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| African Fat-Tailed GeckoEnclosure Selection Health Feeding BreedingThe Decision to Breed Selecting a Pair Mating Gestation Incubation Hatching Juveniles Please note: You may notice that this care sheet is very similar to the Leopard Gecko Care Sheet. This is because the two animals require almost identical husbandry. However, there are some vital differences, so be sure to read carefully and don't assume it will all be the same. The Decision To Breed... The decision to breed fat-tailed geckos is not one which should be made lightly. The pair, eggs, and hatchlings need extensive care and attention to ensure good health and ultimate success. Gravid females need to be well cared for, eggs will need an appropriate incubator and all hatchlings will need separate enclosures. The long term costs are great and there is little money to be made in re-selling them. Unless you are considering full scale commercial breeding you are almost certainly going to lose money. Breeding geckos is more about the love of reptiles than the money. Things to consider before you start: - Do you have the money to offer proper care to the hatchlings? - Can you commit time to feeding and looking after multiple reptiles? - Do you have the necessary experience to deal with anything that might happen? - What are you going to do with the babies? If you’re still willing to give it a go, let’s get started! Selecting a Pair Of all the things you need to breed successfully the most obvious is a male and female pair. Sexing the animals is relatively easy. Males will have a v shaped set of enlarged pores just before the vent which are not present in females. Just behind the vent, there will also be two prominent bumps on males. These are the hemipenes, which are the male reproductive organs. Again, these are not present in females. Mating Breeding is harder in African Fat-Tails than in Leopard Geckos. There is a higher risk of infertile eggs, and prebreeding conditioning is often needed. To do this,gradually cool the cage to about 70F at the beginning of October. Stop misting and stop providing food, however still leave fresh water in the enclosure. Two months after this process begins, return to the usual routine. Offer food as normal and give a dusted pinky mouse to females once a week. Three weeks later you can introduce the female to the male for one day, once a week, for three weeks. During mating the male will align his vent with the females and grab hold of the back of her neck with his teeth. He will then evert his hemipenes and his sperm travels down these into the female. I believe it is possible for a female to store sperm, so one or two matings will allow fertile eggs to be produced for the whole season. Stored sperm will fertilise eggs for up to about a year. Gestation Following mating females will begin to produce eggs. You will begin to see them forming within her as two large white patches on her abdomen. These will gradually grow in size until the eggs are ready to be laid. Usually you can tell if laying is imminent as the female will become restless, wandering around the enclosure and digging in the substrate. At this stage provide a suitable lay box, as detailed in the Project section under "More Info". She may also stop eating, or eat substantially less. Failure to provide an appropriate laying site can result in egg binding, which can prove fatal if not corrected. Check carefully for any signs that laying has taken place, such as disturbed substrate. Eggs should immediately but gently be removed to a suitable incubator, being careful not to rotate them. The developing embryo will have attached itself to the inside of the egg at the top, and inverting the egg at this stage will result in the fluid within the egg drowning the embryo. Fertile eggs will have a very faint pinkish hue after a few days, and "candling" the egg with a bright narrow beam will accentuate this. Candling should work after 4 days, its ok to move them about to candle them quickly, but try to limit it. As long as you put them back with the marks at the top they'll be fine. I turned mine over about once a week to check the bottom wasn't collapsing (they seemed to collapse up from the bottom for some reason) and make sure there was no mould. I even dropped one about 6" back into the tub and it still hatched with no problems. You should be able to see a ring of pink on the top surface of the egg. Use a water based marker to mark the top of the egg so that if they become dislodged you can correct them, hopefully before any damage is done. Further indications that an egg is fertile will include a chalky white appearance developing across the surface of the egg along with hardening of the shell, while infertile eggs will remain soft and start to collapse on themselves. Incubation It is possible to incubate for sex, which essentially means you can play gecko god and choose what sex you want hatchlings to be. Temperatures should not drop below 75F/24C or rise above 95F/35C at any time, and the only real way to achieve this is to construct an incubator. These can be simple home made affairs, such as the one described here or here or you can purchase one made for chicken eggs such as the Hovabator. Eggs incubated near the lower limit will tend to be females, while eggs incubated near the upper limit will tend to be male. Eggs incubated in the middle range will produce a mix of males and females. Humidity plays an important part in the incubation process. Too low a humidity will result in the eggs drying out, while too high a humidity can induce mould. Use a reliable humidity gauge, preferably digital. The ideal range would be somewhere between 60% and 80%. Incubating eggs in a suitable container such as a margarine tub, with small holes punched in the top or sides. An incubating medium should be used which holds water and prevents the eggs drying out, as the growing embryo in the egg will draw water from the surrounding air as it develops. The most popular medium seems to be Vermiculite which is commonly sold in garden centres. According to the Leopard Gecko Manual by Philippe de Vosjoli, the ideal water content for the medium is 6 parts medium to 4 parts water, measured by weight. Incubation can take between 40 and 70 days, depending on the temperature. Naturally, the lower the temperature then the longer they will take to hatch. Eggs must be monitored carefully for drying out, mould, caving in and, nearer the end of the incubation period, hatchlings. If they start to collapse slightly now then you just need to moisten the medium a touch and put a damp paper towel over them for a few days and they should pop back out again. Hatching Immediately prior to hatching, the eggs will become indented and the geckos will pierce the shell themselves. Resist the temptation to help a gecko which appears to be struggling, it may take them some time to work their way out and they may well stop for a rest. Opening eggs when they are not ready will kill a hatchling. As the geckos emerge remove them to suitable enclosures and ensure that they haven’t damaged or moved any of the other eggs in the container. This is where the marks you made earlier come into their own! If any eggs have been dislodged, correct them immediately. Juveniles The juveniles will most likely not eat until after their first shed, which will occur after a few days. They should preferably each have their own enclosure, but if this is not an option it is acceptable to keep two or more in groups of similar size. They should be fed a highly supplemented diet of pinhead crickets. Water must be available in a small dish, while misting the inside of the container occasionally will improve shedding. They will be extremely scared and skittish for the first few weeks, but they will gradually become more docile as they get older. When you first approach them to move them out of the incubator into the rearing container, they will most likely lunge at you and screech or hiss. This will probably scare the living daylights out of you, and still makes me nervous! If they do manage to make contact with you, it wont hurt in the slightest as they are too small to bite but it will still give you a fright. As they get used to you being around for feeding and cleaning they will settle down. After a few weeks you can start to get them used to you and handling, in the same way as described at the bottom of the selection page. Enclosures should be minimal, with paper towel as the only option for substrate. Use small plastic containers, heated at one end with a heat strip fitted with a thermostat to maintain approximately 85F at one end, falling to about 70-75F at the other. Two juveniles can be housed in a 13"x9" container for the first week or so, but as they get older males will need to be separated. Line the bottom of the enclosure with a few sheets of paper towel. 
Next, cut a small hole in the side of a waxworm tub, as shown. If you do not have any waxworm tubs, thoroughly cleaned meat trays, plastic flowerpot bases or small diameter pipe cut in half lengthways will also work. Place some damp paper towel in one of the hides to provide humidity.   Place a few of these around the enclosure at different temperature spots to allow thermoregulation. Adding a small bottle top filled with water will allow the geckos to drink. Now place the enclosure on a heat strip so that approximately 25% of the floor area is heated and set the thermostat to about 85F. Check temperatures regularly with a regular digital thermometer and make adjustments as necessary. Add a small dish filled with pure calcium powder and introduce the hatchlings into their new home! The small containers will last a few weeks, but you will need to gradually increase enclosure size as they grow. Once they are adults, refer to the guide here for sizes. 
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