Issues with Fertility & Hatch Rate of Leopard Geckos

Geckos Leopard Geckos
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Hi everyone, I was hoping to get some feedback and different suggestions on how I can improve my fertility rate and especially the hatch rate of my leopard gecko eggs. The last two years have been rough in terms of breeding and hatching babies. Last year out of five pairings I ended up with 7 hatchlings, and this year with seven pairings I currently have 5 hatchlings but eggs have continued to go bad/ not hatch.

I have two incubators. A custom one built out of an old mini fridge that I use to incubate females. It’s set to 81 degrees. I have a C-Serpents HotBox that I use for males and that’s set to 90 degrees. Using my heat gun they are both at 81-82 degrees and 89-90 degrees. I do not believe there are incubator fluctuations. I use V.E. Electronic thermostats, and have my incubators hooked up to a backup battery in case the power goes out in my room/ house. I live in the second floor, and the room can get quite hot. I have the door closed and the AC running in my reptile room at all times, and the room tends to sit at around 78-75 degrees during the summer months.

The fertility issues I’m experiencing I believe have been caused by not being as “robotic” in my pairing schedule as in previous years. I need to go back to putting the male in for a night/ day, taking out for a day, then moving to the next female or repairing. The got the best success with this in the past, but the last two years my pairing schedule has been not as strict.

At the beginning of the season I used larger circular deli cups to incubate with a round egg separator that lifts the eggs off the incubation medium. Since experiencing the molding/ eggs going bad, the later half of this year I’ve go to using Hatch Rite in smaller single egg deli cups with one hole at the top for ventilation. I spray twice at the bottom of the deli cup, then add the hatch rite, spray twice more, and then shake up. I add plastic light crate and place the egg after

Some thoughts I’ve had is when the season is finished, and I have no eggs left I need to unplug the incubators and completely disinfect them. That’s something I haven’t done in several years. I think I also need to experiment with placing the eggs directly in the incubation medium, as well as use some other brands. So far I’ve used vermiculite and Hatch Rite (perlite).

I would love to what others have to say and suggestions you might have! I’m open to experimenting and trying to have more successful breeding seasons.

Thanks so much!
Naven

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I’ll bet (a) your DIY incubator might not work as well as would be ideal (warm spots, poor circulation, etc) and (b) your Hotbox is too warm (90F is pushing it, and is a temp I never had good results at).

As for incubation media and practices, that’s a heavy layer of art on a kernel of science. I use vermiculite for incubating literally everything (in a Hotbox – the thing rocks), but even the grain size of the vermiculite seems to matter (I’ve been sifting it lately) so be prepared to work on it until you figure out what works for you. I worked for at least a few years dialing in incubation; all the ‘this is absolutely the best most foolproof way to do it just buy my media and hit that subscribe button!’ just…wasn’t.

There’s of course inbreeding depression and parental nutrition and laybox suitability and other factors not involving the incubation itself to consider. Could be more than one factor.

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Socraticmonologue mentioned a couple other good things to consider. Especially if you’ve been using the same incubators before. The old ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ does apply here a bit too. Are these all the same pairs from previous years too?

If your pairing schedule these last two years changed then if you have a lower fertility male he doesn’t have enough time to pair up and get things done.
How many males were you breeding to the 5 and 7 females? If they are all the same male then you may need to consider switching things up or monitoring them a bit longer.

I always used vermiculite for my gecko eggs. Half buried in the media. I haven’t tried the raised egg platforms for them. Perlite didn’t work for me and felt like it would hold too much moisture or mold easily. But that was also a while ago.

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