Category: Leopard Gecko Breeding Breeder Chronicle

This section is for leopard gecko breeding experiences and breeder chronicles.

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Leopard Gecko Tail Waving Behavior – Defensive Posture

leopard gecko tail waving behavior defensive posture shake rattle

There are different leopard gecko tail waving and rattling behaviors, understanding them will allow you to understand your leopard geckos better.  I’ve been waiting for awhile to get this tail waving behavior captured on video.  Today while cleaning out a leopard gecko’s enclosure, I placed this gecko in a temporary critter tote.  She saw her own reflection and started to wave her tail (as seen in the video above).

This particular back & forth leopard gecko tail waving is a defensive posture

This is the gecko’s way of distracting a potential attacker.  They wave their tails so the attackers would focus on their tail, rather than their body.  The idea is that the attacker would strike at their tail, at which time the gecko would break off the tail and run away.  So if you ever see your leopard gecko waving their tail at another gecko, it’s best to separate them right away.  When a gecko is spooked, any slight movement could cause a gecko to strike out and bite.  You can prevent some serious injuries by noticing these signs right away.

Leopard geckos do regenerate their tails, although they won’t look the same.  See the picture below for an example of a regenerated tail tip.

emerine leopard gecko example regenerated tail

This is not to be confused with tail shaking, like a rattlesnake tail rattling

Continue reading “Leopard Gecko Tail Waving Behavior – Defensive Posture”

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Breeder Advice – Caution when introducing different males to the same female

I wanted to give a little warning to fellow leopard gecko breeders when introducing different males to the same female.  This week we had a female that was clearly ovulating, so I introduced her to a male that I had initially planned the project for.  The male rubbed all over the female, but he would not start the mating ritual.  No tail rattling, no love bites, just a lot of tail & body rubbing.  After about 10 minutes, nothing was happening so I separated the two, and placed them back into their enclosures.

The next day, I worked up a new project plan for this same female.  I introduced a different male to this female, because the first male showed no interest.  After putting them together in a neutral bin, the female acted normal, but the male looked like he was uneasy.  He paced back and forth a bit, kept looking at the female but would not approach the female.  Then when the female walked near the male, the male snapped at the female and bit her on the tail. Continue reading “Breeder Advice – Caution when introducing different males to the same female”

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Hatchling Happenings – Saving a life

A week ago, we posted about a super giant raptor male hatching.  We showed you a picture of an egg that looked like it was ready to pop next to the raptor hatchling.  The good news is the egg did break open, a healthy bandit hatchling did come out of the egg.  Here’s a picture of the hatchling that came out:

bandit hatchling

But what’s strange is that one egg down below, with what it would appear a gecko’s nose sticking out of it.  When I saw it, I thought the gecko was in the process of breaking out of the egg.  So I put the cup back inside the incubator, and left it for a few more hours.

When I came back to check on the egg again, there was no progress, the egg looked exactly the same as before.  That’s when I thought I had a dead hatchling, one that died before making out of the egg.  So I took the egg out for a closer look. Continue reading “Hatchling Happenings – Saving a life”

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Leopard Gecko Egg Candling – How to check for a fertile egg

leopard gecko egg candling

How can you tell if the eggs you are incubating are fertile or not?

There’s a method called “leopard gecko egg candling”.  It’s simply to shine a light on the egg to see if the egg gives off a pink/red color or not.  A fertile egg will usually give off a pink, reddish look on the inside.  It’s an indication that there’s something growing inside.  Here’s an example from one of our eggs, this egg has been incubating for 30 days now.

This particular egg is being incubated for females at 81(F) degrees, so it has another 30 days to go yet.  But you can see very distinctively the pink/reddish coloration on the inside. Continue reading “Leopard Gecko Egg Candling – How to check for a fertile egg”

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Importance of incubators

For a leopard gecko breeder, there are a few things that affect your season’s success. One of which is finding good breeder geckos, something we covered in a previous Gecko Breeder Chronicle article. The other however, is having good incubators. As a breeder, your eggs are everything. Without the eggs hatching, you have no season, and you can’t advance your projects.

Importance of Incubators – Unexpected Failures

During our first year of breeding, we had an incubator that died overnight.  There were 12 eggs in that incubator, and all 12 turned out bad. It was not surprising to us that the eggs went bad after the incident, we expected it. Although it was disheartening, because the eggs looked firm and fertile before.  They were from several projects we were working on that year, many of which included our Super Giant and Radar projects. That incubator was incubating for males, so we had a season with no male holdbacks to further our projects. Continue reading “Importance of incubators”