Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What's everyone's opinion? I personally have never brumated my leos, but I'm considerng doing so this year. For all you bigger breeders out there, how do you do it? Just stop feeding, slowly reduce temp to 65ish for a couple of weeks, and gradually warm back up and feed? Do you brumate sub adults as well just for the ease of doing everyone at once? Does it really make them breed more readily? If I were to do brumate mine now 'til mid-December and then warm back up and let them begin feeding, can they be placed together for breeding immediately? Thanks for any answers!

There is really no need to brumate leopard geckos. They will readily breed without it. I do know that in colubrids brumation alot of times makes for stronger clutches, but have not heard that it helps in leopard geckos. Hope this helps.

I am a firm believer in brumation. I moved last Oct. and didn't really get a chance to put them down as I did the year previously. Turns out, I hatched out 1/4 of the amount of hatchlings as I did the previous year, with TWICE as many females. I'm sure the move had a little to do with this, but you can bet my leo's are already down for the year, as well as the fat tails. It's actually about an 8 week process. You can't feed them for two weeks prior to putting them down to clear out their digestive tracts. Gradually drop the temps down to 75 degrees during the day, with a night time drop to 65 degrees for about 6 weeks. I got over 100 eggs last year from my leo's alone, and honestly hatched 17 of them. It was the worst year I have ever had. I would DEFINATELY recommend putting them down!
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MIKE
4.14 Leopards (SHTCT, and Jungle Albino Trempers)
2.13 Fat Tails (Amels, Hets, and Normals)
1.1 Teratolepis Fasciata
1.3 Crested geckos
0.0.3 Dendrobates Tinctorius (Pallids)
1.0 Diamond Back Terrapin
14 Snakes (Tri colored hogs, subocs, alterna, rosy boas, and black milks)

I have never cooled mine down, ever, and have a better than 98% hatch rate every year. I think maybe you should look for another reason for your poor hatch rate. I also moved this year and it didn't affect my hatch rate at all. I personally hate when I hear about poor hatch rates, and wish I had an answer for why it happens. I had a customer that had terrible luck with this his first breeding season. I couldn't explain it and it was very frustrating to see him flounder. His set up was nearly identical to mine, but on a smaller scale, and he followed my instructions to a tee. I just didn't know what else to say to him to help, hopefully next year is better for him.....
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Sam
Gecko Den
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well, i didnt put my geckos down before breeding last yr and only 1 of the 8 eggs i got hatched.
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1.1.1 High Yellow Leos_ 0.1 Albino Leo_ 2.4 Hamsters_ 1.1 Budgies

I get awesome production out of my adults every year and I do not brumate them at all. I used to give them a brief (2-3 week) cooling period where I turned off the heat tape and kept them at room temperature but all it really did was give me a month of not having to feed them. My production was no better or worse either way.
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Peace-
Kelli Hammack
H.I.S.S.
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I've never done it, but can't see where it would help. As long as your female is healthy and has a lot of fat reserves, she should produce fine. For people who have had trouble in the past, I doubt it was from not cooling them down. There were probably nutritional/health issues, or environmental issues that caused it. I've always had good lay/hatch rates without it.
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Rob Jenkins
Have you seen the GeckoCam?
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