Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Step by step directions to breeding crested geckos

How to breed crested geckos.


Here I will show you step by step instructions on breeding crested geckos.

1. Buy a male and female crested gecko. The male should be at least 35 grams and the female should be around 45 grams to 60 grams, any heavier than that would make them overweight.

2. Make sure you have two enclosures, one a bit bigger than the other for a breeding tank.

3. Introduce the male to the female or vice versa depending on who lives in the larger enclosure. It would be best to introduce them in the spring so the temperature isn't too cold.

4. Keep them in the same enclosure for up to a week, in that time they will most likely breed. On some occasions they would immediately start to breed the first ten minutes they were together!

5. Make a lay box. A lay box is a container filled with a substance that the female crested gecko can dig in to lay her eggs. I make my lay box out of a tupperware container. It has to be big enough to allow her to dig. My substrate for the lay box is Eco earth, I find this easy and highly effective. Ex.



6. Separate the crested geckos and put the lay box in the females enclosure. After a few weeks check the egg box every other day. You will soon find eggs. It will usually be a clutch of two. She will lay a clutch almost every month.

7. Now that you have eggs it is time to incubate them. This does not require a fancy incubator. This is how I incubate my eggs:

How to make a cheap incubator for crested geckos.

1. Buy a plastic container with a lid.



2. Buy perlite. You can find this at the garden section of most stores.
                                                      


3. fill the container with perlite, then add water make sure the perlite is thoroughly moist. drain the excess water.




4. Add a thermometer and humidity gauge. Store at room temperature 72-76 f. IMPORTANT: the incubator should be at around 72-78 F and the humidity should be around 70-100 %.


5. Once your ready to transport the eggs from the egg box to the incubator carefully mark the side that was facing up in the egg box with a sharpie. Make sure that side is also facing up in the incubator. Bury the eggs half way into the perlite. it will take around 60-80 days for the eggs to hatch.


6. Your crested gecko will lay about a clutch of two eggs every month or so. after around 3 clutches, lower the temperature in your female crested's cage to around the high 60's (or wait until winter when the temperature change is natural). This will make her stop laying eggs for the season and ensure that she can restore all the calcium she lost from laying the eggs. Be sure to add extra calcium supplement to her food.

I hope this helped!!!

Written by: Alex van Alphen
I do not own any of these pictures

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