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| Crested GeckoEnclosure Selection Health Feeding BreedingThe Decision to Breed Selecting a Pair Mating Gestation Incubation Hatching Juveniles The Decision To Breed... The decision to breed crested 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 set of enlarged pores just before the vent which are not present in females. Just behind the vent, there will also be a large lump on males. These are the hemipenes, which are the male reproductive organs. Again, these are not present in females. Mating During mating the male will align his vent with the females and grab hold of the back of her neck with his front legs. He will then evert his hemipenes and his sperm travels down these into the female. Inducing mating is normally as easy as leaving a male and a female together during the warm months of the year. It may be necessary to reduce the temperatures by a couple of degrees for a short period (November - March) do initiate breeding but not always. 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, which can be moist soil or moss in a small container. 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. The female will bury her eggs on a moist area of substrate, and should lay two eggs approximately every three weeks. She may lay up to 7 or 8 clutches in a season, and 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. 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. 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 68F/20C or rise above 84F/29C 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 for the first three weeks will tend to be females, while eggs incubated near the upper limit for the first three weeks will tend to be male. Eggs incubated in the middle range will produce a mix of males and females, and after three weeks all eggs should be incubated at 77F (25C) 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 Crested Gecko Manual by Philippe de Vosjoli, the ideal water content for the medium is 5-8 parts medium to 10 parts water, measured by weight. Incubation can take between 60 and 140 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 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, fresh fruit and crested gecko diet. It is possible that they will eat just after hatching, but some may wait until after their first shed. Water must be available in a small dish, while misting the inside of the container twice daily 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. 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 containers, heated similarly to the adults enclosures. There should be simply decor, with the provision of at least some foliage for them to hide and feel secure.
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