Moving with leo hatchlings/eggs?

Geckos Leopard Geckos
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Hello everyone!

I wanted to ask around for some advice on moving with reptiles, especially with young hatchlings and eggs. I breed leopard geckos, and had a great season last year. With the new season starting I want to start planning ahead of time since I will be moving about six and a half hours away in early July (around the 8th or 9th).

I already have one female who has laid her first clutch, and I most likely will be breeding my two other girls here soon. I’ll be putting everyone’s first clutches in the male incubator so they hatch a bit quicker, and the other clutches will be put in the female incubator. Ideally I’d love to hatch out all the babies before the move. Last year my last eggs hatched around July 11th, and I had bred originally in late February instead of January like I am doing this year. I know about two months before I move I will be putting all eggs in the male incubator to hopefully have the babies out before the moving date.

I do have plugins in my car which I can use to plug in an incubator if needed, but I was wondering if anyone else has moved long distance with an incubator as well? What I am most worried about is jostling the eggs during incubation. My car isn’t that bumpy (I drive a VW Beetle), but I’d love to hear if anyone else has had any experience with transporting leo eggs like this.

I also wanted to ask about moving small hatchlings. All my animals will be in my air conditioned car with me, and I will be packing them within deli cups with holes punched and taped lids. I’ll then be packing them in a padded box and seat belting it to make sure they are very secure. I’m not too worried about moving my adults/juvies, but has anyone had any experience with moving young hatchlings under 15gs? Would they need to be packed any different? I know normally food is withheld a couple days before shipping/moving for leos, but would they be affected by this? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

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Is anyone travelling with you? If so they could hold the incubator if it’s not too big, or make sure it’s sat snug with a Seatbelt etc.

As for the babies again, make sure all in something and sat snug so can’t move too much and I think they’ll be fine, no food for a day I don’t think will be an issue at all, as you’ve said when they get couriered they go days without and are perfectly fine.

Good luck with your move too! :blush:

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Luckily someone will be driving for me as I monitor everyone, so I can definitely keep the incubator on my lap. Thank you for the idea!

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If you’re putting all of the geckos (babies and adults) in deli cups and giving them water at the halfway point they should be good. Putting the smaller ones in an incubator at about 80* might help. Putting packing material like packing peanuts might help too.

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I think traveling only 6.5 hours wouldn’t require a stop to give water, at least not worth the risk of escaped hatchlings, so long as they will have it available promptly after arrival. I traveled with my guys (22 leos) in bento containers (with holes) in a big tub with heat packs, but they were all adults & I was traveling across the country (USA) from Washington to Virginia, so the situation was different. In terms of withholding food, so long as they will be placed promptly in fully heated enclosures, I would just not feed the adults for ~2 days beforehand. I don’t think it’s a good idea to take hatchlings off food- they should be ok in an incubator that keeps them at or above 80*F.

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Thank you! My setups for all my geckos will be the the last thing packed up and the first thing I setup when I get there, so it won’t take that long to get them setup after the drive. funnily enough I’ll be driving from one side of WA to the other. I’ll also most likely dampen the paper towels within the gecko’s deli cups a tad. Thanks for the tips!