Considerations When Breeding Leopard Geckos
Before you get started breeding leopard geckos, you'll want to be sure that you're well educated about this species of gecko.
It's not necessarily easy to breed these animals and you should only go into it knowing all of the important facts.
However, the breeding itself isn't terribly difficult as long as you have male and female geckos to house together.
You should not, however, house the two geckos together as this can stress the female gecko, causing health problems.
You also don't want to house two geckos of the same gender together - they will likely fight, often resulting in the death of one or both lizards.
It's not always easy to tell what gender a leopard gecko is until it reaches about six months of age - before this, they look nearly identical; don't try to judge the gender of your leopard geckos based solely on the size of their heads.
One clue to the gender of your geckos is the temperature at which they were incubated.
Whether or not you happen to know this, you should also check the vent at the base of the animal's tail.
Male and femoral leopard geckos both have femoral pores at the vent arranged in a V shape.
The pores of a female gecko are much fainter than the pores on a male; a male leopard gecko will also have 2 hemipenal bulges underneath their vent.
Before you can breed leopard geckos, they will need to be fully mature E2 about a year old.
Females should be at least one year old before breeding and be in good health.
You'll probably never see the mating process happen, but you can tell that there has been a successful mating because you'll see bite marks on the female.
Keep the pair together for a few days to a week to ensure a successful mating process.
You can tell that the eggs have begun to develop since the female will begin to noticeably gain weight.
She will lay her eggs in about one month to a month and a half.
While a leopard gecko can lay as many as ten eggs at once, the first clutch laid by your female will probably be only one or two.
Make a place for your female gecko to lay her eggs; a laying box should be a small, humid hiding spot.
You can keep the humidity high by placing one to two inches of dampened vermiculite or perlite (available at any garden store) in the box.
This will keep the eggs from dehydrating.
If your gecko lays their eggs elsewhere, they may dehydrate and be infertile.
If you happen to see them before they've dried out, you can try to incubate the eggs on your own.
You're going to need an incubator to make sure that the eggs are viable.
This will maintain a constant temperature, which is necessary to ensure healthy development.
The eggs need to incubate for one to two months, depending on the temperature.
You'll know that the baby geckos are about to hatch when you see the eggs become swollen looking.
This means that sometime in the next week, your newborn baby leopard geckos will emerge, using their one tooth (which soon falls out after hatching) to break through the shell.
It's not necessarily easy to breed these animals and you should only go into it knowing all of the important facts.
However, the breeding itself isn't terribly difficult as long as you have male and female geckos to house together.
You should not, however, house the two geckos together as this can stress the female gecko, causing health problems.
You also don't want to house two geckos of the same gender together - they will likely fight, often resulting in the death of one or both lizards.
It's not always easy to tell what gender a leopard gecko is until it reaches about six months of age - before this, they look nearly identical; don't try to judge the gender of your leopard geckos based solely on the size of their heads.
One clue to the gender of your geckos is the temperature at which they were incubated.
Whether or not you happen to know this, you should also check the vent at the base of the animal's tail.
Male and femoral leopard geckos both have femoral pores at the vent arranged in a V shape.
The pores of a female gecko are much fainter than the pores on a male; a male leopard gecko will also have 2 hemipenal bulges underneath their vent.
Before you can breed leopard geckos, they will need to be fully mature E2 about a year old.
Females should be at least one year old before breeding and be in good health.
You'll probably never see the mating process happen, but you can tell that there has been a successful mating because you'll see bite marks on the female.
Keep the pair together for a few days to a week to ensure a successful mating process.
You can tell that the eggs have begun to develop since the female will begin to noticeably gain weight.
She will lay her eggs in about one month to a month and a half.
While a leopard gecko can lay as many as ten eggs at once, the first clutch laid by your female will probably be only one or two.
Make a place for your female gecko to lay her eggs; a laying box should be a small, humid hiding spot.
You can keep the humidity high by placing one to two inches of dampened vermiculite or perlite (available at any garden store) in the box.
This will keep the eggs from dehydrating.
If your gecko lays their eggs elsewhere, they may dehydrate and be infertile.
If you happen to see them before they've dried out, you can try to incubate the eggs on your own.
You're going to need an incubator to make sure that the eggs are viable.
This will maintain a constant temperature, which is necessary to ensure healthy development.
The eggs need to incubate for one to two months, depending on the temperature.
You'll know that the baby geckos are about to hatch when you see the eggs become swollen looking.
This means that sometime in the next week, your newborn baby leopard geckos will emerge, using their one tooth (which soon falls out after hatching) to break through the shell.
