breeding help..

[Dani51707]

Hi im new to the forum and im looking for help breeding my leopard geckos. We have 7 geckos all together 1 real male that i can use to breed with because one male is 5 months and the other male was just given to us for free and not 100% sure on his age but the guy said he had them for 5 years. so im not sure if the male that is over 5 is young enough for breeding. for females we have 2 we can forsure use. the other 2 came for free from the same man and not sure how old they are. atleast 5 he said. so my question is we have had the male chocolate albino with our 2 females for about while now and nothing is going on. i have pictures of one females belly not sure if shes ovulating or not but the other 1 the tangerine is not at all. her belly looks normal. should i separate them or what... can someone give me the 411 on this. so i can make sure im doing it right

 

[LeapinLizards]

Personally, I don't suggest housing male and female geckos together at all. I have found, in the past, that the male can easily become overstressed from advancing on the females, and them rejecting him time and time again due to not ovulating. This is not the case always, but has been my experience, and that of a few people I have talked to. I housed a male with females for almost a year, and no one ovulated or became gravid. I since have moved them all into a rack system, housed alone. Both females have ovulated, and I introduced the male to one. Breeding happened instantly, and I'm now expecting eggs any day.

Personally, I would separate them all. Wait for the females to ovulate, then introduce the male.

I think it has to do with the male and females living in the same enclosure, and getting so used to the same scents at all times. Don't quote me on that, again, it is just my observations.

 

[Dani51707]

see i get so many different types of advice...i read books and info from breeders that say to house a male with no more than 5 females because when u re introduce them they become aggressive. ill copy the info from the site i know of. and it said they keep them together all the time. here is what i read and copied in red

Mating

Mating can be a somewhat violent affair in geckos, and we get many questions about separation of the sexes as a result. At VMS, we have NEVER separated the sexes at any time. We maintain our colonies in groups of one male and up to five females together year-round with few problems. In fact, we believe most of these aggression problems occur when the geckos are first introduced. So separating them and periodically re-introducing them may actually make the situation endlessly repeat itself!

 

[LeapinLizards]

I have never had an aggressive reaction when introducing two geckos that have not been housed together. I HAVE had an aggressive reaction when introducing two females before. Like I said, it's all PERSONAL choice, and how YOU want to do it.

Like I already stated...I personally choose to keep all my geckos separately because it is much easier to monitor one gecko at a time, other than guessing who is eating and who isn't...who may be getting bullied, who is doing the bullying, etc. Most people I talk to, breeders as well as people that just keep pets, keep separately. There ARE a select few out there that choose to house multiple animals together year round, and have no problem with that. I personally have had issues, so choose not to. That's all

 

[acpart]

I have had my males and females together since the first week in Jan. and only 1 of my females is ovulating (a total of 6 females are scheduled to breed now). One male tries periodically to mate with his 2 females and has been accepted only by the female who's ovulating and she is probably gravid. The other 2 males are rarely seen by me to be mating, though females have become gravid with them in the past and had healthy hatchlings. My point is that it's still pretty early in the mating season for most geckos (I know that theoretically geckos can mate any time of the year but I do find that most exposed to regular day light are starting their season around now) so yours may not have ovulated yet. I have no problem keeping my males and females together, but as you see, others have other experiences. One thing you could try is to remove the male for a few days and then re-introduce to see if that sparks his interest.

Aliza