Incubator-Free Gecko Egg Hatching: Tips Every Owner Should Know
- Jyothi Dondero
- Sep 21
- 7 min read
If you’re interested in breeding leopard geckos, the single most important piece of equipment you’ll need is an incubator. Unfortunately, specialized gecko egg incubators can be expensive, with some of the higher-rated models going for hundreds of dollars. Luckily, a quick scan of the internet turns up all sorts of resources for do-it-yourself reptile hatcheries and incubators. It turns out that it’s actually quite easy to make your own incubator at home using pretty inexpensive materials.
So, how do you incubate leopard gecko eggs without a traditional incubator? You can make a homemade incubator using a plastic container with a substrate layer of vermiculite or perlite. You will also need a heat lamp or a heating pad to place under the container. Place the eggs in the incubator and make sure they have very minimal airflow. Keep the temperature between 80 and 90 degrees and monitor the temperature using a standard indoor thermometer or meat thermometer.
Why Do You Need to Incubate Leopard Gecko Eggs?
In the wild, leopard geckos lay their eggs in moist, humid nesting sites, burying them slightly into the soil substrate to protect them from predators. Female leopard geckos have a lot of room to roam and are spoiled for choice when it comes to finding the perfect nesting spot. This is unfortunately not the case with captive geckos, so you will need to provide an appropriate nesting habitat for your gecko eggs that closely matches what they would have in the wild.
Leopard gecko eggs need a warm, high-moisture environment to survive, which you can create by using an absorbent substrate and heating lamps. An absorbent substrate will keep the eggs moist enough to stay viable while preventing the incubation environment from retaining excess moisture and developing mold. Keep in mind that leopard geckos living in an enclosed space can inadvertently harm their eggs by trampling on them or even eating them, so it is best to move the eggs to a separate container as soon as they are laid.
What Supplies Do You Need to Build an Incubator?
Most of what you need to build a functioning incubator can be found around your house or bought cheaply at your local grocery store. Here is a list of the bare-bones essentials you will need to build a simple incubator for your leopard gecko eggs.
Container
The first thing you will need is a suitable container that is large enough to accommodate your leopard gecko eggs, with a capacity of at least 24 ounces. Leopard gecko eggs are very small, but a female can lay as many as 15 to 20 eggs over a breeding period, which lasts about four months. You need to make sure there is enough room in your container to add more eggs as your leopard gecko lays them.
You can use any plastic or Tupperware container that you have lying around your kitchen. Some breeders also use Styrofoam take-away containers, but this is not generally recommended because they can leach toxins into the substrate layer. Your container will also need to have a secure lid to minimize airflow to the eggs.
Substrate material
The best substrate materials for your leopard gecko incubator are vermiculite or perlite, both of which are easily and cheaply available at any garden supply center. Vermiculite is the ideal choice for an incubation substrate because it traps moisture but doesn’t get waterlogged, allowing your leopard gecko eggs to get the moisture they need without getting moldy.
Heat source
You can use a heating lamp or even a simple heating pad to keep your incubator warm. Heat regulation is possibly the most important aspect of building an effective incubator, so you need to make sure that the heat source is not too harsh. Some sources do recommend using heating rocks, but they can cause your developing eggs to dry out and die.
Temperature Control
The best way to gauge the temperature of your incubator is to use a thermometer to check the temperature a few times a day. A meat thermometer works really well. Simply insert the tip into the substrate to ensure that the temperature is in the optimal 80-to-90-degree range.
How to Put Your Incubator Together
Now comes the fun part! Once you have all your supplies together, it takes just a few minutes and a few simple steps to build your incubator.
Prepare your container
The first thing you need to do is to make sure your container and lid are completely clean. Wash them thoroughly with a mild detergent and make sure they are completely dry before you get started. You don’t want your substrate to be contaminated with any food particles, cleaning solutions, or chemicals.
Prepare your substrate
This is the most crucial part of building your incubator. Your substrate material needs to provide the perfect level of humidity for your leopard gecko eggs. If it is too dry, your eggs will dry out, and the hatchlings will die. If it is too wet, your eggs will become moldy and rot, and once again, your hatchlings will die.
The general rule of thumb is that you should mix one part water to one part substrate, although if you’re using perlite, the ratio of water to substrate is slightly lower. A good way to gauge the moisture level of your substrate is to see if you can clump the wet substrate into a ball in your hand. It should be wet enough that it clumps easily into a solid ball, but not so wet that it drips water when you squeeze it.
Layer your container
Once you have your substrate ready to go, place a thick layer of it into the bottom of your container. It needs to be at least four inches deep, giving you enough room to dig the eggs into the substrate without completely burying them. Leave a few inches on all sides around each egg, so your baby geckos have room to move once they hatch, without damaging their siblings’ eggs.
Add a heat source
Your leopard gecko eggs need to stay at a temperature that’s ideally between 80 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Check your incubator temperature using a thermometer. If it is too low, try placing a heating lamp next to the incubator or a heating pad underneath it. Keep monitoring the temperature to make sure it doesn’t get too hot. You will need to intermittently remove the heat source to keep your eggs from overheating and drying out.
Regulate airflow
Your leopard gecko eggs don’t actually need a lot of airflow – in fact, too much exposure to air can reduce the ambient temperature of your incubator and kill your eggs. Some breeders do build airflow tubes into their incubators, allowing a constant, but very small exchange of air between the incubator and the outside environment. However, it’s perfectly fine to simply open the incubator lid every few days for a few minutes to allow a little oxygen flow to the eggs.
Incubating Your Eggs
Now you’re ready to actually incubate your leopard gecko eggs in your homemade incubator. Handling your gecko eggs is a delicate business, so be sure to follow the steps below to ensure the safety of your eggs.
Watch your female closely
Female leopard geckos typically begin laying their eggs about three to five weeks after they mate. They tend to look for quiet corners of their tank to lay their eggs, maybe underneath a branch or near a rock, and they will dig the eggs into their tank’s substrate. You can usually see the tops of the eggs poking out of the substrate.
Your female leopard gecko will lay one to two eggs every 15 to 20 days over a four-to five-month breeding period, so you need to keep watching her closely to make sure you get all of her eggs as she lays them.
Move the eggs to the incubator immediately
It’s best to move your leopard gecko eggs to your incubator as soon as you can after your female has laid them. Leopard geckos have been known to step on and trample the fragile eggs by mistake, and some have even been observed eating them.
These eggs are very delicate, so use a spoon to gently scoop them out of the substrate in your female’s tank. Prepare a small hole in the incubator substrate for your egg and place it directly into the hole. Avoid handling the egg with your bare hands as they can break easily.
Keep your eggs upright
When your female leopard gecko lays an egg, the embryo within it immediately latches onto the side of the egg, usually towards the bottom. If you flip or roll the egg, the embryo will drown in its own amniotic fluid. To avoid this, gently scoop the egg up with your spoon and ease it into your incubator in the same position it was sitting in when it was first laid.
Some leopard gecko breeders will shine a flashlight on each egg as they remove it from the tank to see if it is fertile. Fertile eggs have a hard shell with a visible embryo when exposed to light. Infertile eggs feel soft and squishy and don’t show a discernible embryo under light. You can choose to only incubate healthy embryos, especially if space is an issue, but unhealthy eggs have been known to improve under incubation and produce healthy baby geckos.
Be patient
This is undoubtedly the hardest part of the whole process. You have taken a great deal of time and care to prepare the perfect environment for your incubating eggs, and now all you want is to see a fresh crop of healthy leopard gecko hatchlings. However, it can take well over a month for leopard gecko eggs to hatch, with many hatching between 35 and 89 days after being laid – a long time to wait!
When you start to see them hatch, leave them to it. The eggs are very delicate, and the hatchlings will be able to break through the shell easily, with little to no intervention or assistance.
The Final Step: Your Hatchling Nursery
Once your leopard geckos have hatched, you will need to provide them with a safe nursery in which to grow. It’s never a good idea to place them in the same tank as their parents. Prepare a separate tank in advance for your new hatchlings and make sure to include some very shallow bowls of water. Although leopard geckos get most of the water they need from their insect diets, young hatchlings need a little bit of extra water to begin with.
Do not remove your hatchlings immediately from their incubator. Wait at least twelve hours to allow them to acclimate to life outside the confines of their eggs. Remember to wear soft gloves when handling your hatchlings. You can start feeding them a few days after they hatch, and you can keep several hatchlings in the same tank until they get older and need more room.
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