Breeding leos!

[jaybox_reptiles]

Hi hall i have just bought a male and two female leopard gekos and i am a little rusty on how to bread them considering it has been a few years i just forgot hoe many grams they need to be i no the females need to be atleast 40 but what about the male ?

[Alicewave]

I say 45 for each. THe male doesn't matter so much as the female. Better to have the female at 60 though I think.

[jaybox_reptiles]

well bolth my females are 47 and my male is like 30 and i was thinking for the male it really wouldent matter is that what you think ?

Jay
Box

[LISA127]

I agree. I know my best breeder female was at least 60 grams when she was bred. But I think 60 grams is always better. 45 grams is a pretty small leo, and most of my leos are very, very young when they are that small.

[jaybox_reptiles]

well these females are about one is a year and one is 2 years and the male is about a year but was misstreates about 8 months ago

[Colonel SB]

It is deffinatly better to wait unitl they are 60g better safe then sorry!

[jaybox_reptiles]

yea true i see what you mean but the only problam is my male and female will eat pinkys but one of my females wont and i have had her now for 2 months and no sine of getting bigger

[KelliH]

I usually wait until the females are at least 55 grams. Males can breed at 40 grams but I try and wait until they are bigger. Think of it this way: breeding causes stress for both males and females, and sometimes they will not eat as much during breeding season. The more weight they have they start breeding the better! Best of luck with yours!

[jaybox_reptiles]

thank you

[Tim and Julie B]

Why is everyone so obsessed by weight? You could easily have a 60 gram female that is in no way healthy enough to breed, yet you have another at 40 grams that is in prime condition. Using weight as a guideline for health is not enough. You also have to consider whether or not they are eating regularily, are digesting properly and have enough fat reserves to get them through the entire season. Take also into consideration whether or not it is their first year breeding or not. You also need to KNOW your geckos, their habits and needs. If you have a leo whonormally eats every day and is healthy, then why not breed it, regardless of size/weight? It just makes no sense to me to base their health on their weight, and health is determined by many things:D

Julie B.


Also, if your geckos aren't gaining weight try to use a more rounded gut-load for your feeders. That is usually a good place to start.

[jaybox_reptiles]

ok kool thx i just wheid my male and he has gaind 2 grams in a month

[KelliH]

Well.. considering all of my female geckos eat regularly, digest properly and have fat reserves by the time they reach 55 grams then that seems like a good weight to consider as a standard for ME. I am not obsessed by their weight at all though, as I do have a couple of females in my collection that will never see 55 grams, they got to around 50 grams and just aren't going to get bigger, LOL they are just small geckos. I do have some experience in breeding 40 gram females (and I mean, FAT 40 gram females) and those smaller females produce less clutches, have a much higher chance at becoming eggbound, and I would think (I'm guessing here) that it could stunt their growth to some extent, meaning that they may never reach their full growth potential if bred too early. I dunno these days it just seems to me that it is better to wait for that 55 gram mark because by the time they get there they are nice and plump. Nowadays if my females start ovulating and they weigh less than 55 grams then they are not bred that season, I can be patient and wait till the next season (hard to do but I have learned LOL).

Anyway sorry for the rambling and most likely incoherant post, I have been up all night long with my 2 year old son, who I am trying desperately to get back on to a regular sleeping schedule. Now THAT I am obsessed with LOL.

[Rich]

Hello,
The main reasoning to wait for a gecko to be a certain weight is in respect to its health. Plump geckos will have plump tails which is their reserve for fat. If you have a gecko weighing in at 60 grams, the odds are that it is healthy. A sign of illness with geckos is the lack of eating and the loss of weight.
The larger the gecko, the larger the fat reserve. Size is also contributed to egg binding in smaller geckos that have been bred. If the gecko isn't large enough, there can be complications. Wait until the gecko is at least 55 grams before they are bred. It will benefit the gecko far more than you would think.

[Alicewave]

Weight is also important because every time she lays a clutch she loses about 10 grams. She needs to weigh enough to still be considered healthy after laying. I agree with T and J that eating habits are also very important so they can replace those 10 grams before the next clutch. But usually if a Leo is 60 grams, unless it's a tremper giant, it's pretty healthy.

[KelliH]

"But usually if a Leo is 60 grams, unless it's a tremper giant, it's pretty healthy."

For some reason that made me laugh, not sure why but thansk anyway! :-) :-) :-)