Breeding Crested Geckos

Breeding

Sexing adult crested geckos is easy; the males have very prominent hemipenile bulges, preanal pores and large cloacal spurs. Younger geckos can be sexed from 4-6 months, although sometimes even this can require an experienced eye. Adult size is normally reached by around 12 months at which time the gecko should be sexually mature, however, it is not recommended to breed females so young, better to wait until they are at least 18 months old. Female crested geckos are prolific breeders capable of producing 12-18 eggs, in clutches of 2, per year. It is, therefore, important to provide them with extra calcium and vitamins. Incorrect or inadequate supplementation or over-breeding can result in difficulties in egg laying and/or metabolic bone disease. Furthermore, it is important to let the vivarium temperature drop over winter to allow the female a break, otherwise she may continue to lay eggs all year round which can lead to illhealth and premature death.

With a suitable medium, such as moist vermiculite or ecoearth, the moist hide in your vivarium will double as a laying box for a gravid female, although they do not always lay the eggs where you want them to. A piece of cork bark or similar can be used to hide the laying box to help the female feel more comfortable about using it.

Eggs should be removed from the laying box being careful not to roll them. They can then be incubated in air tight containers using moistened vermiculite, perlite or ecoearth as the incubating medium. The incubating medium should be wet enough that it forms a ball when squeezed, but not so wet that water drips out of it when squeezed. If anything, it is better to be over dry than over wet. The eggs can either be incubated in an incubator (at a temperature between 72-80 degrees F) or at room temperature if the temperature is suitable. The duration of incubation is dependent on temperature, at the lower range the eggs may take over 90 days to hatch while at a higher temperature the eggs will hatch in 60-80 days. The lid of the container should be opened regularly to check the condition of the eggs, the humidity of the medium and to allow air to circulate.

Once hatched, the babies should be kept in the same conditions as the adults, but obviously everything (including food) scaled down in size. They can be raised in groups, but separately is better if space allows.