LEOPARD GECKO

Scientific Name: Eublepharis Macularius

Life: over 20 years, have been known to live up to 30.

Size: Adults:7 to 10 inches, Hatchlings: 3 to 31/2 inches

Weight: Adults: 45 to 110 grams. Females can be less weight than males.

Sexual Maturity: 10months to 11/2 years

Productivity: up to 10 years

Breeding Season: Jan to Sep (you can make them breed all year round)

Clutches per year: up to 8

Eggs per clutch: 1-2

Enclosures: Best to use glass tanks with screen lid. 1 to 2 leos can go in a 10 gallon tank just don’t put 2 males in. 4 can go in a 20 gallon long tank. NEVER put 2 males in a tank. NEVER use heat rocks.

Substrates and floor materials: You may use sand but I would tell you its not a good thing to use. If you use sand I would say T-Rex brand is best I would not use any other type of sand. Sand can cause impaction. You may use Paper towels or newspaper. It's best to use Reptile Carpet insted of sand. If your leo gets Impaction please take it to a vet.

Shelters: You will need a humidity hide box. This is a box that is filled with moss or soil you mist it every day to keep the humidity up. The tank will all so need some other hides. Like a log or a rock that they can get under (not heat rock). You will need to put at least 3 hides in the tank. One on each end plus if you count the humidity hide box that will make 3.

Light: Have a heat lamp on the tank. Never let the heat go over 94F in the day and never let it go under 77F and night. Use UV bulbs its the best for them. You don’t half to have a night bulb but some people use them. Some people use a UTH (under tank heater). If your thinking of breeding you will need to have 12 hours day light and 12 hours night light for them.

Feeding: They will eat crickets, mealworms, wax worms, super worms, pinkies, and silk worms. I would never feed them any thing bigger than there mouth plus don’t over feed them. If crickets feed 5-7 every 1-2 days OR if you feed any of the mealworms feed like 9 every 1-2 days. For superworms feed 5. For the wax worms only feed 2-4 every week or two. Or you can feed 1-2 pinkies every so often just don’t feed pinkies and none of the others. ONLY full grown leos should have a pinkie. If you mix feed than just feed 3 crickets plus 1-2 of the worms every 1 to 2 days. Dust the food before feeding to give the leo calcium. Crickets contain the highest calcium values, while maintaining the lowest fat and calories from fat than the others. All ways have a bowl of water in the tank.

Sexing: Adult Males have a V-shaped row of enlarged per-anal pores and hemi penal bulges. The Female does not have the bulges and she may have a V-shape but its not enlarged per-anal pores and you cant really see them on the female at all. You can sex Juveniles around 4 months of age.

Breeding: Leos are one of the most easily reproduced gecko species, and usually mate without any extensive pre-breeding conditioning. Before considering breeding your leos, thought should be given to your ability to provide the proper conditions and requirements for the eggs and baby geckos. You will need an incubation system for the eggs, extra housing and food, and a source for your surplus animals, unless you plan on keeping and caring for all the juveniles.  The fist consideration to successfully breed leos is to have sexually mature pair, in good health and of acceptable body weight. Most females reach sexual maturity between 10 months to 11/2 years of age, and are usually between 40 and 60 grams in weight. Many breeders will not even consider a female for breeding until she has reached a weight of 60 grams. Females should be offered calcium supplemented food items, and vitamin/mineral mix ad libitum in a small dish several months prior to breeding, to help build up their calcium reserves for egg production. Males should be in top condition and minimum of 10 months of age.

Breeding Methods: There are two accepted practices for breeding leos; selective individual breeding and harem or colony breeding. Individual breeding allows breeders to selectively breed for color and pattern morphs, and accurately determines parentage. Females are introduced to the male for breeding, than returned to their own enclosures for production. Since females can retain sperm for an entire breeding season, father introductions to the male are usually unnecessary. Keeping females in production separately also reduces stress and allow you to monitor food intake. For economic reasons, many commercial breeders prefer to use a colony breeding method. Colony breeding is where lots females are kept in a enclosure with a single male. One male can service up to 20 or more females. The females need to be checked carefully for nay signs of fighting or excessive dominance over smaller females. These smaller females should be removed and kept in tanks by there self’s. Egg production will rapidly deplete calcium reserves, so supplementation should be continued throughout the production season. Females rapidly losing weight or under excessive stress should be taken out of production until lost weight is regained, and are feeding normally without any signs of stress.

Gravid Females: Females usually deposit their fist clutch anywhere form 15days to a month and a half after a successful breeding. The abdomen of gravid females will bulge slightly from the developing eggs. The shelled eggs will usually become visible through the distended abdomen as she grows near egg deposition time. Egg laying chambers should be checked regularly for eggs, and freshly laid eggs removed for incubation.

Getting ready for eggs: Before leos lay there eggs make sure the Incubators are ready. You will need containers to place the eggs in for incubator And a thermometer for monitoring incubation temperatures. The best Incubator to use would be the Hovabator.

Eggs: Fertile eggs should be placed in a suitable container such as a deli cup or plastic container with a moist medium for incubation. The most commonly used medium is vermiculite. The vermiculite should be moist. Eggs should be placed in the containers on their sides and half buried in the medium, and the container placed in to the incubator (don’t rotate the eggs). Mark containers with dates they were laid. To keep humidity levels high within the incubator, a container of fresh water can be placed inside the incubator. Fertile eggs will remain light colored and feel somewhat leathery to the touch and feel like a old marshmallow. Infertile eggs will feel like a hot water balloon. As incubation period progresses the eggs will appear pinkish as blood vessels start to form. Towards the end of the incubation the eggs will appear larger and darken somewhat as the baby grows.

Temp: Leos are temp sexed. The temps can go form 79F to 90F. If you want females set the temp to 79F-83F. If you want males set temp at 87-89F. If you want mix set temp at 84F-86F. 90F some times gives Hot Females which will not breed. The high end of the temp scale will hatch in as little as 35 days while eggs incubated at lower temps can take up to 100 days.

Humidity: Make sure the humidity is between 70%-88% in the incubator. Don't let the humidity get to low or get to high. If the humidity gets to high the eggs can become water logged or mold. If the humidity is to low they will fall in or harden up and die.

Raising baby leos: Baby leos are delicate when fist hatched. They should be housed individually and have paper towel in the tank NOT sand. They should eat after there first shed and fed pin head crickets, or baby food, or fruit flies.