What should I TS the eggs at for pets?

[cowana]

My little rescue girl should be laying her eggs any time now. She went off her food last week and I noticed she has started digging today.

I know the genetics of the babies... The mom is a High Yellow het Tremper and the dad is a HTCT... But I imagine most of the babies will be going to pet homes. I was wondering what everyone's opinions was on what to set the thermostat of the incubator to.... Would there be any benefit to temping them all male or all female? Or does it not really matter? Just curious as to what the rest of you think as I have some conflicting thoughts.

Amy

 

[Shrapnailed]

From all the research I have went through online in forums and in Ron Trempers book the sexing will happen in the first two weeks. However if you incubate at high temperatures then i believe you will get much more vibrant colors. Lower temperatures = darker morphs

 

[Neon Aurora]

Whatever you like, really. Females take longer to incubate than males. Higher temperatures might mean more colorful offspring, but I think there are people here who disagree. I don't really know because I haven't incubated any eggs successfully yet. =P

I'm only running one incubator for my first real season and I want males and females for next season, so I'm going for mixed.

 

[cowana]

I may hold back a couple of the babies. I don't have any pics of the dad but he had a nice orange tint and was close to being a SH. I think he had 3 spots. Sunny is a vibrant High Yellow Normal het Tremper bordering on Hypo.

Sunny:

I was planning on doing a mixed batch (I'd like to keep a male and female holdback), but then began thinking about whether or not there is a preferred sex for pet homes. Females can possibly be housed together which is an attractive quality to some pet homes. However, if accidentally or purposefully put with a male then they will breed and produce eggs. Which is a lot of stress for the female and possibly unwanted geckos. So are males better since they need to be housed alone as pets? Just some musings...

 

[Neon Aurora]

I think either gender can be equally as marketable. =) All of those concerns you have are the responsibilities of any gecko owner. Someone could still pair a male you give them to a different female and produce unwanted geckos, and a female you give them could still end up fighting her cage-mate. It's really just your call. Personally, the idea of a mix is appealing because it adds a surprise factor to the whole thing. Me and you are in the same boat; the only pair I have this season can only possibly have one outcome (Eclipses het for RW albino with some spotting and orange variation), so I only need one incubator. You also only have one outcome, so it's really your call.

 

[cowana]

Good points. I have my incubator set at 85F right now. I was going to go with a Little Giant as a starter incubator, but I bought one from a gentleman in the GeckoForums Classifieds that is a converted wine cooler with a Helix thermostat. He is getting out of geckos and back into ball pythons, and said he has had great success with it... he only lost a couple eggs in 10 years of breeding. I hope I do too! Everytime I temp gun it has been holding between 84.7F-85.4F

I will have Sunny's clutch any day now, and I am hoping to breed my Normal het Tremper (Cheech) and SHTCTB (Chima) to my HTCT (Chong) in the next couple months. Just wanting to mature them a bit more. Next year, I will get my new RAPTOR girl (Chula) a mate. [emoji4]

I love Eclipses! Im sure you will have some really nice little hatchlings! [emoji3] I love watching the metamorphosis of hatchlings into adulthood as their color develops. Im excited for all the pictures to come as the clutches are laid and babies are hatched! [emoji3]

 

[acpart]

I feel that it's safer to produce females so people can keep them in groups if desired. I produced mixed sexes in 2013 (mostly females) and had a really stressful time figuring out which were the males, so I'm back to all female.

Aliza

 

[cowana]

Thanks everyone for your input. I have decided to go for females! I have enough racks for 30 hatchling shoeboxes but in case I have a female that decides to lay 20+ eggs I want to be safe. I can always do males in a later clutch. I still have my Little Giant Incubator. I just haven't set it up. And can do a few males in there if I want to.