Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok so here's the deal... i bought 4 leos from petco just to start caring for them and get used to them so i could eventually get into breeding.. i wanted to get a feel for the species and so forth.. i had been into turtles before this but was looking for an easier project.. well i keep a consistant chart on weights... i have a male and a female in one tank and a male and a female in the other... so my top tank the male reached 39 grams... and the female 33g... just a few moments ago... i see that the vermic is scattered all over... i think what the hell is she up to! my buddy has leo's and they didn't start mating till they were a year old... my leos are about 7-8 months of age... well suprise suprise... two eggs in the box... i think oh well maybe she's just maturing faster you all know how kids are these days! well i candle the eggs.. and bam fertile eggs! i don't have an incubator yet i was not expecting this so soon.. so what i did was put the eggs in a container half full with vermic to the universal .8:1 ratio or whatever it was i found online and closed up the container... i put it back in the tank! needless to say i will be ordering an incubator tomorrow! anyways.. i was wondering if this is a plausable temporary solution? hopefully the eggs will stay!

any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! a faster way to reach me is by email jeffrey.cornelisse@salve.edu
thanks
Jeff Cornelisse

Yes that could be a temrorary solution. Somethings better then nothing. Good Luck.

If you must keep them together, keep the two females in one tank and get a third tank so you can keep the males individually. (Do not house males together, they will fight and injure/kill each other.) 30-40 gram geckos are too young to safely breed. Egg production takes a lot out of them, and most people don't recommend that females breed until they're at least 50 and preferably 60 grams.
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0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko - Tigger
0.1 Crested Gecko - Pooh-Bear

it sounds a little too late for that. lol. keep her well fed so she doesnt lose too much weight. make sure she has a lot of calcium too..
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1.1 Western Painted Turtle (Mougly, Scooter)
1.1 Albino Leopard Gecko (Daphne, Guy)
1.0 High Yellow Leopard Gecko (Sunshine)
1.1 HTCT Leopard Gecko (Rocket, Dot)
0.1 SHTCT Leopard Gecko (Tequila)

yeah they're all separated now... i didn't even think they'd be mature till about 40-50 grams... thanks for the help everyone. she has a calcium only dish in her enclosure i just gave her a few wax worms to get her back into gear and she's got mealies and a few crickets. i thought she was too small i just didnt know they would mature that fast! they're only like 7-8 months old!

thanks again

jeff

Well, just like human teenagers, they don't necessarily know any better, and the equipment functions before it should really be used.

Anyway, good that you've got them separated now at least. Just make sure she gets enough food and calcium. She's still trying to grow and build bones, but she's also trying to calcify eggs, so her body is in conflict, and in most animals, the reproductive imperative outweighs their own safety/well-being, so you're going to really need to make sure she's eating enough.
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0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko - Tigger
0.1 Crested Gecko - Pooh-Bear

so what i did was put the eggs in a container half full with vermic to the universal .8:1 ratio

My slip is showing. Forgive me but what is "the universal ratio of 8:1? Old school was 1:1 by weight. We moved that south to 2 or 3:1 vermiculite:water by weight. 8:1 is either VERY wet or VERY dry.

FWIW your eggs will be fine on the top of your fridge as long as they dont dry out.
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OK, not going to give you the speech because your heart already tells you what you should have done...

But if you have a closet or spot in the house where the temperature is a constant 80 - 87 deg or so, put them there. You could also place them in perlite, follow Albeys instructions for incubating eggs to the letter and see how he controls the humidity. Then cover tehm in a draft. free cloth keeping them in the 80s.

You could put a vented Glad container with perlite and bury it shallow in your yard, if your area keeps temperatures in the 80s even at night. Check it daily and make sure the lizards won't escape.

The thing is, if you already moved the eggs, you could have killed the mbryos.