Gecko eggs and babies

Our neighbor across the street is really big into gecko's.  So much so that he has turned his second bedroom into a breeding ground for his geckos.  No they aren't running around freely in the room, however,  he does have boxes full of breeding pairs of lizards.  He is in the process of breeding certain colors into his geckos and then sells them.  I was shocked to hear he can get over 300  pounds sterling (about $450) for a single gecko based on its specific coloring. 

Our neighbor was kind enough to give my children a Leopard gecko 2 years ago, and often invites the kids over to take a look at his newest gecko.  Recently we were invited over to see the new eggs and baby gecko's he had.

One of his incubators for eggs

Second incubator for eggs

on average a female gecko will lay 2 eggs

Geckos will bury their eggs in dirt.  Here he is removing one of the eggs to place in the incubators

The eggs are soft at first but then harden.  Geckos do not watch over their hatched eggs.  So removing them is not a problem

In this picture he is showing us the embryo inside the egg he does this to determine which way to lay the egg down in the incubator.  If he lays it down the wrong way the embryo will drown in the yolk

One of the new babies.  Only a couple of days old.  Breeding for lighter colors is more valuable.  Unfortunately this little one did not survive past the first week of life

A more normal colored gecko, also not as valuable

Another lighter colored gecko this one is healthier than the other one that died.

This little one is shedding its skin for the first time.  Geckos eat their skin

This is the container he keeps his baby geckos in. 

One of his slightly older geckos, behind him is just one of the many towers of gecko containers there must be 50 or more of them in his house.  He has a very understanding wife who supports his hobby of breeding geckos.

Not sure why but breeding geckos to a lighter color is more valuable than a gecko that is its natural dark color.  I don't know if this makes the gecko weaker in the long run.  He is doing so well with his hobby that he is able to reduce his work to part time and really concentrate on breeding and selling geckos.  The kids and I are hoping to be able to see a gecko hatch out of an egg soon, he says he will let us know when that happens, so far it has always happened late at night, but maybe one will decide to come out during the day and we can ran over to watch it hatch.