Content

• Steps
• Part 1 of 4: preparing for breeding
• Part 2 of 4: Breeding
• Part 3 of 4: Taking care of your eggs
• Part 4 of 4: Caring for the offspring
• What do you need

Someone succeeds in breeding leopard geckos, while others do not. In this article, you will learn the simplest ways to breed them. In this case, the easiest way is the best.

Steps

Part 1 of 4: preparing for breeding

1. 1 You will need a male and female leopard gecko. The male can be identified by the bulges under the cloaca, which the female does not have. Both sexes have a V-shaped row of dots above the cloaca (preanal pores), but only in the male the pores are hollow and produce wax that serves to mark territory.
   • It is better to make sure yourself that you have a male and a female than to trust sellers in large pet stores. Specialists in smaller stores or at a reptile show tend to be better at this.
   • Never put two males in the same terrarium, otherwise they can beat each other to death.
2. 2 Prepare a place for male and female to live together. Geckos can stay together as long as you do not notice any particular aggression. In some cases, it is okay if the first acquaintance passes with some conflicts. This usually ends within the first week.
   • For a couple, you will need a terrarium with a volume of 75 liters or more.
   • It is also possible to house a male with 4-5 females, provided that there is 35-40 liters of free space for each additional gecko.
3. 3 Prepare the incubator and arrange the egg-laying area. For this purpose, you can take a plastic food container with a lid. Cut an entrance hole on one side and fill the container with wet moss (Can also be used for cover).
4. 4 Make sure you have customers who will buy cubs in the future.

Part 2 of 4: Breeding

1. 1 Introduce the female to the male. As a rule, for this they are immediately planted in one terrarium. (If the female is unhealthy, then DO NOT use her for breeding. She may die.)
   • Females must be at least 1 year old and within normal weight range. Put calcium powder D3 in a shallow dish, which the female can consume if necessary.They use their internal stores of calcium to form eggs, and if these stores are depleted, the female can die of metabolic bone diseases.
   • You should also feed her the calcium-rubbed insects and provide her with plenty of water. Forming eggs takes a lot of strength and energy from females.
2. 2 Let everything go on as usual. Fertilization should take place within a week.
   • If it seems to you that something is going wrong (aggressive behavior, fights), then the couple should be separated. It is worthwhile to make sure once again that both individuals are not males. If you still have geckos of different sexes, you can try to breed them again after a while.
3. 3 Prepare the egg-laying area and move it to the terrarium. Females dig in the ground to lay eggs, so a place should be prepared for her to dig.

Part 3 of 4: Taking care of your eggs

1. 1 After about 4-5 weeks, the female should lay eggs. Typically, you will see the result of her digging and the eggs laying in pairs. The fact that the female has laid eggs can be easily seen by how much she has lost weight.
2. 2 Transfer the eggs to the incubator. Remove the eggs from the clutch, being careful not to rotate or shake them. 24 hours after the female lays the eggs, the embryo attaches to the wall inside the egg. Rotating or shaking this egg can cause the embryo to detach from the wall and die.
   • Take a food container, pour in about 5 cm of filler (for example, Perlite) and make indentations with your finger in the places where you will place the eggs.
   • Place them carefully in the notches and mark the top of the eggs with a pencil to avoid confusing sides. This way, if you accidentally move the eggs, you can return them to the opposite position so that the embryos do not die.
   • If in the end you want to get girls - raise the incubation temperature to 26.5-29.5 degrees, if boys - to 32-35 degrees. If you prefer both those and those - set the average value!
3. 3 Examine the developing embryos. After a few weeks, you will be able to "light up" the eggs with a flashlight. Without touching the eggs, transfer them to a dark room and bring the light as close to the shell as possible. You should see a pink body with red blood vessels inside. Over time, you will be able to more and more clearly distinguish the outline of the baby inside the egg.
4. 4 After about 60 days, depending on the incubation temperature, the lizards should be born.

Part 4 of 4: Caring for the offspring

1. 1 Set up space for the cubs. Prepare an individual small terrarium for each before hatching. You can also take a 40 liter container and divide it with plastic walls so that each cub has its own corner. Each terrarium or compartment should be equipped with a small drinking bowl.
2. 2 Don't forget to prepare your little crickets in advance. Babies start feeding on insects 1-2 days after hatching.
3. 3 And most importantly, before you decide to breed leopard geckos, be sure to make sure you have enough terrariums and room for all the offspring. One female lays 12 to 20 pairs of eggs, which is 24 to 40 cubs!

What do you need

• Terrarium for geckos (75 liters for a pair, plus 35 liters for each additional female)
• Container for laying eggs. A food container filled with raw moss for the female to lay her eggs in
• Incubator filler (Perlite is most commonly used)
• Crickets rubbed with calcium for good egg shell formation
• Equipped place for each calf
• Very small baby crickets