Wednesday 23 May 2012

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.




12 comments:

  1. The lighter colored geckos are kind of creepy IMHO. Although very interesting, I don't think I'd want to raise. Poison dart frogs interest me though, so it's not that I am anti-amphibian. Are geckos amphibians or reptiles? Maybe I'm anti-reptile... No, I like turtles....BTW, when you say "pound sterling" is there another type of pound? (Well, obviously there are dog pounds, but I meant English money-wise.)

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    1. pound sterling is actually the correct way to refer to UK money. Saying pounds is the shorter way. Also the term Quid is the slang term for pound sterling:0

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  2. WOW!!! That is very cool! I can't wait to show this post to Lydia. She will really like it.

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  3. How interesting. I showed this to my kids. Their comments - $450 is enough for an iPad. Wow! Then I showed my son the shedding skin picture and he thought that was gross.

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    1. I was very surprised on how much he made seriously considering taking up this hobby to make some money:) NOT I am told these gecko fetch even more money in the states where it is a even bigger business:) I never knew little gecko could cost so much

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  4. My husband's comment; How often do they escape? My comment - How can he tell boys from girls to make pairs?

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    1. Actually there is a way and he did show us, but I am not sure I could explain it properly on the blog:) The males parts are very near the tail and with a ovaluating female you can actually see the eggs under their skin around the abdomen. I need to ask him how often the females can give birth next time I am over there:)

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  5. This is fascinating (and he does have a VERY understanding wife)!

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    1. Yes he does, but she just bought herself a Tarantula and a corn snake and says that she intends to breed them. YUCK :)

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  6. Don't you just love having someone who is passionate about a subject to have a "field trip" with?! How interesting! We have a neighbor who is licensed to have Galapagos Turtles (I think they are actually tortoises)- we have only visited once, but I would love to go back and spend more time. He set up is so cool.

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    1. Galapagos turtles how neat. I have the Galapagos on my list of must visit before I die.:)

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  7. Oh my what a cool experience! I would be so grateful it was in someone else's home and not mine though! Thanks for sharing at NOBH!

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