed him by the head at the sides of his mouth and applied some pressure. He quickly released her and they fell apart, standing on all fours and reassessing the situation. I quickly returned him to his own cage.

In his own cage he explored continuously. His regular cage mate was resting in the hiding/nesting area. When he crawled in there, he rattled his tail then crawled over her lengthwise as she was lying along the side. Then there was some quick movement. I was afraid he might attack her, so I lifted the lid of the hiding area and they were parallell to each other, 2 inches apart. His head was slightly back of hers, in what I thought a better position if he decided to attack. Both were watching each other intently. I used the lid to separtate them and direct him away. Then I replaced the lid and used another lid to temporarily cover the entrance to the hiding/ nesting enclosure where the female remained.

He continued exploring the cage and at times even tried to scratch away the lid covering the entrance. Whenever he dislodged it, I simply redirected him to another area and replaced the temporary cover.

After several hours, he settled down in his usual resting area. So, I turned off the lights and went to bed.

This morning, I found the entrance to the hiding/nesting enclosure access opened and both the older male and female inside resting. Both appear healthy, unharmed and relaxed.

The separate younger female also appears fine. She’s in the process of molting and doesn’t appear to have suffered any physical harm.

Is there a better way to introduce them?

I have no experience in this area. I planned to interfere and separate them if either appeared aggressive or attacked. Do you think he would have killed her? I was afraid he might not release and she would suffocate.

Are there any good books or other sources of information on caring for and handling leopard geckos that tell how to introduce potential new mates?

I have done a google search on leopard geckos and visited quite a few sites. I would like to learn more about the breeding. I’d like to understand how the different morphs are bred. Are their any good books or other sources for this information?

I’d like to understand the term "het" that I’ve seen associated with different leopard geckos.

When they mate it is pretty aggressive. But i didn’t see it and what described sounds like fighting.

When you put him back in his cage, i think he was trying to mate with that female. When they mate the male will grab into the females head and hold on and then position himself and they will touch vents and he will insert a hemipenis. The female will usually stay put.

Sometimes the female will kinda tease the male to see if he really wants to mate. Since my two just mated last night, At first the female tried to fight back but after awhile she gave up and they mated.

I am not completely sure if it was mating or fighting. But you may suspect some eggs from the older female in a few weeks if they did mate.

If you want to mate the younger female to that male then try putting her into his cage. If he vibrates his tail then they will mate. That’s why i think it was fighting the first time. Try again if you want babied from her. And if he vibrates his tail first then it is mating.

And the word "het" means it carrying the genes for another morph or color, it just doesn’t show it.

I have no experience or knowledge of leopard gecko mating rituals. I wonder now, if what I observed might possibly have been an attempt to mate.

I’ve never experienced them fighting either. So, since I feared an attack when they met, I considered it an attack and took action to quickly separate them.

There’s been some thumping inside the pairs hiding /nesting enclosure in the past 20 minutes. I can see from her outline that she’s currently standing alertly near the front inside the enclosure where they both are. I’ll continue to observe their activity and see what I can learn.

Based upon your information, I take it that I should not be overly concerned about their safety in each others presence, since they’ve lived together so long.

I am hoping they will produce offspring and am trying to encourage and assist in this. In fact, that’s why, I’m interested in housing the additional female in with the existing pair. I recently read that breeders house up to 5 females with one male.

Do you have any idea how long they take to mate. How long would you expect him to control her by holding her head in his mouth?

They are continuing to move around each other and remain alert. along with some tail shaking by the male. This is very interesting to observe.

My male held on for about five minutes then let go and bit again to start to position himself under her. If you see the male come out check inside she may have laid some eggs in their, since they have been together for so long.

They may be mating, but i would be careful, the male can mate a female to death so you may want to take him out when they are done and just keep the 2 females together if they get along.

You can try to put them all in the same cage. What size tank do you have. You need at least a 20 gallon long tank for 3 and plenty if hiding spaces.

I had them in a 20H, just moved them to a 20 gallon Long.

I also just added the hiding/nesting enclosure with moistened peat moss a few days ago. I am trying to lift the lid daily to check for digging and eggs.

I wonder if it’s very easy to observe that the female is getting ready to lay eggs, based upon the shape of her lower abdomen. I’ve seen pictures of the underside of females carrying eggs.

I don’t have the temperature regulation exact yet. The temperature in the tank, in the area of my heater is approx 73 F. I relocated the tank to a more protected area yesterday. I’m hoping to control the temperature at 80F.

I understand that shifting the temperatures up to 80 is likely to trigger an internal biological switch causing the lizards think winter is finally over and now is the perfect time to produce offspring.

They haven’t mated while I’ve been observing them since my previous reply. They’re still moving around now and then.