[robinson]

Hello, Yesterday I purchased 2 new baby AFT's from my local reptile store. They are roughly 2 months old and roughly 4 inches from the tips of thier heads to the tips of thier tales and they are almost exactly the same size.

I already have a 2.5 year old male AFT and i have purchased these young AFT's in hopes of later putting them into the same viv and possibly having them mate. The person at the reptile store personally hatched and raised the AFT's i bought and said that they were incubated at 81 degrees and assumed that they would be female as 35 of the last 40 that he hatched at these temps turned out to be female. Obviusly it is still too early to tell thier sex though.

The questions i have are, how old do the babies have to be before i can tell thier sex, and at what rate roughly should they be growing?

How old/big should the babies be before i introduce them to the older male i have (if they both turn out to be female)?

What precautions should i take when introducing the geckos?

What extra maintenance/work/actions will be required to ensure the health of the gecko's once they start mating and laying eggs.


HERE ARE SOME PICS







Thanks very much and i will get some pictures of all 3 of my gecko's up shortly

[vegasgrl529]

you definitely shouldn't let them in with him anytime soon, especially within the next few months. i'd wait until the babies are about a year old, or at least until they grow another inch or two. they shouldn't be that much smaller than the male or else they might get hurt while mating. you should also make sure their tails are to their fullest extent before they mate because it pretty much burns a bunch of calories.
and by the way, they're beautiful :]

[acpart]

I am waiting until my young female fat tail gets to 50 grams before I introduce her to my male. She is probably over 8 months (I got her from a small local pet store in Feb. and she had been there for at least 6 months already) and was 24 grams when I got her. She's now up to 41 grams and I'm counting the days. I think you're looking at next season for an introduction. When they're ready, I have found my male fat tail gentler than my male leos in approaching the female and I think they generally are. Feeding them well and supplementing when they are breeding is your best bet.

Aliza

[Saille]

Originally Posted by acpart

I am waiting until my young female fat tail gets to 50 grams before I introduce her to my male. She is probably over 8 months (I got her from a small local pet store in Feb. and she had been there for at least 6 months already) and was 24 grams when I got her. She's now up to 41 grams and I'm counting the days. I think you're looking at next season for an introduction. When they're ready, I have found my male fat tail gentler than my male leos in approaching the female and I think they generally are. Feeding them well and supplementing when they are breeding is your best bet.

Aliza

Excellent advice here. I made sure that my female's tail was literally OBESE before I put my two together. And I was lucky to have naturally been able to brumate them as we had a very cool winter this past year, which is what I attribute my egg and hatchling success to so far this spring.
So if you intend to breed, cooling is a must, in my opinion.