Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a breeding group of 2.4.0 leopard geckos, I have a SHCTB male, two Snow Bell females, a High Yellow female, a Blizzard female, and and Albino Tempor male. I have been using the SHTCB male and Snow Bell females, and I have a total of eight eggs, and I don't think that any of them are fertile, what could I possibly be doing wrong?
Sincerely Papa G

It's hard to say. I've had a couple males over the years fire blanks & turn out to be complete duds. One thought that pops into my mind is the cage temp could be to high leaveing the male with a low or no sperm count. I've seen this in snakes as well. Another thought is if the male is young he might not be produceing sperm. Time will correct this situation. Also it's not to uncommon for the first couple clutches of eggs to be infertile. See how things work out in the next month. You might end up haveing to use a different male. Good luck.

Thank you for your help, but from what you have listed I think the temp might be the problem, because I bought the males and females knowing that they were proven breeders, and each is almost two years old (except for my High Yellow female, who is seven years old). What temp should the cage be for breeding?
sincerely Papa G

Have you candled them? If not I would candle them after about 2-3 weeks. Is the incubating temp to low or high? If they go below 76 degrees this can kill them, and if your temps are above 89 you gave a higher loss rate. If the incubating substrate is to wet or to dry this will cause eggs to go bad. There are many reasons the eggs may not develop or develop slow. Sometimes their first clutch or so may not develop because they get the mixture wrong and are infirtle. Depending on temps they might incubate anywhere from 35-100 days.

I personally use vermiculite as my incubating substrate, I'm not sure of the ratio but what I do is moisten it to the point that it will pack together without dripping water. I incubate at 80 degrees for females and at 87 if I'm trying to get a male. I incubate at these temps for 21 days then move them to finish incubating at 88 degrees so that they have better coloring. I candle them at 21 days. I check on the moisture once a week. Hope this helps

I have my vermiculite ration of 2:1 and I keep their temp in the incubator at 85 degrees, to get a mixed group, are the eggs supposed to run more whit before hatching, or more tan?
Sincerely Papa G

the eggs will be more white.

go just up above this forum to "Albeys too cool reptiles", and he has a step by step instruction section for incubating geckos. Ratios,substrate,temp.s etc. Can't go wrong.

thanks for everything! Papa G

ok, now I have a hunch that seven out of the eight eggs are infertile, so how long should I let the females rest before attempting to breed them again????
sincerely Papa G

They(females) are able to retain sperm for a couple months all the way through the entire breeding season. For this reason, many people only introduce males and females 1-2 times a year. THe problem is, the sperm retention period is highly variable and can last 3 months for one gecko from one specific breeding attempt while another female might retain that sperm for 8 months.

For the variable retention time, many production breeders introduce another (or same male)every 3 months or so to maximize their production and profits.

Just keep pounding food down your female's throat and offering her Ca powder and vitamins to make sure she is at a proper weight before she begins laying her next clutch..............which can happen in as few a 14 days.
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1.0.0 Lampropeltis getula holbrooki
0.1.0 Lampropeltis getula californae
0.0.1 Lampropeltis getula nigra
1.0.0 Lampropeltis mexicana thayeri
2.3.0 Eublapharis macularius macularius
0.0.2 Rhacodactylus ciliatus
0.1.0 Gerrhosaurus major major

ok, so I have seperated all the leopards just to give them a breather, and then two weeks from now I will introduce the males again, and do what you guys have instructed me to, ok?

sincerely Papa G

Ok, so now they have been seperated for a while, and I have no intensions of introducing them again right now, I am curious to whether it is a bad idea or not to change their diet to a few meal worms, and mostly crickets, to get their metabolism going and to make them more active in foraging for their food.

Sincerely Papa G

Sure, you can very there food. They will like a veriation in there diet, mine do.

I do have a few that are pickie, and will only eat crickets, and a few that are pickie and more or less prefer mealworms, and then those that like veried diets.

So go for it.