Breeding questtions?

[Fitto55]

ok well i just got a new leo( hes a male) and my friend got a female and they r still babies. We want to breed them but we dont know how old they have to be, if they have to live together, what we need, what an incubator is, or anything else. Please help

 

[DannyCrazy4Geckos]

ok well i just got a new leo( hes a male) and my friend got a female and they r still babies. We want to breed them but we dont know how old they have to be, if they have to live together, what we need, what an incubator is, or anything else. Please help

When it comes to breeding, the weight of the geckos is more important than their age. You should wait until each gecko is at least 50 grams (this will probably take about a year depending on the geckos; every leo is different in the way they grow). It is not required, but you may house your pair of leos together. Many breeders put a pair together for a month or less (however long it takes them to mate) and then separate them afterwards for the female to lay eggs. An incubator is something that keeps the eggs warm, which is necessary for them to hatch; leopard gecko eggs also need to be kept slightly moist during the incubation process. An incubator can be purchased for $30-$50. There are a hundred other things that I could tell you about breeding, but it would take forever. Here are a few links to sites with info on breeding leos: http://www.reptilecare.com/leopardbreed.htm http://www.thegeckospot.com/leobreeding.html http://www.leopardgecko.co.uk/documents/caresheet/breeding.htm http://www.vmsherp.com/LCBreedingLeopards.htm You can also look in books about leopard geckos like "The Leopard Gecko Manual." I hope all this will help, and I wish you luck with raising and breeding your leos.

 

[Fitto55]

thanks alot but how do you know once theyve mated?
thanks for quick reply

 

[justin-branam]

you should probably go get a leopard gecko care book and ready through it. you also need to understand that a female gecko can lay in upwards of 20 eggs a year. when you take into account the time to care/clean/etc, and the cost of food/housing/space, breeding can get very expensive. then you have to find a place to sell your geckos. i have started to breed mine, and have added it up and its not cheap. last year it cost me about $400 to get setup to house and feed only 4 babies until i could sell them. so far this year, i have spent about another $250 getting ready for this years season, and that doesnt include any food for who knows how many babies ill get.

 

[Fitto55]

ohh we wanted to only keep the first eggs she lays then take them apart because we wanted to keep the babies

 

[Scott&Nikki]

ohh we wanted to only keep the first eggs she lays then take them apart because we wanted to keep the babies

Honestly, I don't know everything it takes to breed leos, but if you only plan on breeding once, to keep the babies, that is going to be a huge financial commitment. Just getting the equipment such as the incubator is going to cost a lot. Most breeders at least make some money back by selling babies continuously over time. What happens if you get, let's say, 10 babies. Can you afford all of the tanks or rack and supplies for these babies?

Also, where did you get them from? How do you know their sex?

 

[BluGnat]

ohh we wanted to only keep the first eggs she lays then take them apart because we wanted to keep the babies

Once they mate, the female can continue laying fertile eggs for the whole season...

 

[Fitto55]

we have talked and we are splitting the incubator cost to keep it cheap and if we have more babies we will sell... thank you guys for all the help plz keep helping

 

[Scott&Nikki]

we have talked and we are splitting the incubator cost to keep it cheap and if we have more babies we will sell... thank you guys for all the help plz keep helping

It is not as easy as you think it is to sell. But you are not gonna be selling these little guys right out of the egg. You are still going to need to purchase all of the tanks and all that, and make sure they are eating alright, get their first shed out of the way, all of that stuff. I just think you are missing a lot of what it takes to breed leos. That is just what I know and I'm not even a breeder, so I am sure there are also other issues to be dealt with. I just feel that not being well known and a short time leo owner, you may not find many people willing to purchase leos from you. If you guys really are ready to do it, more power to you and I don't wanna be the bad guy, that is just my view of the situation.

 

[Fitto55]

ya actually i was thinkning about selling real cheap or just giving to my local pet shop.. i feel that they can take care of all the buissiness ur talking about

 

[Scott&Nikki]

Matt, just curious, where in IL do you live?

 

[Fitto55]

oo u live in Il too i live in a Chicago suburb i would tell you but i feel a bit uncomfortable saying my town on a public websote lol

 

[nicoleroxs73]

i also want to breed my leo. i would subjest looking up imformation on google about breeding leos, they have some pretty good sites on there. and maybe get a few books on breeding them too. also ask yourself why do you want to breed them? just for fun? soming to do? are you going to be able to take care of all of the offspring and give them all love and care? do you have anywhere to keep them all? the males when they get older need to be seperated. and if you dont want to keep them all then you'll have to find good homes for them. i wouldnt recomend selling them cheap either because if its like 15$ the person might not really care if it lives or dies because hey it was only 15$ and they'd have enough money to always get a new one. selling them to a pet shop would be a good idea tho because those guys will most likely make sure they'll get to a good home. or you could always sell them on this site for cheap like 25$ or so they'd probably go pretty quickly, thats what i would do

 

[Fitto55]

ya but honest;y, how do u ship live animals?

 

[Scott&Nikki]

ya but honest;y, how do u ship live animals?

People do it all the time. It is expensive, but I am sure there are MANY people on this site that could give you all the info about that you need.

Pet stores will not make sure they go to "good homes". A "good home" to them is someone with enough money to buy it. I would highly recommend trying this site first if selling them is what you plan on doing.

 

[nicoleroxs73]

im not 100% sure about that but its possible, you just have to ship them quickly so they arive alive lol but the people who buy them from you will pay for the shipping so you'll still have that 25 dollars you made

 

[Fitto55]

ya im sure they probly have like a box with holes and stuff thats handled very carefeully but i still dont trust them. If anything im gonna hand it over myslef not ship it

 

[BalloonzForU]

The box that we use are styrofoam insulated boxes and you don't put hole in it. We ship Next Day Air so they arrive by 10:30am, sometimes using cool or hot packs to keep temps inside the box stable.

There is a lot more to breeding than just putting a male and female together to get healthy babies. Yes getting your breeders up to size (50-60 grams) is what's needed, but you also need to make sure they are supplemented correctly, that the female is getting enough calcium to produce healthy eggs. Then the incubation has to be just right, which can be a pain in the butt if you use the cheapest incubator a hovobator which is about $40. That type needs to be kept in a room that has a constant temp as it will change temps inside the incubator if the room temps change. The egg container inside the incubator has to be again just right so that the egg doesn't get water logged or dried out. Even if you get all this right you still need to raise babies to about 15 grams before selling them. In my opinion if you want to breed to just say you did it, keep your geckos you have for about two years, do all the research, and then go for it. This is my third breeding season, I'm on this site and others every day, and I still learn something new every day. We can all help you here, but don't rush it, take your time, cause there is a lot to learn. Trust me if you rush into it, you won't be happy with your out come.

 

[Fitto55]

YEs. Thanks alot! I definatly intend to do alot of research on the breeding. My friend is really paranoid about his gecko being unhealthy all the time,(just like me:main_laugh: ) so i have no worries that she will be healthy. I told him to check this place out and he has an account. Together i think well know enough about it by the time they are big enough, but i will probably still ask someone for help.

 

[Scott&Nikki]

Felicia, I'm glad someone with breeding experience replied to that lol. But yeah, by the time it will take your leos to be big and healthy enough to breed, you should be able to get a good sense of what you are doing by reading past posts and posting new ones on here. I think cost could be just as much of a problem, if not more than just making sure they are healthy enough. But you probably have at least a year to be able to figure it out exactly with this forums help.