Author: BackwaterReptiles

How to Breed Leopard Geckos

~ BackwaterReptiles

Ever wondered how to breed Leopard geckos? Leopard Geckos (Eublepharis macularius) are quite possibly the most common pet lizard. You can find them for sale at big pet stores as well as get them from specialty breeders and reptile shows. They are very well-loved and respected amongst reptile enthusiasts.

But did you know that in addition to having very basic care requirements that are quite simple to meet, leopard geckos are also really easy to breed?

Read on to find out how we take care of our leopard gecko breeding groups. We’ll cover everything from mating to caring for your hatchlings, and everything in-between.

how to breed leopard geckos
Get ready to learn exactly how to breed Leopard geckos.

Step-by-step: How to Breed Leopard Geckos

Leopard Gecko Mating

It’s common sense that in order to get leopard gecko babies, you’ll have to get your leopard geckos to mate. The good news is that this is almost easier done than said!

Because leopard geckos of similar size can usually be housed communally, you can keep several females in the same enclosure with one male. Never, ever, keep two adult males in the same enclosure unless you want a bloody battle royale to ensue.

One easy way to tell if you have a male leopard gecko is by looking beneath the lizard’s tail. It should have a pronounced hemipenile bulge, whereas females won’t. Also, males and females both have a broad V-shape of pores at the base of their tail. Males have much deeper pores, and often times you can see a waxy substance in and around the pores of males (but never females).

Make sure that your geckos are of breeding age. Most will be ready to reproduce when they are nine to ten months old or weigh approximately 50 grams.

You most likely won’t witness the actual mating behavior because it only takes two to three minutes, and they are nocturnal lizards. However, most females are receptive to males unless they are malnourished or unhealthy. Excited males will vibrate the very tip of their tail prior to mating, and it can actually be fairly loud!

Females can lay several clutches of eggs from a single mating. However, in order to maintain peak fertility and laying, keep the male with the female at least once per week.

We have a rack system and continually move breeder males from bin to bin during breeding season. This have provided great results and our females lay eggs very regularly.

Hopefully we’ve sufficiently answered how to breed Leopard geckos, but if you have any additional questions, please feel free to e-mail us.

How Leopard Geckos Lay Eggs

The average clutch size for a leopard gecko is two eggs. However, don’t be alarmed if your female only lays a single egg as this does happen from time to time, albeit infrequently.

leopard gecko eggs unearthed
This clutch has two eggs. You can very gently uncover the eggs once you think the female has laid them. Most often, she will deposit them in the corner of the substrate container.

Over the course of a year, a successful mating pair can produce anywhere from eight to ten eggs. If you are repeatedly allowing your female to breed, we recommend proper vitamin dusting with calcium supplements as producing and laying eggs is a very strenuous process for a female.

We follow Ron Tremper’s advice and offer Vionate (vitamin) and Osteo-Form (calcium) to our Leopard gecko breeding colonies. Ron Tremper is, in our opinion, the most venerable Leopard gecko breeder in the world, and the industry owes him a great debt of gratitude.

fertile leopard gecko eggs
These two eggs are most likely fertile because they feel firm and dry.

If you observe your geckos closely, you will notice that the substrate in which the eggs are buried will appear slanted. For example, at Backwater Reptiles, we have special shoe boxes with lids filled with substrate to give the females a good medium to comfortably lay their eggs (another Ron Tremper recommendation).

When we open the lids, if we see that the substrate is piled up on one side and angled downwards on the other side of the box, this indicates that the female has been digging and signals us to unearth the eggs and transfer them to the incubator.

buried leopard gecko eggs
If you look closely at this photo, you’ll see that the substrate is at an angle. This indicates that the female has been digging. The eggs will be buried under the side at the top of the slant.

Incubating Leopard Gecko Eggs

Once you have gently unearthed your leopard gecko eggs, you can transfer them to an incubator.

leopard gecko eggs in incubating medium
Here are the leopard gecko eggs nestled gently into the incubating medium within the incubating cup.

Fertile eggs are firm, taut, and have a small amount of weight to them. If the eggs feel squishy and soft, odds are they will not hatch. However, we always incubate all the eggs just in case, even if we do think they aren’t fertile.

At Backwater Reptiles, we use an incubating substrate called Repashy Superhatch as our incubation media. We fill small plastic cups with lids with the medium, soak the clay granules for a minute, pour standing water out, and place 2-6 eggs into each vented deli cup with the lid on.

leopard gecko incubation medium
Backwater Reptiles uses Repashy Superhatch incubation medium to hatch our baby leopard geckos, but there are other options such as perlite or vermiculite.

Fun fact: If you know what morph your parent leopard geckos are, you can keep track of the mixes of babies you produce. It can be interesting to see what patterns and colors result from different breeding pairs.

Once you’ve placed your eggs securely in the incubation substrate (they should be embedded about halfway into the media), you can label your cup if you desire. At Backwater Reptiles, we include the date we uncovered the clutch as well as what morphs the parents were and the bin where the eggs were found.

leopard gecko eggs in incubator
As you can see, you can incubate multiple clutches simultaneously. This is why we label our incubation cups at Backwater Reptiles.

Keep your incubator temperature set anywhere from 77 to 90+ degrees. The gender of the babies will be determined by what temperature you select, so if you want females, keep the temperature in the lower range. If you want males, keep it warmer.

What to Do When Your Leopard Gecko Eggs Hatch

After about two months, you can expect your eggs to start hatching.

hatching leopard geckos
These hatchlings are ready to be moved from their incubation cup to a proper enclosure.

The babies know how to exit the eggs. They won’t need any help. Odds are that if you start checking the eggs on a daily basis around the time that two months have elapsed, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to open your incubator lid and – voila! – hatchling leopard geckos!

Here’s a story that proves just how easy it can be to incubate Leopard gecko eggs. Once when we were cleaning, feeding, and checking the bins we came across perfect little babies in one of the Super Snow shoeboxes! They were eggs that we didn’t notice, but that incubated successfully inside the main enclosure.

Conclusion – How to breed Leopard geckos

It honestly doesn’t take a lot to breed leopard geckos. This is a species that takes to captivity very well and will therefore reproduce naturally if you have a male and female together.

If you think you’d like to start a leopard gecko family of your own, Backwater Reptiles has leopard gecko morphs of all types and can get you a male and female to begin your journey, including many different morphs, and even giant and super giants!

Don’t miss our other articles on:

What do leopard geckos eat?

Leopard gecko lifespans

Do leopard geckos regenerate their tail?

Do leopard geckos need UV light?

How to to set up a leopard gecko habitat

What’s the Difference Between Snakes and Legless Lizards?

~ BackwaterReptiles

What comes to mind when you hear the words legless lizard? For a great number of people, the answer is a snake. Logically, a lizard without legs that slithers as a means of locomotion would be classified as a snake, right? Not the case!

What’s the Difference Between Snakes & Legless Lizards?

In this article, we’ll address these questions:
-What exactly is a legless lizard?
-What makes a legless lizard different from a snake?
-Do legless lizards make good pets?

The Difference Between Snakes and Legless Lizards

What is a legless lizard?

Also commonly known as glass lizards, legless lizards are any number of lizards from the family Pygopodidae that have either completely lost their limbs or have reduced them in size to the point that they are no longer useful in locomotion.

legless lizards versus snakes
As you can see from this photo, upon first glance, this legless lizard appears very much the same as a snake. However, there are actually many physical traits that make the two reptiles different from one another.

As you might surmise, legless lizards closely resemble snakes in terms of appearance. They come in many color schemes and can be found in various climates.

What makes a legless lizard different from a snake?

First of all, observant people who are not afraid to get up close and personal with reptiles will be able to see physical differences between legless lizards and snakes.

Legless lizards have eyelids and can blink, whereas snakes lack eyelids and therefore cannot blink. Although we’ve never tried it, we’re sure that if you stared at a legless lizard long enough, you’d eventually see it blink.

If you turn a snake over and examine its belly, you’ll notice it will have a broad, single row of scales that runs the length of its body. When you take a look at the belly of a legless lizard however, you’ll be able to see that it lacks this feature.

Another physical trait you can observe in a legless lizard is an external ear opening. Snakes actually don’t have ears. They sense sound in a different manner than most animals, so they have no need for external ears.

The last physical trait you can observe that distinguishes legless lizards from snakes is the length of the animal’s body. This might seem silly, but snakes have long bodies with short tails, whereas legless lizards have short bodies with long tails. It might take a bit more practice to recognize where an animal’s tail begins, but combined with all the other visible traits that differentiate legless lizards from snakes, we think even reptile novices will be able to tell the difference between the two.

legless lizard
A closer look at this glass lizard’s face will show you that it has external ear openings, which snakes lack.

Lastly, snakes have a jaw that can unhinge to allow for them to consume prey much larger than most animals. A snake can eat something as large or sometimes larger than its head, whereas its unwise to feed a lizard anything larger than the space between its eyes, regardless of whether or not that lizard has legs. Legless lizards do not possess the proper anatomy to be able to unhinge their jaw and therefore eat mostly small invertebrates, whereas snakes generally eat small mammals.

Do legless lizards make good pets?

At Backwater Reptiles, we think every critter we sell would make a good fit for the right type of person.

Glass lizards are sort of just very chill versions of “normal” lizards with legs. We’ve found that some lizard species are naturally more flighty and timid, which means they don’t enjoy being held. They’re prone to skuttling out of your hand or squiggling uncomfortably. Because legless lizards are not the speediest of reptiles, they’re usually just fine to relax in your hands, although they’re not as likely to wind around your wrist or wrap around your fingers as a pet snake would be.

glass lizard
Glass lizards even flick their tongues out in the same way that snakes do, however their tongues are shaped slightly different.

As we’ve previously touched upon, legless lizards are carnivores, so as long as you feed them a varied diet of different invertebrates, your legless lizard will thrive. In the wild, they’ll eat everything from worms to other reptiles’ eggs. At Backwater Reptiles, we feed ours gutloaded crickets, mealworms, night crawlers on occasion, and wax worms as treats.

Conclusion

So, we’ve learned that legless lizards and snakes are definitely not the same. Although they are very similar in appearance, they are very different creatures with different care requirements.

If this discussion has got you thinking you’d enjoy a pet legless lizard of your own, Backwater Reptiles sells them.

 

Most Interactive Pet Reptiles

~ BackwaterReptiles

What are the most interactive pet reptiles? Some people have said to us that they don’t understand why people keep reptiles as pets. Because they are technically an exotic species, most types of reptiles, whether lizard, snake, turtle, or tortoise, are not particularly cuddly or playful towards their owners in the same manner that a dog or cat would be.

However, this blog article will prove those naysayers wrong. While it’s true that many reptile species are best kept as “decorative” pets, there are species out there that bond with their owners and like being taken out of their cage to be played with. Read on to find out which species we’ve ranked as the most interactive pet reptiles.

The Most Interactive Pet Reptiles

Bearded Dragon (Pogona vitticeps)

Bearded dragons are bred to be many different colors and textures (i.e. they are available in countless morphs) to appeal to owners with all kinds of aesthetics, but they are also one of the most relaxed, uncomplicated species of lizards you’ll ever encounter.

most interactive pet reptiles
This hatchling bearded dragon is quite at ease being held and touched by people.

Bearded dragons are captive bred through enough generations at this point that while they are not technically domesticated, they have become quite tame.

It’s not uncommon for Beardies to enjoy being taken out of their cage to spend time with their owners. Many people like to place their Beardie on their shoulder while they sit at the computer and still others will take their Beardie to the couch to watch TV with them!

The point we’re making here is that Beardies are extremely friendly, mid-size companion lizards that will enjoy human interaction.

Ball Python (Python regius)

Although they’re a bit on the quiet side, ball pythons are very calm, docile snakes and have been dubbed the most popular pet snake in the reptile world.

Like bearded dragons, they can also be bred to express any number of traits in a seemingly endless number of morphs. Some of the most popular are albino, pastel, and fire.

baby ball python
This “normal” phase baby ball python is perfectly content to curl up in a ball and sit in the palm of your hand.

Ball python hatchlings are usually sold at around ten inches long and will mature into mid-size snakes that max out at approximately six feet in length, although three feet is a far more common size.

Ball pythons enjoy curling up into a ball and sitting in your hand, but once they reach adult size, many people also enjoy wrapping the snake around their neck. Ball pythons are not super squiggly snakes, so they tend to move slowly and more often than not, they will stay put wherever you place them.

Sulcata Tortoise (Geochelone sulcata)

If you want a carefree pet that will make itself at home in your backyard, then we highly recommend you get yourself a sulcata tortoise.

sulcata tortoise outdoors
This adult sulcata tortoise is enjoying wandering around outside in the nice weather. If you create a proper outdoor enclosure, your pet sulcata will feel the same.

Not only do these tortoises live very long lives (most will outlive their owners!), they’re also very low key. If you let your tortoise roam your yard, odds are you’ll see it at feeding time and out basking when the weather is nice.

The bottom line is that sulcatas don’t ask much from their owner. They are content to wander your yard and they’ll come say hi and get their shell scratched from time to time.

Savannah Monitor (Varanus exanthematicus)

A word of warning before we start singing the praises of the Savannah monitor – these lizards grow large. If you are not prepared to house a lizard that will top out at around five feet long, then please, stick to one of the other smaller species on this list.

baby savannah monitor
Baby Savannah monitors are small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, but be warned – they grow to be around five feet long!

Savannahs are friendly as babies and with training and socialization, they can become as tame as a dog or cat. In fact, there are many videos online that show massive Savannahs watching TV sitting on their owners’ laps or on leashes going for walks. Once they are full-grown, a Savannah that is well cared for will be friendly and sociable with people.

We recommend starting out with a hatchling Savannah monitor and forming a bond with it as it grows. Babies can comfortably sit in the palm of your hand and if you teach them that being taken out of their cage means petting, food, and positive interaction with people, before long you’ll have a Savannah monitor that you’ll be happy to introduce to your friends and family.

Conclusion – Most interactive pet reptiles

We hope we’ve shown you that although reptiles are not necessarily going to share your bed like a cat or dog would, they can capture your heart just as quickly. They can be loving, friendly, and full of personality just like any other pet.

If you wish to purchase a pet bearded dragon, ball python, sulcata tortoise, or savannah monitor, Backwater Reptiles sells all of these interactive pet reptiles.

 

Dictator Scorpion Care (Pandinus dictator)

~ BackwaterReptiles

The dictator scorpion (Pandinus dictator) is elusive in the exotic pet world. They are highly sought after, very rare, and some people even argue that this species doesn’t exist! Well, we’re here to assure you that the dictator scorpion is real and what’s more, we care for them and sell them to happy customers at Backwater Reptiles. Read on to learn about Dictator scorpion care in captivity.

In this blog article, we’ll cover topics ranging from physical attributes of the dictator scorpion to its basic care requirements. Continue reading to learn more about this illusory scorpion.

Dictator Scorpion Care

Dictator scorpions are very often confused with their close relative the Emperor scorpion (Pandinus imperator). Both are very similar in appearance with the main difference being the size of the animal. Emperor scorpions will rarely grow to be eight inches in length, whereas the dictator scorpion can easily get this big.

dictator scorpion care
Pictured is a gravid female dictator scorpion. She is not all too happy to have her photograph taken, as you can deduce from her stance.

Another more concrete way to distinguish between species of the Pandinus family is to count the number of trichobothria, or small sensitive hairs on the scorpion’s pincers. Each species possesses a different number than its brethren.

Overall, dictator scorpions are a very dark brown or black color. They have stocky, hefty bodies and broad, powerful pincers. Their appendages (i.e. legs and tail) are more substantial than most scorpion species and are known for being rather thick.

Dictators hail from Africa, but they do have a limited range. They can be found in Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, and Equatorial Guinea.

Dictator Scorpion Care Information

Like most scorpion species, the dictator is a shy animal that will spend most of its time hiding in a burrow or crawl space. They usually only come out to eat or mate, so be prepared not to see a whole lot of your dictator unless you go searching for it.

Although many species of scorpion are solitary animals, the dictator actually shows signs of being gregarious. In captivity, it is usually safe to house several scorpions of the same size in a single enclosure, provided you give enough space and don’t put multiple males together.

pandinus dicator female
Dictator scorpions are very large, stocky scorpions with dark bodies. This female has lighter sides showing on her abdomen because she is gravid and like a pregnant human, her “tummy” is stretching to accommodate the baby scorpions.

Your dictator scorpion’s home should have a nice substrate suitable for burrowing. We also recommend a few above ground hide spaces if you want to be able to view your scorpion without digging it out of its substrate.

Although dictators are large invertebrates, they actually don’t need a large enclosure to roam around in. A ten gallon size horizontal glass tank is ideal for one or two dictators, but if you keep more than two together, get a slightly larger tank.

Temperatures should be kept in the mid-80s throughout the day. A slight drop in temperature at night is fine. Because scorpions don’t like bright light, avoid heat lights to keep the temperature at the desired range. Instead, we recommend using heat tape or a commercially constructed heat pad that you can purchase from any commercial pet store.

Dictator Scorpion Feeding

Dictator scorpions are not shy eaters. They are ambush predators and will gladly eat virtually any type of insect.

The dictators at Backwater Reptiles are given gut-loaded crickets, roaches, mealworms, and wax worms as an occasional treat. Usually a few insects per animal every other day is an acceptable amount of food.

Dictator Scorpion Temperament

Although dictator scorpions are certainly large, they are not necessarily overly aggressive. Like any scorpion species, if you are calm when dealing with the animal, it will usually respond to you calmly as well.

Keep in mind though that we do not recommend a dictator scorpion (or any other scorpion for that matter) as a pet that you coddle or hold frequently. Although you can handle your dictator, copious amounts of human interaction can stress the animal and also result in aggression in the form of stinging.

Conclusion – Dictator scorpion care

Dictator scorpions are highly sought after and we understand why. These large scorpions are impressive specimens to show off to friends and family. We keep them successfully in captivity, and rear babies as well.

If you are interested in a rare dictator scorpion of your own, Backwater Reptiles can help you out.

The Smallest Pet Geckos

~ BackwaterReptiles

We know we’re guilty of swooning and exclaiming over animals because their tiny-ness somehow seems to make them cuter in our eyes. If you’re anything like us, you’ll want to read on and check out our list of the smallest pet geckos sold at Backwater Reptiles. You won’t regret it!

The Smallest Pet Geckos

Dwarf Yellow Head Gecko (Lygodactylus albogularis)

Like all the geckos on this list, the yellow head dwarf gecko is a species of dwarf gecko. It’s very aptly named as it is known for its brightly-colored yellow head as well as its small stature.

These geckos are from East Africa and are very common in Tanzania. They thrive in man-made environments in captivity, but are commonly found nearly everywhere in their native country – on fence posts, basking on stone walls, in crevices outdoors, and on sign posts.

smallest pet geckos
Pictured is a mature yellow head dwarf gecko. Even when fully grown, these miniature lizards rarely exceed three inches and can easily fit in the palm of your hand or straddle your finger.

Yellow head geckos rarely exceed three inches in length. They have an expected life span of five to ten years in captivity.

Because they are “bite sized” animals, yellow head geckos are naturally very shy and will therefore require lots of hiding places in their enclosure. They will hide in loose substrate, tunnel-like decor, and the foliage provided for them to climb on.

Williams Blue Cave Gecko (Lygodactylus williamsi)

The most colorful gecko on our list is certainly the Williams blue cave gecko. The males of this dwarf gecko species are a brilliant, bold blue tone with black stripe accents, while the females are a bronze-like green color with fainter dark accent stripes.

female lygodactylus williamsi
This is a female Williams blue cave gecko. Females don’t live up to the “blue” portion of their common moniker since they are actually green in color.

Besides commonly being called the Williams blue cave gecko, this species is also named the electric blue day gecko and the turquoise dwarf gecko. We think all of these names are suitable as they properly describe the attributes that best represent what this species of gecko is known for.

male lygodactylus williamsi
The male Williams blue cave gecko is a true gem and definitely earns itself all its common color-based, descriptive names.

The Williams blue cave gecko is slightly smaller in size than the yellow head dwarf gecko. The blue cave gecko generally stays under or around two and a half inches long when fully grown, with the females being slightly smaller than the males. Captive animals usually have life spans of five to ten years.

Ashy Gecko (Sphaerodactylus elegans)

As hatchlings, ashy geckos look extremely different than their adult counterparts. Babies are horizontally striped and exhibit multiple colors. Once they become adults, their coloration becomes somewhat drab. We’d describe them as salt and pepper toned – they have a mixture of brown, black, and grey speckles all over their bodies.

juvenile ashy gecko
Young ashy geckos are rainbows of color with horizontal stripes or banding. As they mature, they become more drab.

Baby ashy geckos, as well as all the dwarf gecko species on this list, are extremely tiny and can fit through the small holes in screen cages as well as the gaps in screen cages doors. We highly recommend sealing any cage edges or large holes with masking tape or electrical tape until your gecko has grown into its enclosure.

adult ashy gecko
Adult ashy geckos don’t usually surpass three inches in length. They are also peppered with brown, black, and grey spots.

Your pet ashy gecko (and all the other mini geckos on this list) will eat small insects. At Backwater Reptiles, we give ours mainly pinhead crickets and fruit flies.

Conclusion – Smallest pet geckos

The petite geckos described in our list are not very hard to care for. They also don’t require a large enclosure, given the fact that they themselves don’t take up lots of space.

If you can handle the cute punch that these tiny geckos pack, Backwater Reptiles has got you covered! We sell dwarf yellow head geckos, Williams blue cave geckos, and ashy geckos at affordable prices. Just be sure your enclosure is secure as pretty much all these tiny geckos are master escape artists!