First hatchling - bell albino

We hatched our first hatchling yesterday, it was super exciting. I was
late to work because of it, and luckily my boss was cool with it lol

He's a beautiful bell albino het radar (het eclipse), came from a jungle
bell albino het eclipse female and broken reverse stripe radar male.

This is one expensive and time consuming hobby. But times like these make it allll worth it Enjoy the pics.

awww wow

that's amazing!!
there's nothing more exciting that breeding animals.. I breed rabbits as a hobby and I love finding a nest of little baby bunnies

what an adorable little leo and such a lovely colour! I can wait to see what he/she looks like as an adult!

Congrats!

Absolutely stunning little baby leo

D'awww! Soooo cute!
I can't wait to see what she grows up to look like!

Thank you thank you. I'll keep you folks updated as he grows up.

awwwww its so cute

awww gorgous x

That is sooooo adorable Mardy, congratulations! You have one precious little leo there!

Thank you

The lil guy started eating a few days ago, right on schedule. So I'm happy I won't have to worry about him eating. Will post some updated pics after he sheds again.

It has been a couple of weeks since this lil boy hatched. I took some updated pictures of him last night. He's turning out to be really awesome looking, very nice contrast of colors & patterns. Can't wait to see how he turns out! Enjoy the pics.

Wow really pretty, cannot wait till I breed.

So your a Grandparent now eh!

Awwwww he's a stunner

Holy smokes! He's gorgeous! O_O

wow stunning

I'm gunna have a go at breeding leos next year when I've done all the research and have £100 spare for an incubator I would prefer to buy one the first time breeding, than to make one just to be on the safe side lol

congrats on such a cute little hatchling!

Thank you all

You'll love breeding Sarah, just make sure you have space, time, and money. We had a budget initially but we went way above that in just 6 months lol.

Oh and lots of feeders ready. He was eating just a few days out of the egg, I first fed him 3-4 small small mealworms a night. Then a week later he starts to eat more, so gradually increased the mealworm amount from 3-8 over a week. Now two weeks out of the egg he's consuming 8 mealworms a day. I'm pretty sure he would eat more if I put more in there, but I don't want him to get too stuffed. So definitely plan on having a lot of feeders, and start your feeder colony early.

His clutchmate should be ready in a week, being incubated for female so it's taking longer. Fun times!

Thanks for the advice
I can't wait to see his clutch mate

If you don't mind my asking Mardy, what made you go so over budget? Did you make your incubator?

If/when I have a go at breeding I will be making my incubator, and I'm researching what costs I should be expecting. I don't want to breed obviously if its going to become too much of a financial burden. I would only be doing one pair not multiple breedings. I'm trying to figure out what I should roughly be expecting to be paying throughout the experience.

Again he's gorgeous. I can't wait to see his clutchmate!!

Absolutely beautiful. good luck

@kathstew, I bought two MR-148 Pro from lllreptile.com, one setup to incubate for male one for female. Unfortunately they recently discontinued it so you can't get those anymore. They were good priced at $129 each while they were on sale. They have been working great for me, and they work great with G.E.O. setup. If you know how to convert a mini fridge yourself then it'd be a lot cheaper.

The other cheaper but also effective way is to get a hovabator, and use Albey's incubation techniques.

As for what went over budget for me, a lot has to do with my own trial and error, finding out what works what doesn't. I bought too many geckos to start, too many males, this was before I read Geckotime's articles on how to breed on a small scale. I also had to restart my feeder colonies a couple of times. My dubia roach colony got infested with grain mites, so I had to redo it completely. My mealworm colony took 4 months to even get me some small mealworms, which took longer than I though it would take. Right now I'm also attempting to get a superworm colony going, and so far I haven't had any eggs or small worms yet.

If I could do it all over I would've been breeding the feeder colonies before I started, that way it'd cut the cost by a lot. I'm actually lucky I only have 1 hatchling to care for right now. Just think this lil boy, 2 weeks out of the egg, and he's consuming 8-10 mealworms a day already. If I had a lot more hatchlings, I'd need to buy a lot more feeders just to keep up. So having an established feeder colony will really help. Again this is all talked about in Geckotime's article I link above, so I would highly recommend reading it as well as the updated version thoroughly.

Since you are only planning on having a pair, you should be able to handle it no problem. You still need to plan on housing anywhere from 2 to up to 20 hatchlings though. While first time breeders usually don't pump out too many fertile eggs, they have the capabilities to push out up to 20 fertile eggs a season. So that's still a lot of geckos to take care of even if you are breeding just 1 pair. You'll want to have a rack system either built or purchased. So you need to factor that into your budget.

Rack system also means you need to have heat tapes, a good thermostat such as spyder robotic's Herpstat, lots of paper towels to use inside the bins, and lots of feeders for your geckos. There are other smaller things, such as higher electricity and water bills, $10 a week on paper towels, etc.. that also add up slowly. But honestly when these lil things pop out of the eggs, it makes it all worth it. I would do it all over again without questions asked

Good luck. And thanks for the kind words, I'm also eagerly waiting for the clutchmate to come out. Wonder what she'll be like

Thanks for the reply Mardy! I appreciate it!

I'm working on a mealworm colony right now. Hopefully I'll see some results soon with that.

I plan on building my own incubator using the sticky Karagain made. I have all the materials already. I may eventually buy a incubator, but that would be further in the future.

Thank you for the links, they are really helpful!

Yeah, I am still in the planning out period. Getting my prices, doing my research on how breeding is done. I am thinking of breeding either the coming season or the season after that. I haven't found a male yet, I couldn't find one that suited my interests at the expo I went to. So I'm still looking.

Thanks again for the suggestions, and links. I appreciate it!

Here's an update to this boy, now 3 weeks old. Sometimes pictures just don't quite cut it, so here's a video showing this cute lil guy. Enjoy!