My two leopard geckos won't breed

[Ivan]

I am breeding my two leopard geckos. If they are housed together from a young age, will they breed? I am asking this question because they were together from 1 month of age until 1 year and they don't even notice each other.

 

[Josh]

If they are siblings it's not a good idea to breed them together. And yes you will probably get a stronger breeding response if they are housed separately.

 

[Ivan]

Thank you . Is there a reason why I must not breed them together if they are siblings? My terrarium is DIY and the length is 1 meter, when I separate them I just want to divide the terrarium in half. Is it bad if they still smell each other and will it make a difference?

 

[Josh]

Smell won't be an issue. Genetic problems can arise from breeding siblings together. It's called inbreeding.

 

[acpart]

One generation of breeding leopard gecko siblings together , or parent to offspring is OK; it's done all the time in the hobby. When I was breeding I kept my males with his females for the entire breeding season, usually from Jan.-Oct. There was a lot of breeding activity from about Jan-June and then they stopped, which was fine for me. If your geckos are under 60 grams, it's not a great idea and if they just turned a year old, they may be too young. They may also have bred and you just didn't see them. One of my males never bred "in public" but I always got offspring.

Aliza

 

[Ivan]

Ok thank you, I got the two at a pet shop and I'm not sure if they are siblings or not. What is your opinions if I should breed them or not? (when they are older)

 

[Ivan]

I am thinking of breeding them (when they are older) together. When they hatch I want to keep one or two females and go on breeding the three females with the single male. This I would like to do for several years. Any problems of doing so?

 

[Ivan]

Sorry for my many questions. What is the probability of any two leopard geckos mating? Like 100% or less? Is there cases that leopard geckos just don't want to mate in their lifetime?

 

[acpart]

I think nearly all leopard geckos will mate if you put a male and a female together. Even if they mate, though, sometimes some or all of the eggs are infertile either because of the male or the female (this happens with people too).
Here are the important things you need to think about before breeding:
--do you know enough about leopard gecko genetics (do you know what is meant by dominant, recessive, co-dominant, line bred, heterozygous, homozygous)?
--do you know the visible and non-visible (recessive) genes of the geckos you're breeding? If not, the geckos won't be hurt by breeding but the gecko hobby will be hurt because you will be producing a bunch of geckos with no clear genetic background which other people may then breed and increase the number of "mutt" geckos in the world
--do you have enough time, money and space to get a decent incubator, house a lot of baby geckos (I've had females lay anywhere from 0-20 eggs and had anywhere from 0-20 of those eggs hatch in a single season), buy food and regularly feed baby geckos, take geckos to the vet if they're sick, cope with geckos that may hatch with defects?
--have you thought about what's going to happen if you decide to go away to college in a few years and you have all these geckos?

This doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, but it's likely that you have to do a lot of research and really think about where you're going to keep all these geckos. If I remember correctly, you're a teenager so as a parent I can tell you that your parents have to weigh in on this too.

Aliza

 

[Ivan]

Yes, I have done a lot of research about incubators and all these sort of things . We built our own terrarium with glass and we have extra for the leopard gecko babies . I am breeding my own mealworms (the cricket breeding didn't work out). I bought perlite a few days ago for the incubators. I'm just struggling with the leopard gecko genetics.

 

[acpart]

Here is some help with the genetics:
leopardgeckowiki.com
reptilecalculator.com

Fun with Hets: Leopard Geckos Teach Genetics 101 - Gecko Time

A successful reptile breeder, in addition to knowing the mechanics of breeding and caring for hatchlings, must also understand basic genetics in order to plan and execute reptile pairings. In addition, the only way to make a positive contribution to herpetoculture requires the ability to provide...

www.geckotime.com

Aliza

 

[Ivan]

Thanks