Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My female leo should be laying her eggs anytime soon. She has speny most of the night (the parts where i was up and watcing tv) digging around her tank. I have a hide in there that has peatmoss in it because she didn't even go nere it when i put the other stuff in that the vet said you could use. (i forget the name of it).
The real probem is that she keeps diging under her water bowl so i put a big flat rock under it and put suports under it so that it couldn't fall on her.

Is there any ideas what i could put in her tank that she would like to lay her eggs in? Oh and what should i put her eggs in to hach them i have been told so many different things i don't know what i realy should be using. Thanks!

Your gecko is looking for a suitable site to lay her eggs in. I have had many eggs laid near or even in the water dish. The females seem to like the moisture level there. Yours sounds like she is choosing that area near the water dish too.

There are many ways that people incubate the eggs and have success at it....this is what I have done and I have had success with it for many years now.

I put the eggs in a delicup (the one that is about 3" high) that is half filled with moist vermiculite. (The vermiculite is only moist enough that when you take some and squeeze it in your fist, only a drop or two of water comes out.) I put a couple of very small holes in the lid and place it back on the deli cup.

For incubating...I have a people's heating pad with a wooden frame of 2"x2" slats that it fits into the middle of. I put screen over the frame to rest the delicups on and set the heating pad on low. This should bring the temperature inside the delicup to about 80F. (The temperature needs to be about that temperature, but can go three or four degrees higher or a couple of degrees lower and still be okay. The height of the pad/frame can be adjusted until you get within that temperature range. Its a good idea to set the delicup up and check it before you need to put her eggs in it so that you have everything ready when the eggs are laid.)

BTW...I put this whole setup somewhere where there is no light....after all, they would be in the dark in the hole in the ground.

The temperature that you incubate the eggs at will determine the sex of the geckos.

She may lay more eggs in a month or so...so be prepared!

Im not trying to be mean or anything to the last post. I hate starting arguments but here I have to. As for incubating... The vermiculite is a way to go and the moisture level in the last post was good, perlite also works well. Now some wrong things they said in the last post are not good for incubation. DO NOT PUT HOLES IN THE CONTAINER. This will let most if not all the moisture out of the container and your eggs will dry up in a week or two. As for an incubator the heating pad would work but is not accurate. Spend the 40-50 dollars and buy a hovabator. Always monitor the temperature. The temperature of 80 degrees might be where you want it but it is not a set-in-stone temperature. Incubate at 82 degrees for mostly females... 87 degrees for a mix of males and females... and 90 degrees for mostly males. And yes they are right you will most-likely have more eggs in about 2 to 4 weeks.

Good Luck,
Chris

I have hatched leo eggs for well over 12 years now doing it the way I described....and have had no problems with it. My containers do not dry out with two SMALL holes in the lid. There is always moisture on the sides of the container.

You said..."As for an incubator the heating pad would work but is not accurate"...the (small)temperature fluctuations have never affected the eggs hatching....and I have hatched many chameleons, several species of geckos, water dragons, coneheads, turtles, and more using this method. I have had close to 100% hatch rate and a very good survival rate using my method. I'm not saying that a hovabator won't work well too....but I haven't changed because what I do works for me.

As I said..."There are many ways that people incubate the eggs and have success at it....this is what I have done and I have had success with it for many years now"...I still stand by what I said.

As for the temperature...
http://coloherp.org/cb-news/archive/careshts/leopgeck.php
"Female leopard geckos lay two to five clutches of eggs per year. A typical clutch consists of one or two soft-shelled eggs. Seufer (1991) noted that females will protect their eggs for a few hours after oviposition by jumping at, and attempting to bite, predators.

Leopard gecko eggs can be placed in a container with vermiculite mixed one-to-one by weight) with water. Damp foam rubber or damp paper towels also work well as an incubation medium. The container should have a couple of 1/8" diameter holes drilled at opposite ends to allow for air exchange while retaining proper humidity. The egg placement should be such as to prevent rolling. Eggs should be viewed periodically to insure proper moisture levels are being maintained. J. J. Bull (1980) published findings of temperature-dependent sex determination in the leopard gecko.

Herpetoculturists have been incubating leopard gecko eggs to produce desired sexes for years. The rule of thumb among commercial breeders is that eggs incubated at 80°F (26°C) result in female hatchlings. Male hatchlings will be produced at 90°F (32°C), and at 85°F (29°C) a percentage of both sexes will be realized. Female hatchlings produced from high incubation temperatures, termed "hot females," will be unusually aggressive and unsuitable for breeding (de Vosjoli, 1990). Incubation time ranges from 39 to 62 days with hatchlings measuring 83 to 90 mm in total length, and weighing an average 3.6 grams (Seufer, 1991)."

http://www.gekkota.com/html/eublepharis_macularius.html
"At 90 degrees F, virtually all the babies are male; near 80, most of the babies will be female."

http://animal-world.com/encyclo/reptiles/lizards_geckos/LeopardGecko.php
"For mostly females, incubate at 78° - 83° F. For a mix, incubate at 84° - 87° F, and for mostly males, incubate at 88° - 91 ° F". ...so at 80F the eggs would hatch with no problem.

Regarding fluctuating temperature...
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/resolve?id=doi:10.1086/499988
"fluctuating temperatures may enhance hatchling locomotor performance. This finding should not be surprising, given that the majority of natural reptile nests are relatively shallow and therefore experience daily fluctuations in incubation temperature."

If you didn't want to argue, then all you had to do is state what works for you and let the person make their own choice and not knock the method that I have used with success.

I have to say I'm sorry for posting a message the way I did. Your right I did not have to knock your methods at all. According to you they seem to work which I will gladly accept. As for the temperatures.... You are right, actually all the places you cited were just fine. This is actually what I stated only you have more sources so I guess you are somewhat agreeing with me on this subject. I say again I am sorry for bashing your ways of incubation I did not need to do this. I ahte argueing in posts and quite frankly there shouldn't be an argument here... but as you said I made one. As for the original post... There are many ways of incubation and many arguments, most of these incubation methods work just fine. Just experiment and find what you feel is best. Once again I had no right to start an argument on opinion that was wrong.

Sorry,
Chris

No problem Chris.

I have found many times that what works for one person may not work for another....so as you said..."Just experiment and find what you feel is best". That's what I do...and if it works, I usually don't change it!

OK, i have a new problem now, i have a little hide in her tank that i had half filled with damp peatmoss. She ended up diging in it and took out all the peatmoss. So the next day i got her a deeper box and filled it with more peat moss, she dug in it a little and now has it filled it compleatly up with sand.
Yes i know sand is not a good thing for them but she has been it sand since she was a baby and never had problem with it. I adopted her from a person who was going to kill her. With me i hate it when people get bored with an animal and want to kill it because they don't want it no more. So i took her only nowing a little about her, and i have grown fond of her.
Since i have had her i changed her tank to half sand half rock. So at night she now lays on top of the sand that she put in the hide.
Do you now of anyhting to do?

Oh and she hasn't had anyhting to eat in about 2 weeks.

Oh one more thing. Not saying some of your sources are wrong because they aren't but they need to be more updated. One of my females is on her 10th clutch of the year and another is on her 11th.