I'm a daddy, leopard geckos just hatched!! (DUW!!)

O.k., I'm not the daddy, my little Leopard gecko is. I woke up this morning to find this running around the incubation container...





Another shot after we got him moved...



A few hours later I went back in to look, and #2 had just decided to pip and stick his nose out...





I wanted to film him coming out, and had the container next to me for two hours. I got up to go to the bathroom and he popped out



So those are the first babies of the year here. Actually The only thing I am breeding this year are Leopard geckos, but there are 12 more eggs cooking now, and probably between 2 - 6 more on the way in the next 4-8 weeks.

Here is a picture of the momma when she layed, I caught right as she was finishing. She is covered in coconut fiber and water from digging around.



And a few better pictures of the proud momma...





And one of daddy...



They are cute feisty little things Thanks for looking!

Dave

Congratulation!
OMG, cute little Leopard geckos! They look too big for those eggs lol. Almost look like they have started to grow the moment they hatched. They have entirely different color and pattern compare to their parents. Why is the mom Leopard geckos red in one of the photos while yellowish in the other?

How long did it take for the eggs to hatch?

12 eggs? Leopard geckos can lay that many eggs? Wow. What are you going to do with all the Jr. ?

The mothers different in the two pictures of the female are about two months time, a flash in the first if I remember correctly, and she was wet, had been digging, and just laid eggs. She is a midnight blizzard, kind of purply, sometimes it looks redder, sometimes bluer, and in the right light the spots have a yellow glow.

I have two females, they lay two eggs per clutch, and lay 4-6 clutches per year on average. This first clutch took 46 days to hatch. So they are all staggered out, the 12 I have now were layed between mar 18th and this last tuesday.

Is there some kind of special care needed for the Leopard gecko eggs?

Took 46 days to hatch is quite longer than I would expect.

How do you prepare to take care of the increasing number of little kids you just got?

It's similar to incubating most reptile eggs, you need humidity, without them getting wet, and heat. Leo eggs are pretty forgiving. You can incubate them anywhere from 80-90 degrees F. Higher temps and you are more likely to get males, and hatch in closer to 32-37 days, lower temps and you are more likely to get females, and hatch in 52-60 days. I don't have an actual incubator set up at the moment, I put the cups with the moist substrate in tubs in my rack, around 85 degrees.

You do have to plan for babies. I have them in large ziplock/tupperware type food storage containers, 10" x 6", with water dishes & calicium dishes anda little hide made out of a small styrofoam sauce cup. Once they have their first shed they will be offered mealworms, I'm going to try these guys on phoenix worms once they start eating, they are higher in calcium, lower in phosphorus and fat, so that should be some good variation. I also might give butterworms a try, if I can get some smaller ones.

This is something completely new to me. Different temperature can result in different sex for the hatchlings. Do you know the science behind it?
What do you use to keep the temperature at that high for your Leopard geckos' eggs? If you are getting eggs so frequently, are you able to sell some of the offspring to the pet stores or directly to other reptile owners?

Good to have you here. We learn something new every day.

Well, I have two stores on the line for a few, I also have some local people who want some, so that isn't really a problem. Leopard geckos are very popular. To anyone thinking of breeding anything though, you need to be prepared to deal with the young for a while if miscarry. Because you never know, and it does become your responsibility. I won't get on my soapbox

The first I ever heard of sex in reptiles being temperature determined was american alligator eggs back when they were listed as threatened & endangered. I don't know the exact science, if I remember correctly it has something to do with the fact that physically all animals start off as female, and the increased temps encourage the male development more. Someone may have better info on that. It is actually similar with all reptile eggs, though not always as simple. With Leos, if you incubate at 88-89 you are all but guaranteed males, 81-82 you are all but guaranteed females. Other species it is not as exact, just increases the odds, and some are trickier to hatch successfully, and the animals may be worth quite a bit more money, especially for a professional breeder, so they shoot for the "safest" temperature. This is generally more common with lizards, but there is an effect on snakes as well. It does vary quite a bit though.

I have a large homemade rack, heated with flexwatt heat tape and a thermostat, I use to keep a number of animals in. I used a tub in that with the eggs in individual containers with the moist substrate for humidity. I can't keep exact temps, and have to take the temperatures of the animals into account, which is really more important. But the leo eggs are quite easy and forgiving so it works. I know people that just put the eggs in small containers with moist substrate, and put them on a top shelf of a warm closet.

soo cute! i cant wait to get mine!

Such great photos, as usual! I'm loving your posts, now that I've been discovering them. Though I don't have experience with reptiles, I find them fascinating and your posts are always so informative. Anyway, congrats on your expanding "family." :-)

I found it funny about the different temps and hatch times for determining the sexes. I can't help my mischievous brain and just have to lay this theory out there: It takes longer to develop the supreme sex (female) and we can't have temps too high as to risk cooking our superior brains like the unfortunate males do! LOLOLOL! Okay, okay, it's just a joke! ;-)

(You'll have to excuse me since I grew up in a family where females are treated very poorly! I like to get my digs in where I can now! *big grin*)

In all seriousness, the temperature based sexing, I think, and this is purely speculation, is that it takes more heat, or "cooking", to produce a male normally. There is an old biological theory that in most species, all animals are inherently female, and in more basic classes & orders, that concept would be more prominent. Just a thought, I have no evidence to confirm it, just makes sense to me.

And I've had quite a few more hatch out since. The last two hatched on the 10th. Looking at two more to hatch in the next week.

Beautiful babies! Just only two at a time? Does that mean leopard geckos are very expensive since they breed at such a low rate? If I remember rightly, crocodiles have a lot more eggs than that at one time. So what's the going price for a leopard gecko?

(06-21-2012 01:10 PM)Fishbone Wrote:  In all seriousness, the temperature based sexing, I think, and this is purely speculation, is that it takes more heat, or "cooking", to produce a male normally. There is an old biological theory that in most species, all animals are inherently female, and in more basic classes & orders, that concept would be more prominent. Just a thought, I have no evidence to confirm it, just makes sense to me.

And I've had quite a few more hatch out since. The last two hatched on the 10th. Looking at two more to hatch in the next week.

Ohhh poo - no, I like my theory better! Hey, how about this one: The higher cooking temp destroys the advanced female's brain, turning it into the inferior male & he's then shoved out earlier than the female, who still needs more time developing all her far more complex awesomeness?! Yeah, that's the ticket! Makes perfect sense to me!!!


Very cool news about your expanding gecko family! Congrats!

Well, you might be right...

And thank you, they are very cute

To add to the temp discussion, it also affects the coloring of the geckos.
This little one was kept at a cooler temp while incubating and is a lot darker then the others:


This one was kept warmer and is a lot brighter:


I do like laurasav's theory tho!!

---

Two more additions to our ever growing gecko family, hatched today 6/24/12

Oh my gosh - they are so cute!!! It's weird to actually see what a big difference the change in temps made in the coloring of your geckos. It's one thing to read about how it can affect the coloring, but actually SEEING it is pretty darn cool!
Congrats on the newest additions. I'm also a bit surprised at their size. I just assumed a baby would be super tiny, but these are not, from what I can tell. I would have thought maybe like a couple inches is all, but these look much bigger than that.

Haha - I'm glad you appreciated my theory of the sexes! ;-)

They actually are pretty tiny, those pics are in little 5"x9"" boxes. Here's a picture of one of the little ones that hatched two days ago in my hand.

Okay, that does look pretty small now! I'm curious, does mom ever eat her babies? It just popped in my head, this image of my brother's pet gerbil eating her babies one morning when I walked into his room! I was quite young and pretty horrified at the sight! Do only rodents eat their young, or can reptiles do that too???

ew.. I hope not.. But we take the eggs out a soon as we find them and each baby is kept alone when they hatch. I couldn't imagine having to explain that to the girls, they would be horrified!

(06-27-2012 02:33 AM)Fishbone Wrote:  They actually are pretty tiny, those pics are in little 5"x9"" boxes. Here's a picture of one of the little ones that hatched two days ago in my hand.

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q98/d...121047.jpg

Wow! Leopard gecko hatchlings are smaller than I thought. It's like the size of your pinky. They look so fragile. How do you take it into your hand? Be careful lol.

wow that's awesome. i'd love to have a pet lizard of some type. great for you!

they are very cute! I have to admit I wasnt thrilled at having them when we first acquired the adults, but they do grow on you.and having the babies has been a great learning experience for the girls. When we first got bearded dragons, neither of the girls would feed them because they didn't want to touch the worms -even using tongs! But now they each have a baby gecko to take care of and have gotten over their fear of the meal worms! They have been doing a great job caring for their little ones!!