If you are thinking about breeding your Crested Geckos then you need to make sure that your female is of a healthy weight. Breeding is hard work for the females and uses a lot of calcium. A female will need to be at least 12 months old and weigh a minimum of 30 grams, 35 grams is even better. Females younger and lighter then this may not cope and could die.

Breeding season for the Crested Gecko can be anywhere between January and October and usually lasts for 8 months. The male only needs to mate successfully once with the female as she can retain the sperm and use it for the entire season. It is advisable to seperate the male from the female once they have mated as the male will continue to pester the female and want to mate with her constantly. They are a bit rough when mating and this can cause stress to the female. It is not uncommon for the female to loose her tail during mating and sometimes even get a small tear in their crests near to their heads as the male bites onto them there to keep them in control.

You need to supply the female with a place to lay her eggs. A plastic tub around the size of an ice cream tub will be fine for this. Fill the tub with something similar to Eco-Earth and moisten. Signs that the female is getting ready to lay her eggs include;

Becoming active earlier on then normal, digging and burrowing her head in the Eco-Earth and tasting the Eco-Earth in the lay box.

Please be warned that she may not lay her eggs if the male is still in the enclosure. Females do not like to be disturbed when laying eggs. If they are not happy to lay the eggs with the male still in with them then they will become egg bound which can result in death.

A female will lay a clutch of eggs roughly once a month and the clutch will consist of 2 eggs. If the female is breeding for the first time then there may just be 1 egg for the first few clutchs. The first few cluthes may also not be fertile. The female will burry her eggs right at the bottom of the tub and you should check for eggs daily if she is due to lay or has been showing signs that she is ready to lay.

Once the eggs have been laid you need to incubate them. Incubating the eggs is easy. You can use a plastic tub again with a lid on. Make some holes in the lid so the air inside stays fresh. Put some vermiculite in and soak it with water. Squash down the vermiculite and drain away the excess water. You can make a small indentation in the vermiculite with your finger for each egg to sit in.VERY CAREFULLY remove the eggs being careful not to turn them. They must be incubated the same way up as they were laid. If you turn them the fetus can die inside the egg. Place the eggs in the dents made in the vermiculite. Around 1/4 to 1/3 of the egg should be burried. Place the lid on the tub and that is it. They can be incubated within the same temperature range that you keep your Crested Geckos.

The eggs will take 90 to 120 days to hatch. The warmer it is the quicker they hatch and the cooler it is the longer they take to hatch. Generally speaking the longer they take the bigger and healthier the babies are. Whilst incubating the eggs humidity will need to be kept at around 65 to 70%. You can carefully mist the vermiculate around the eggs every few days to achieve this. Try not to get the water on the eggs themselves as mould can grow on them. If you do spray them then just rest a tissue on to soak up the water.

how long does the female keep laying for?
i'm going to get a flame morph this year (fingers crossed for female - but will still be pleased with a male) so hopefully next year if it is female i want to breed them but want to be aware of how long she will keep laying eggs for

Cresties will lay 1 clutch of 2 eggs roughly once a month for 8 months. So in total each female could produce 16 eggs per year.

so if my female + male are say...7 months 2 weeks old, and they can be mature at 12 months old, that means mine are like..4 months 2 weeks away from being mature, so they should be ready by like 15th july? isnt that enough time to breed? cause its still within the season is it can be from january to october. Im in no rush to breed them, but i'd just like to know if there is a possibility i could still end up with eggs, cause this time...i want to be 100% alert, not like i was with my leopard geckos lol

There is a chance Perry that they will breed yes. How much does your female weigh? If you can weight her and keep an eye on her weight. Absolute minimum of 30 grams for breeding 35 is best though

shes at 18g, and still 4 months 2 weeks to go. can she put on enough weight by then? cause i reallly have no space to seperate them! ive got waxworms...which go down like a treat lol and i got some standard crickets yesterday, which we darts everywhere for lol (i dont overfeed btw)

lol just a post of randomness, a colleague at pets at home, was dared (by me) to eat a morio worm, he did. lmao he said the juices exploded in his mouth and part of it was stuck to the back of his throat lol (morio worm is a giant mealworm)

On no thats not nice!

uhhh thats groossss!!

can males and females be kept together out of breeding season? or will they still try? i want to get a female flame morph this year and will have the set up for her but would like to keep them together out of breeding season - or should i stick with them being seperate?

They can go together outside of the breeding season, they will not try to mate.