[acpart]

Anyone have an idea how long these guys live? Or for how many years you've successfully kept them. I am getting my first hatchlings and want to have good information to give people who buy them. I have had a few C.v.b. fail and die for no good reason: temperatures, humidity, supplementation and feeding seem to be OK. Both these guys were about 2 years old and that seems young to me, but I wanted to be sure.

Aliza

[Zilla]

One more question. Do they do better in a natural setup or with papertowel as a bedding. I am getting my first pair today and have some of the same concerns.

[acpart]

Originally Posted by Zilla

One more question. Do they do better in a natural setup or with papertowel as a bedding. I am getting my first pair today and have some of the same concerns.

This is what has worked for me, after lots of questions and thoughts and trying to balance their need to hide in crevices and burrow with the potential danger (in my opinion) of sand and having to dig up the whole cage to find eggs:

They are in a front-opening 20 long tank with ceramic tile as the basic substrate. They also have the following: a round hide with to entrances, a half-tube "Y" shaped hide that I made from ceramics, a square plastic container with coco fiber, a hole in the lid and small holes on 2 sides, a 10"x4" shallow ceramic dish (3/4") filled with a mixture of coco fiber and desert sand, covered loosely with another hide and some slate, a hollow "log". These days they spend most of their time in the ceramic tube, the round hide and the small spaces between all this stuff. They visit the other spaces regularly. They were laying eggs in the fiber and sand mix which was difficult because the sand would stick to the eggs but now they seem to be using the plastic container exclusively.

My hatchling, who is growing like a weed, is living in a tub in my rack because every other container seemed to be too big for her.

I hope this helps and that someone can let me know how long they have been able to maintain this species.

Aliza

[jpg]

I keep mine in a 10g with calcium sand, a rock cavern structure burried in the sand , upside down clay saucers w/a hole knocked out of the side and a rubbermaid container filled with moss and burried in the sand .

I finally got a male two weeks ago so I have yet to experience mating /egg rearing . Ill probably just let the eggs incubate in the tank though .

[acpart]

I'm happy to continue to discuss husbandry in another thread, but I still need to know about coleonyx lifespan, so if all discussion of husbandry could move somewhere else, it would help me a lot.

Aliza

[jpg]

I cant really help out with that as I dont know to many people with coleonyx or at least long term .

Im certain the life span is much more than 2 years and that the geckos died from some other cause than old age .

[erik]

i think that with this size of gecko the lifespan is around 8 to 10 years.

grtz,e

[acpart]

Originally Posted by erik

i think that with this size of gecko the lifespan is around 8 to 10 years.

grtz,e

Thanks, that makes sense to me.

Aliza

[Palor]

I know that Coleonyx mitratus (South American Banded Gecko) are listed as having a life span of 10+ years.

[aliceinwl]

I have female C.v.b. that I got as a wc adult from a friend about 6 years ago. She's still doing great and she has to be at least ~8.