Thinking about breeding my leo

@marko@

New member
i have recently been thinking about trying to breed my leo. she is a female about 5 years old, who i never weighed. normal pattern. anyway she is in a 20L viv, i would clean it out, and redo it before adding her and a male into it. would i need to keep another female too to keep the male from overfertilizing her? also, i read that hatchlings can be kept with the adults, but its risky what is your take? how much work is raising a hatchling leo? and finally, does anyone know where i can get a cheap adult male (preffirably hypotangerine or high yellow or jungle)?
 

acpart

Well-known member
i have recently been thinking about trying to breed my leo. she is a female about 5 years old, who i never weighed. normal pattern. anyway she is in a 20L viv, i would clean it out, and redo it before adding her and a male into it. would i need to keep another female too to keep the male from overfertilizing her? also, i read that hatchlings can be kept with the adults, but its risky what is your take? how much work is raising a hatchling leo? and finally, does anyone know where i can get a cheap adult male (preffirably hypotangerine or high yellow or jungle)?

One male and one female can work. It's not an issue of overfertilizing, but rather the extent to which the male may bother her. That depends on the male and the female. You could always have a spare tank and separate them for awhile if necessary. I have found that keeping my males and females together, the males lose interest after awhile,.

If you keep hatchlings with adults, or even smaller hatchlings with bigger ones, it is likely that the smaller ones, or at least their tails, will end up as dinner (it's possible that there may be more success with this if someone had a huge tank with many hiding places, but it's still risky).

If you've raised other hatchlings, it's about the same amount of work: keep in a smaller version of its natural habitat, keep hydrated, feed small versions of adult food daily after shed . . . I'm going to be writing an article for Gecko Time on-line blog (Gecko Time: A blog about geckos) about care and feeding of hatchling geckos, probably by the middle to end of July.

Check out the White Plains, NY show on 7/12 to see if you can get a male you're happy with. Remember to quarantine him from the female for at least a month to be sure no one is going to get anyone sick.

ALiza
 

@marko@

New member
so i should keep hatchlings seperate, and only clutch mates together, or those hatched with a couple days (if i go with 2 females).

yeah, ill definately check out the reptile expo. what do you think would be a fair price for an average hypotangerine male?

about how many eggs will a female have per breeding season?
 

acpart

Well-known member
so i should keep hatchlings seperate, and only clutch mates together, or those hatched with a couple days (if i go with 2 females).

yeah, ill definately check out the reptile expo. what do you think would be a fair price for an average hypotangerine male?

about how many eggs will a female have per breeding season?

I keep up to 2 geckos of the same size together (I divide 20 gallon long, front opening tanks into 3 sections,so each pair of hatchlings has a space 10"x12"; other people use racks. I use a rack for my overflow hatchlings). Usually I keep clutchmates together, but if I have hatchlings from different pairings that are the same size I will keep them together. Some clutchmates grow at different rates from each other, so if necessary I mix and match to keep them the same size.

I think you may be able to get a young male for $30-50. You may have to get a juvi and plan to breed next season (since the breeding season is often Jan-Sept and you'll need to quarantine first, that may be your best bet). If you go to White Plains I can make some suggestions about whose stuff to look at but I think we had better do that via private message.

Female geckos lay 2 eggs in a clutch and they do it anywhere from 0->10x a season. For example, I have 2 females that were born early last summer. Both are breeding for the first time with the same male. One laid 2 clutches and may be done, since I don't see ovulation right now. The other is working on her 11th clutch. Nearly all her eggs, including her first two have hatched or look good in the incubator.

Aliza
 
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