Newish leopard gecko breeder

[rhirano09]

Hey everyone! I'm new on here and had a few questions. I bought 2 female high yellow leopard geckos last year from geckosetc.com. I also bought a male Jungle Mack Snow Bell Albino Leo about 2 months or so ago. The male had a prolapse 3 days into the mating with the females. That's all healed and I put him back in last week and was very cautious constantly checking him throughout the day and hopefully have some more eggs coming. I have a separate cage for the male and the 2 females are together. The male hasn't been a big eater since I bought him 2 months ago. He's very active but his tail has shrunk. I don't think he accepted the move too well. From what I under, geckosetc had him eating mealworms but he wants nothing to do with the worms I give. I also put in crickets and he eats one or two occasionally. Are there any worms/bugs that leopards will eat that's like a treat? I want to try waxworms because I've read they are fatty and he's lost a little weight! When he's in the female cage, he's very active as you might imagine. But when he's alone in his cage, it seems like he's a little depressed.

Ok so on to the breeding questions. From what I understand, these 3 geckos have a 50% of having snow mac babies. Correct? Is the other 50% high yellow? (+ het albino)

I bought the Reptibator incubator and it holds a constant temperature. I also have Hatchrite instead of vermiculite. I mix water with it but not too much. Should I also put water in the reservoirs in the bottom of the Reptibator?

So when the female laid her clutch, she probably put it in the most annoying spot in her cave. I have a spot for them to lay but she had other plans. Getting it out, it rolled over and had no idea which side was up. Is there a way to know which side should be placed up. Like I think I could tell where the cord from the female was connected. It wasn't a problem since the 2 eggs were infertile.

 

[acpart]

Welcome to GF. I'll try to answer you questions:
Male: It's not unusual for males very interested in breeding to stop eating. He should pick up as soon as the novelty wears off. You could always bring him to a vet if you think something else is going on. You could see if he's interested in superworms

Snows: yes, statistically half of the offspring will be snow

Eggs: from what I've read, it's not a problem if the egg rolls the first day or so because the embryo has not yet attached

Aliza

 

[B&B Geckos]

What Aliza said. No problem with rolling Leo eggs the first 12 days or so.

 

[favrielle]

A heads-up on the Reptibator... I've found that the temperature reported on the display is high compared to the temperature at egg-level in the incubator. My temp was set at 90, with real temperature being between 84.7 and 85.8 on a digital probe thermometer in the substrate. The front (near the display) was cooler than the back (near the tighter heating coils). The temps ARE consistent, though, which is awesome for a "cheap" incubator+thermostat setup. Mine even held temps when our air conditioning went out for a week and a half and room temps fluctuated a LOT. I do have a bit of water in the bottom reservoir, just in case.

I have two males now from GeckosEtc. They're both big boys, 92g and 101g, both over a year old when purchased. My 92g boy took a MONTH to eat his first real meal after arriving. He's still a bit picky but is maintaing weight so I'm not concerned. The other is still on a hunger strike, but he only got here 7/17 and is starting to show interest in crickets/roaches and supers. So I understand exactly where you're coming from with your male not eating!
If you are concerned about your male (you said he was also from GeckosEtc, right?) call up Steve Sykes and have a short chat. The number is on his contact page. He's very helpful and I highly recommend talking with him if you have concerns about one of his geckos. The primary reason I'll be a repeat customer is his excellent customer service!

You might also want to get a kitchen scale that measures in grams so you can keep a closer eye on this guy's weight loss. It will come in handy when you hatch out babies, too, so you can track their weights. You can get them off Amazon for less than $20, but you can also buy them at places like WalMart.

 

[rhirano09]

Thanks everyone! Yeah I know what you mean at the the Reptibator. I monitored it close. I have it on ~85 and its about 80-81 in the middle.

I got a scale from walmart from the cooking section. I weighed him right before the vet and the vet said he was 10+ grams bigger. It was significantly bigger than my scale. I also paid like 14$. I found one online last night that I plan on buying.

Also bought a jungle bold male to breed with the snow babies I plan on having! Unfortunately, he might have parasites. I bought him at Repticon in Atlanta this weekend. He has diarrhea, but is eating very well and very active. But it might be the stress of moving around so much the past few weeks. Not sure. Any thoughts? Is there any medicine I can buy without going to a vet to clear up possible parasites?

 

[OnlineGeckos]

You'll want to get a fecal exam done to see if the gecko has parasites, it's not something you can guess. If fecal returns positive, then a vet will prescribe you antibiotics.

 

[rhirano09]

Well the reason I think he might because his first fecal matter was diarrhea.

 

[OnlineGeckos]

Correct, which is a good sign to get a fecal done

 

[GreatGeckos]

I think everyone has given proper advice to your questions, I have had a raptor male that was new to breeding eat next to nothing for almost a month, I took him away from the females for 3 weeks and he's eatting like a pig again and put on around 10 grams in the last month.

As far as egg incubating , if you're using hatchrite (I use it with great success). This is how I do it, I shake the bag up really good, because I find that most of the moisture sinks to the lower part of the bag. I put about 1 1/2 inches of it into my air tight tupper ware container , and spray it twice with a spray bottle. Then I put another 1 1/2 inch on top of that strait from the bag. Push a small hole where the egg is placed and put the lid on. I open the containers once a week to check eggs / check moisture / and to allow fresh air into the cup. I almost never have to add water for the whole incubation period. As far as rolling an egg , it's harmless until 2 weeks after it has been laid. I also use a NON-toxic marker to mark a strait line on the part of the egg I placed upright. This year I had 2 infertile eggs (virgin females first clutch) and maybe loosing 1 to mold. That's out of 64 eggs so far. Hope this helps. Good luck !

 

[rhirano09]

That's awesome! Thanks for the advice GreatGeckos! My female laid her second clutch this evening. One came out extra squishy. Like as I was using a sharpie to draw a line on the top it went in. But I didn't use any more force on that one than the other. It's not leaking or anything so I didn't pierce it. I put these 2 in different containers. I put an extremely thin layer of water in the circular container then put hatch rite on it. Then made sure the top had no moisture where I put the egg.

 

[GreatGeckos]

You're welcome . I've had eggs that I was sure were infertile and squishy hatch out.. So I'd recommend incubating all eggs until you know for sure there's no hope for it.

EDIT : and congrats on your 2nd clutch