Leopard Gecko Breeding Guide
Stock Selection There are a few things to consider before you buy your breeding stock: Is the gecko you are buying healthy? Are the other geckos is the tank healthy? What morph (colouration) do you want to breed? Selective Breeding Genetic Breeding Examples; (Albino, Banana Blizzard, Blazing Blizzard, Blazing Banana Blizzard, Circle Back, Jungle, Pastel, Patternless, Patternless Albino, Reverse Stripe, Stripe, Tangerine Albino) Accomodation Requirements Hides Moist Hide
This moist hide is simply kept moist with a plant water sprayer (when the gecko is not occupying the hide!) Laying box When your gecko wants to lay its eggs, it will need a box similar to your moist hide, this is where it can safely bury its eggs. We use the same container as we do for moist hides, but fill it with a different substrate (normally Vermiculite, with a few exceptions, Sunset will only lay on bird sand!) This hide MUST be kept moist at ALL times, if she lays in it and it dries out the eggs could be ruined if you don't find them quick enough. The next section deals with what to do when the eggs arrive. Substrate Sand-This is one of the biggest debates in the reptile world! Some people say they have had no problems with sand, others have lost geckos to it. I would never use it, and I suggest you don't either, the risks are just too high. Your gecko(s) will eat bits of the sand trying to get calcium, and although they say the sand can be digested it can't and will cause problems! If you really want to use sand, use washed play sand and never any reptile sand. Calcium Dish It is also a good idea to provide a small dish with pure calcium powder; they will take this as needed if you don't provide enough calcium when dusting the food. Also pregnant females tend to need more, so this way they can help them selves to the calcium supplies. Envirnmental Control
Heating Added heating will be needed in your tank to create the temperatures that will allow your gecko to thrive. They need a basking area at about 88˚F -90˚F, and a cooler end at about 80˚F. It's advisable to control all heating devices with a thermostat, this helps prevent overheating. Always use a good digital thermometer to measure your temps, the stick on ones you get for fish tanks can be up to 20˚F off. Lighting Because Leopard Geckos are nocturnal they don't need any UV lighting. In fact the only lighting they need is something that allows them to tell the difference between night and day! This can be a simple normal house bulb or no bulb at all if the gecko is in a light room! If you use a normal bulb, make sure you turn it off at night, only red or blue bulbs can be left on at night. In the summer we recommend a 14h light / 10h dark period, and a 10h light period / 14h dark period in the winter. Care of breeding stock
Apart from the accommodation differences mentioned above, the only other changes to the care of the breeding stock is the diet. The male’s diet can stay the same, but the females tend to do best if they are offered a pinkie 24 hours after laying as this will restore a lot of the protein lost in the production of the last clutch. Mating Procedures
The actual breeding process for leopard geckos is quite simple! Of course you need at least one male and one female, although you may use one male with several females. The first step to a successful breeding season is to cool your geckos, some breeders don't do this, but we have found it to give us a more productive season. From the start of December you should stop feeding and about 3 days later start slowly reducing the temperature daily, until you reach about 75*, you then stay at this temperature for about 6 weeks, with no feeding during this time! When the end of January gets closer, you can think about warming them back up, first slowly increase the temperature back to normal, and after about 3 days at normal temperature begin feeding again. Your animals should start breeding within days of this rise in temperature if kept together, if kept alone after a week at normal temps you can put your geckos together to breed and they should breed right away. Well that's it, you should have got your geckos to breed, the next step is what to do with the eggs when they arrive. And they shouldn't be long! Gestation/ gravid period
If you keep an eye on which geckos mating with whom, you should know who's pregnant and who's not. But, a week or so after mating, if you look at the underside of your gecko you will see the eggs starting to form. So that gecko is obviously pregnant, and it should be between 2 and 5 weeks until the eggs arrive.
Remember that each clutch equals two eggs. Although geckos can live up to 25+ years they reach menopause around the age of 7-9 so during this time they will either produce 1 or 2 clutches or none at all.
Incubation
As soon as the eggs are laid, they will need to be incubated, the mother has nothing to do with them after laying. You can either buy an incubator from many poultry suppliers, or make your own. Both methods can work perfectly well if set up correctly, I advise you get your incubator set up about 2 weeks before you expect eggs, this is to make sure you have perfect temps and gives you time to make changes, or solve problems! If you are after females, you should incubate between 79*-83*. For males, incubate between 87*-90*. For a mixture, incubate between 84*-86*. If you incubate at temperatures over 90*, you will probably get 'hot' females, these are normally VERY aggressive to males, and are unable to breed. When placing the eggs in the incubator, its vital you keep them in the same position as they were laid, this is to avoid suffocating the baby gecko. Further Incubation Effects
Rearing of young
Hatchlings are much harder to look after than adults as they need much more care & attention. I recommend that you give the hatchlings a smaller tank than you would give an adult, and would not recommend keeping multiple hatchlings together. Hatchlings will need feeding a small amount on the correct size food every day after about their first 2/3 days of life (during the first few days of life they don't normally eat). Due to their small size they will dehydrate very quickly, so you must make sure water is ALWAYS available. The reason that I do not recommend keeping multiple hatchlings together, is because as they grow, some may get bigger than others, which could lead to geckos getting bullied/not getting enough food/hiding places. Therefore it is also impossible to control what geckos eating what, and if one gecko gets ill, all the others could be affected. If you have to keep more than one gecko per tank, then make sure you keep an eye out for any problems, and separate them right away if you think there could be a problem!
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