**Firstly my apologies to the moderators as I accidentally posted this in the care sheets forums :-(
Hello, my name is Eric, I've posted only a few times but I wanted to ask a question of you all and hopefully get some clear answers. I've done my research on the process of introducing a new leopard gecko to a habitat that's preoccupied and I wanted to make sure I have my facts straight.
So here's the scenario:
<Just Background on the gecko>
Around six months ago I adopted a leopard gecko from a local pet store which I will not name that was in pretty bad shape. Standard colors, female, had retained a shed on her leg that left it pretty much paralyzed. The leg was swollen so badly that the top had begun to mold over the bottom portion and the skin she retained was trapped underneath it. I was sure she was going to lose the leg, or die from infection, but I wanted to give her a fighting chance because it was apparent to myself that the pet store didn't care. I took her to the vet and he gave me some antibiotics and did his best to cut the skin off the leg. He told me to keep her moist and try to get the rest of the skin day to day and to apply the antibiotics to the leg and hopefully it would heal. After a long month of caring for her the leg fully recovered and now she's a perfectly spoiled gecko with a fully functional clubbed foot named Beru. <Sorry about that, I wanted to give some background>.
Anyway, it has occurred to me that due to conflicting research it may not be best to keep her housed alone. (Myth 1) I've read that a female gecko, even if housed in proper conditions can become egg bound if there isn't a male there to keep her fertilized. Be this true or not, my wife and I have decided to add a male to her habitat because she's still young, less than a year. And she isn't all that large (she eats plenty and does not look at all underfed) but she is nowhere near the size of Admiral Ackbar, my 4 year old male who doesn't even like the fact that her viv is in the same room as his, and is contemptuous of me for having to be near him to feed him. So housing her with him is completely out of the picture. I'm confident he would kill her due to his territorial nature and overwhelming size advantage.
We've found a male to introduce to her that is around 2 or 3 months younger than she is and a little bit smaller, but not enough to where I think she'd try and start a fight with him. However, I have her housed in a 20W and plan on moving her into a 20L before I bring him into the picture.
So I have questions
1 was the question about her needing a male, but this is kind of a pointless question because I'm getting him either way.
2. Because I'm moving her into a new environment do I need to wait to put him into the tank with her so she can adjust to it? I don't want to put them in together and have her confused about whose house it is because at the end of all this if he doesn't work out he's going to get moved into the 20W. She has seniority. So does she need time to get used to the new home?
3. I've read that female leopard geckos are rarely dominant towards males, at 5 months is he going to be sexually mature enough to where he tries to take over the environment? Do I need to go through a long process of introducing them day by day when they're both under a year old?
4. When he becomes sexually aggressive would it not be wise to add a second female to keep the pressure off of her? Seeing how this probably will be the case, as I've housed just one male and one female crested gecko together and he almost killed her. First he mated with her so much that she rejected him, and then when she did he kept her trapped in a corner because it was as if losing the option to mate with her left her as a threat to his food supply. I don't want this to happen to Beru. So it seems adding a second female would be a good option, that being said would it be best to do it now while they're young instead of waiting for that whole mess to start happening?
That's about it. I appreciate any advice you can offer, I just hear and read different things and want to get some fresh input on these questions. I think I know enough about the methods of how to introduce each other and how they behave, I'm really just looking for an opinion from someone with more experience than me as my leopard geckos are generally housed separately and this is something I've been wanting to do.
Hello, my name is Eric, I've posted only a few times but I wanted to ask a question of you all and hopefully get some clear answers. I've done my research on the process of introducing a new leopard gecko to a habitat that's preoccupied and I wanted to make sure I have my facts straight.
So here's the scenario:
<Just Background on the gecko>
Around six months ago I adopted a leopard gecko from a local pet store which I will not name that was in pretty bad shape. Standard colors, female, had retained a shed on her leg that left it pretty much paralyzed. The leg was swollen so badly that the top had begun to mold over the bottom portion and the skin she retained was trapped underneath it. I was sure she was going to lose the leg, or die from infection, but I wanted to give her a fighting chance because it was apparent to myself that the pet store didn't care. I took her to the vet and he gave me some antibiotics and did his best to cut the skin off the leg. He told me to keep her moist and try to get the rest of the skin day to day and to apply the antibiotics to the leg and hopefully it would heal. After a long month of caring for her the leg fully recovered and now she's a perfectly spoiled gecko with a fully functional clubbed foot named Beru. <Sorry about that, I wanted to give some background>.
Anyway, it has occurred to me that due to conflicting research it may not be best to keep her housed alone. (Myth 1) I've read that a female gecko, even if housed in proper conditions can become egg bound if there isn't a male there to keep her fertilized. Be this true or not, my wife and I have decided to add a male to her habitat because she's still young, less than a year. And she isn't all that large (she eats plenty and does not look at all underfed) but she is nowhere near the size of Admiral Ackbar, my 4 year old male who doesn't even like the fact that her viv is in the same room as his, and is contemptuous of me for having to be near him to feed him. So housing her with him is completely out of the picture. I'm confident he would kill her due to his territorial nature and overwhelming size advantage.
We've found a male to introduce to her that is around 2 or 3 months younger than she is and a little bit smaller, but not enough to where I think she'd try and start a fight with him. However, I have her housed in a 20W and plan on moving her into a 20L before I bring him into the picture.
So I have questions
1 was the question about her needing a male, but this is kind of a pointless question because I'm getting him either way.
2. Because I'm moving her into a new environment do I need to wait to put him into the tank with her so she can adjust to it? I don't want to put them in together and have her confused about whose house it is because at the end of all this if he doesn't work out he's going to get moved into the 20W. She has seniority. So does she need time to get used to the new home?
3. I've read that female leopard geckos are rarely dominant towards males, at 5 months is he going to be sexually mature enough to where he tries to take over the environment? Do I need to go through a long process of introducing them day by day when they're both under a year old?
4. When he becomes sexually aggressive would it not be wise to add a second female to keep the pressure off of her? Seeing how this probably will be the case, as I've housed just one male and one female crested gecko together and he almost killed her. First he mated with her so much that she rejected him, and then when she did he kept her trapped in a corner because it was as if losing the option to mate with her left her as a threat to his food supply. I don't want this to happen to Beru. So it seems adding a second female would be a good option, that being said would it be best to do it now while they're young instead of waiting for that whole mess to start happening?
That's about it. I appreciate any advice you can offer, I just hear and read different things and want to get some fresh input on these questions. I think I know enough about the methods of how to introduce each other and how they behave, I'm really just looking for an opinion from someone with more experience than me as my leopard geckos are generally housed separately and this is something I've been wanting to do.
). I always introduce them in a clean neutral bin so there is no chance of anyone being territorial. 
