Question about getting geckos ready to breed

[sunshinegeckofarm]

I have 2.6 geckos that are all 60-90 grams and eating well temps are good the rack system is set to 88 degrees. I have 2 of the females that are proven from 2006 and one of the males is been breeding since 2002 and sired the babies I hatched in 2006 but the rest are first timers and I am wanting to know how I can get them into the mood for breeding they are over a year old. I introduced them to tonight but none of them seemed too interested in eachother. I am going to try again in 3 or 4 days and see what happens. I have never had so many problems trying to get my geckos to breed than I have now. I have invested so much time and money into getting some of the best geckos I could afford that looked really good and healthy. Hopefully I am not the only one that has experienced this. It depresses me when I feel like I am doing something wrong when I try to do eveything right. Oh yeah they are all on papertowels I only used sand when I aquired my first pair of geckos in 2001 but took them off it in a month or so once I learned it was not good and I was not willing to risk it, after that I have used either old newspaper or papertowel whichever I have at the moment most of the time I use paper towel cuz I hate cutting the newspaper to size. All are housed individually. If anyone has any tips for me that would be awesome. Thank you for reading and any replies.

Danielle

 

[acpart]

This season I am breeding 7 females and 4 males with another female to be introduced in March when she gets a bit older. One or two of my males acted interested as soon as I put them in with the females. The others acted as if they couldn't care less. At first, the females rejected the males because they weren't ovulating. After about a week the matings I observed had the females more compliant and most or all of them seem to be gravid. I have 2 males that I rarely see show any interest, but judging from the scratches on the (gravid) females, they are doing their thing. I think they prefer it to be late at night and dark. Some people have recommended putting some poop from a strange male in with the breeders to encourage competition in a reluctant male or separating them for a week and reintroducing. I don't know if this is true, but I think that possibly the presence of the male may encourage the females to ovulate. I leave my males and females together full-time during breeding season. Maybe you should just put them together and not worry about it and check periodically for eggs/ovulation.

Aliza

 

[MSMD]

I just bred one of my males for the first time. He didn't seem interested in the female (she was ovulating at the time) at all when first introduced, but they got along well so I decided to leave him in with the female (my leos are normally all housed individually). They continued to get along well and both were eating well so I left him with her for 4 days. After the first night, I noticed some of the telltale light 'lovebite' marks on the females head and tail area. She is now gravid, but I never witnessed these two actually mating. I agree with Aliza and think maybe some are shy and like to do the 'deed' late at night when no one is watching.