cohabitating leopard geckos

Question
Hello! We have had our male leo, Echo, since March.Not sure how old he is, but all of the solid stripes have all but faded away and he has started getting his spots. We want to get him a friend. Knowing that he is male our only option is a female. We also know that if we go get a female we run the obvious chance of breeding. Which we are fine with. Our local petstore has two baby geckos, not positive of the age, but quite young. My questions are this; What age do males start breeding? Also, if we were to get one of these babies is it ok for us to put him/her into the same cage as Echo? Will he try to mate or hurt the baby? I know males cannot be housed together, but because we do not know the sex of the new babies, is it ok to put them together? Thanks for your help! -Mary

Answer
Hi Mary
I have found in general that Leopard Geckos do much better living in their own tanks/enclosures and that they are not in need of any company

Echo will be just fine living on his own but since you would like to explore breeding -you can get another baby and set up another tank for her and wait until she is at least 50 grams or 1 year old to put them together to breed

Male Leos can start breeding as young as 4 months old and of course this is not advised as they are still growing and they would be using up energy for breeding that they would otherwise put into growing

Also-It is VERY important to quarantine any new reptile that you bring into your home for at least 30 days-I quarantine for at least 90 days

Put the new Leo in its own tank and preferably in another room
Wash hands before handling either gecko to prevent any cross contamination

Yes-this does sound pretty severe but there are diseases/parasites such as Crypto in Leos that can wipe out an entire colony if exposed to them

You really do not want to put Leos with major size differences together as there can be bullying and an adult gecko can and will eat a small baby

Also-males and females are not usually kept together except when placed together for breeding as the male can stress the female with his constant attention and he can also forget about eating with mating on his mind

Yes-there are exceptions-but for the most part-it is just better to house them separately

I hope that this helps

Sandy aka LadyGecko