Housing a male and a female

[amanda]

I've had my male leopard gecko Morris, for over a month now and was wondering whether it'd be a good idea to get a female of the same age (about 10 months old) to house with him. Obviously I'd have to keep an eye on Morris to make sure he's not attacking the female etc. I've read mixed reviews on doing this so just wondered what peoples thoughts were?

 

[DrCarrotTail]

First, I'd quarantine any new gecko you get for at least 30 days in a separate cage just to make sure it has no disease or parasite and is eating well and acting normally on it's own.

In my experience, males tend to be rather randy and often harass and stress a single female. I've had better success keeping 1.3 groups than pairs of geckos. Last year I had one of my females tear into a male that had been seemingly peacefully living with her for 6 months and decided that group breeding and keeping is not for me. He's thankfully alright but I'm not sure how far it would have gone if I had not been in the room to stop it.

If both male and female are over 50g (safe breeding weight) and you want to try it with your geckos, I would just clean out the cage 100% and bleach every thing before introducing them in order to make the cage "neutral territory" and see how it goes. Many times you'll have to wait to introduce them until the female is ready to breed as males usually want to breed right away and if she's not willing you'll have issues.

Good luck!

 

[Dinosaur!]

If you have only had leopard geckos for a month (im just assuming from the time you have had Morris), i would definately reccomend not putting a male and female together. They WILL breed, whether she is up to weight or not. Breeding is a long and complicated process that ends with a bunch of baby geckos that you will have to know 100% of the genetics on, and rehome to responsible owners once they are up to fifteen grams. There can also be fatal breeding issues, such as egg-binding, in the female, and a chance of prolapse in the male, both of which will need a vet visit, and possibly a pricy procedure to fix.

i personally recommend keeping a few geckos for at least a year, weighing your financial situation with how much money you need to invest, do as much research as you possibly can, and then sit down and think, "Am I ready for the responsibility of potentially 20+ little lives that need constant food and attention? am I ready to invest money and do the research to make this successful? And am I ready for the possibility of losing my geckos to breeding complications, or putting defected hatchlings to sleep?" once you think about all of this very seriously, have leopard geckos that are healthy, up to breeding weight, and you know the gentic background 100% and know the outcomes of the hatchlings that they will make, then , and only then, you should consider breeding.

i dont mean to sound harsh or unsupportive, but please consider all of these things in the best interest of your sweet little geckos and remember that geckos seem to be more stress free when living alone. They don't really get "lonely", especially when they have a caring owner looking after them every day

edit: and i second everything DrCarrotTail said