New breeder advice

[nuggetcujo]

I have had an increasingly growing interest in leopard geckos and have done a lot of research, but I would like some advice and knowledge from people with experience. I have a Mack Snow female leopard gecko and I just ordered a Mack Snow pos het tremper male, and a Mack Snow Tremper female. If conditions are right and everyones healthy, what would the average amount of fertile eggs I would get be? If I put the male in with the females after quarentine, are they going to breed right away, or will they wait until breeding season. Say I get extremely lucky and get 8 clutches for each female, how much money is it going to be to feed 32 baby leopard geckos both crickets and mealworms per a month. I plan on selling them as juvie to sub adults, what would they normally go for online for a breeder just starting? I know all the equipment I need, I am just looking for someone to answer my questions and also tell me about their first year breeding leos. Thanks.

 

[geckoeyez]

Hello, I'm not sure how many clutches you will get. It depends on the female. You could get up to six or possibly more from each. If they are virgins you could get infertile eggs at first because some first timers do that. You shouldn't put the male in with females unless the females are up to weight (over 50g) and are ovulating. If they aren't ovulating then the male could stress the females out. If they are ovulating then they might possibly breed quickly or the female could play hard to get. You should watch them and make sure they don't fight. It would be very costly to feed 32 baby leos. I'm not sure how much it would cost because I've never had that many. It would be easier to breed mealies. I do. If you are just breeding for money don't count on much profit. You could probably sell the juvies for around $40 - $50 each depending on the geckos. But I'm not that good at pricing and I don't know the morphs of the future hatchlings. The first year of breeding you will learn a lot. I did. I had a very hard time incubating. I had I think 18 eggs and only 4 hatched. You will learn a lot too. I hope I helped!

 

[acpart]

I agree it's hard to predict how many eggs you'll get. I have had first time females lay a number of eggs ranging from 0-23. On the other hand, consider this data: I generally breed about 6 leopard geckos a season. Their production rates range greatly, so, for instance, this year I have 2 producing very well, 2 with fair production and 2 that will probably end up not producing anything. Except for an unusually productive season in '09 where I produced about 75 leopard geckos, every other year except the first year, it's been around 35. This is my 7th season and I'm on pace for that again.

Aliza