Grinning Geckos
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I thought I heard about someone cooling their geckos a few months ago, and I was wondering how that was going. Problem is, I can't remember who did it! Paul? Was it you?
Cooling down
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Grinning Geckos
Tegan onboard.
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- 2,515
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- Chicago-land
SO ...spill the beans! What were your results? There's gotta be a reason you're glad you did it.
Okay, here is what I did:
Last fall after most of the females were done laying I stopped feeding the first "batch" of females who were well-recovered from breeding. They all had regained any lost weight and were nice and healthy. At the time, I still had a few females who needed to put back on some of the weight they had lost while breeding, so those females (2nd and 3rd "batches" lol) just went through the same process when I felt it was safe.
I let the females go about five days without food, and then started cutting back their temperatures gradually over two weeks until their heat was just turned off entirely. I know some breeders cool females without doing it gradually and don’t have any problems, but I just felt better about making it gradual. Once they were down to room temperature (around 70-72F) I kept checking on them to make sure none of them were losing weight. The biggest weight loss I remember seeing was two grams, and that was toward the end of the eight week period without heat and food.
I warmed them up over the course of a week and they ate with gusto once I started feeding them again. I was checking them randomly for ovulation, and started pairing some of them up with males after they were eating for about a month. With the exception of one frustratingly non-prolific project, the females started ovulating and laying eggs around eight to ten weeks after bringing them out of brumation.
I think it worked pretty well because it put a lot of females into closer cycles. A few females seemed to resist conformity in cycling and started whenever they felt so inclined, though. I’m not sure whether or not I’ll be cooling many if any of them this year though since I’ll hopefully be moving within a few months. I’ll just have to see how they’re doing and assess the situation when the time comes.
One important thing I do want to point out is that the brumation “process†did not seem to have a negative effect on ANY of the females, which is something I worried about since I had not brumated a gecko before. I used to brumate all of my colubrids at much lower temperatures and am pretty used to that, but for some reason I was a little apprehensive about using a similar technique with other reptiles.
I hope that covers everything, but let me know if you’ve got any questions. Just keep in mind that this the first and only time so far that I’ve cooled leopard geckos, and I’m not in any way, shape, or form claiming to be well-versed on the process.
Last fall after most of the females were done laying I stopped feeding the first "batch" of females who were well-recovered from breeding. They all had regained any lost weight and were nice and healthy. At the time, I still had a few females who needed to put back on some of the weight they had lost while breeding, so those females (2nd and 3rd "batches" lol) just went through the same process when I felt it was safe.
I let the females go about five days without food, and then started cutting back their temperatures gradually over two weeks until their heat was just turned off entirely. I know some breeders cool females without doing it gradually and don’t have any problems, but I just felt better about making it gradual. Once they were down to room temperature (around 70-72F) I kept checking on them to make sure none of them were losing weight. The biggest weight loss I remember seeing was two grams, and that was toward the end of the eight week period without heat and food.
I warmed them up over the course of a week and they ate with gusto once I started feeding them again. I was checking them randomly for ovulation, and started pairing some of them up with males after they were eating for about a month. With the exception of one frustratingly non-prolific project, the females started ovulating and laying eggs around eight to ten weeks after bringing them out of brumation.
I think it worked pretty well because it put a lot of females into closer cycles. A few females seemed to resist conformity in cycling and started whenever they felt so inclined, though. I’m not sure whether or not I’ll be cooling many if any of them this year though since I’ll hopefully be moving within a few months. I’ll just have to see how they’re doing and assess the situation when the time comes.
One important thing I do want to point out is that the brumation “process†did not seem to have a negative effect on ANY of the females, which is something I worried about since I had not brumated a gecko before. I used to brumate all of my colubrids at much lower temperatures and am pretty used to that, but for some reason I was a little apprehensive about using a similar technique with other reptiles.
I hope that covers everything, but let me know if you’ve got any questions. Just keep in mind that this the first and only time so far that I’ve cooled leopard geckos, and I’m not in any way, shape, or form claiming to be well-versed on the process.
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