Leo breeding

[lizardlove]

In a year or so I want to get another leo. I really found out that I love them and am interested in having another one to love. Of course I'm interested in breeding, so the question is do I get a female or a male for my Sappho. I've been deeply involved in the raising and training of dogs for many years and in the dog community, amateur breeding for pleasure is absolutely taboo. Is that the same in the gecko world? If not, what are some good ways to find homes for hatchlings? I would give them away, instead of sell them. I'm interested in this information because I'm beginning to find out that I really love leos and I want to deeply consider breeding before I actually do it - if I'm going to produce hatchlings, I want to make sure I'm capable of providing every one a wonderful home, and I'm sure one or two will stay with me. Thanks in advance!

 

[THE WHISPERER]

Of course I'm interested in breeding, so the question is do I get a female or a male for my Sappho.

What sex is your Sappho?

 

[lizardlove]

She's a little girl, still far too young for breeding but I wouldn't take on a project like that for at least a year, probably two because I'd get a juvenile male. This'll give me time to research breeding healthy hatchlings. I'm assuming she's female - incubation temperatures were low, and I don't see any pores or sign of pores.

 

[acpart]

On the one hand, there's some concern about the glut of leos on the market. On the other, many of us breed, enjoy it and are encouraged by others. The main concern is that people who don't know much about geckos jump into breeding without knowing what they're doing and then get into trouble. You sound as if you will not be that kind of person. I have bred anywhere from 2-7 females during the past 4 years and have had a maximum of 39 surviving hatchlings in a season, so you will not necessarily get huge numbers. If you talk about your geckos to everyone you meet, you'll network and probably find homes for some of them. I just got back from a trip outside the country and had a friend take care of my geckos. I had 2 special needs newborn geckos (from eggs incubated for an acquaintance). They both have eye problems, one mildly and one to the point where I think she's blind. I decided to bring them with a set-up to the friend so she could care for them daily. She's ended up deciding she will keep them, which is great for me.

Aliza

 

[lizardlove]

That's great! Yeah, that's one thing that's always concerned me. I've been taking care of animals from sick kittens to horses for a long time, and will never involve myself with an animal, particularly a breeding or medical situation, without reading up on how to provide the best possible care for the creature. I certainly would be interested in it, but I wouldn't even put a male and female in the same viv unless I already had a comfortable setup for hatchlings. I do love the little guys, and I wanted to make sure that breeding was acceptable in the reptile community and that it was possible to find homes for them before I even considered it. It seems that a lot of people who love the animals breed them, so I'll read books and find out what I can. Either way, I definitely want another leo next year. Out of curiosity, do you have to breed two geckos of the same morph or can they be different? Or can they be different, but the morphs have to be similar? How does that work?

 

[acpart]

Leo morphs are like different breeds or colors of cats and dogs. They are the same species and breeding different morphs (or breeds) together yield interesting variation. The only inter-morph breeding people try to stay away from is breeding different types of albino (i.e. Tremper, Bell, rainwater) together because it gets very hard to figure out what kind the resulting hets are producing. Informed morph breeding requires a knowledge of line breeding, dominant, recessive, co-dominant. Much info can be found by looking at the leopard gecko wiki and reading the morph section of the forum.

Aliza

 

[lizardlove]

Ah, okay. Sappho is a bold stripe, and I was really interested in getting a Mack Snow, which is really very different, so I was interested in whether or not this was okay. Worst case scenario, she'd have really ugly babies, but I think it's be interesting. If not a mack snow I was also considering a tangerine, which I think bred with a bold stripe would look REALLY cool. If I decided to try it it would be purely because I love my leos and would like to keep some of their babies and find good homes for the rest. So they'd be mutts, and probably a bit odd-looking. But odd-looking is just another word for unique, so I'm sure they'd be fabulous.