[bodom85]

The new cat geckos should be here soon. I set up a shoebox for them last night. Here is a photo:




Actually, as I started to post this they arrived. They appear to be in good health and look very nice. I didn't get a chance to take photos yet. I just want to confirm care and get some imput on people who have cared for them for a long time.

Temps: The range seems to be 65F for a low and 82F for a high with most people saying not over 77F-78F

Humidity: seems to be 65%-77% with the occasional rise to 90%

feeding for adults seems to be 4-6 appropriate sized crickets 2-3 times a week with weekly dusting of calcium and vits. Water is suggested to be Reverse osmosis.

If eggs are layed, incubation should be at like 75F for about 3 months give or take.

Please correct me if I'm wrong. There seems to be alot of conflicting info with bits and pieces agreeing. I just want to do whats best for the animals. These guys are very neat.

[Bowfinger]

Cage and plan looks good to me, I am glad they made it in good shape...it cost $72 to ship these lol, but have yet to have a problem with UPS. I would get some bedding in the center of the cage...I use peat, whats it called decomposed peat, not the dried out living peat.

[Royal-City-Reptiles]

that moss that you have in there looks like it has been dyed... do you know what it has been dyed with?? could be potentially detrimental to the cats health...

-Nate

[bodom85]

It is fluker moss bedding. I've used it a lot for leopard geckos, crested geckos and some of the snakes I keep. I've never had a problem with it. It does have a funky color though. I have it sitting on top of papertowel. It is very green but doesn't say anything about being dyed. It says its all natural. Again, I've used it alot with no problem. I also washed the leaves and logs off and dried them before putting everything together.

[DDReptiles]

The cage doesn't look very functional for a Cat gecko at all.

[Geckos and Goannas]

I do think the cage should be about 18 inches tall atleast. other than that its fine. also I wouldnt keep them together. Deffintly in a cage that small. Like Bowfinger said I would add peat to it or eco earth (coco coir). The flukers moss is dyed. They just dont say it on the bag. It is relitively safe you just have to worry about them swallowing it.

[bodom85]

Didn't know it was dyed. Like I said, I've used it for a few things with no ill effect. As for size of the cage, the walls are about 12" high. The cage is bigger than the photo looks. I'd say its about the floor space of a 20gal long. I'll look into peat or coco fiber. I may have a block of eco earth left over from the frogs I was keeping a while back. I'll look into getting a higher cage. I have a few more big shoeboxes sitting around. I may just build a cage too. I was planning on building one for my carpet python but maybe now I'll make a sectional cage for these guys and a few others smaller things I have floating around. I got the cage idea from a photo I saw on a care site. From what I gather, they have been kept together for a long time. I'm afraid they may be bonded and cause stress by seperating them. I've heard of this happening to leos and other bonded pairs. I'm sure Shane can fill me in more on that. For most of my cages, I don't go for natural nice looking setups. I go for simple and functional. Less to clean while making the animal happy and meeting their needs.

DDReptiles, I appriciate your opinion, but if you could specifiy what makes it not functional and what I could do to make it better. I read up on them and it said they were semi arboreal and liked privacy. There are 3 hides and things for them to climb. I'll dig in more and look for more cage photos to model after. Feel free to post photos of setups. Thanks again for the imput. Sorry for the long post.

[Riverside Reptiles]

Not how I'd set them up. But to each their own. Then again, I've never tried keeping mine in a shoe box. It might work fine. If you dig through the old posts, you can see what my enclosures look like. Might be of some help, or not.

[DDReptiles]

1st, I wouldn't house both of them together
2nd I would use a tank at least 18 inches tall
3rd I would get rid of the log hides, they are arboreal geckos so they won't be utilized much
4th, I would add some cork bark, oak branches, vines, plants, etc. for more climbing/hiding spots.
5th, I would lose the moss, and depending on how big the cats are (I assume they are adults) I would use peat moss or coco fiber, for babies stick with the paper towel.

Not trying to bash your cage or anything, just fifured I would give you a real answer and not just the generic "Great cage" response.

Thanks Derek

[Bowfinger]

Actually guys, I kept 3 pairs over the last year 1/2 to 2 years, one pair per shoe box with less space than this yet fairly similar i.e. hiding spaces small climb etc and my guys where producing like crazy. Geckos don't breed just because you make a cage big or tall, they just need to be comfortable and given the proper nutrients. My geckos had this in a much smaller set up, together at that and the geckos bodom85 got have been together since 06, growing up together as sub-adults.
I would not bash what works, I made $2,000+ off of these three pairs (granted one pair was silver eyes) and probably could mass breed for good money like this if I wanted to...you can to...but, I want to focus on my cyrto's. Also, I observed my geckos, they looked healthy and behaved as if content, happy all that good stuff. Oh, and one more thing, when I got them out to ship, picked up one coconut shell, no gecko, second, no geckos and at the third one there the two where, male sleeping on the female curled up together.

So, I think the cage is just right, except take the paper towel out and add decomposed peat. Also, not needed, but mine did prefer coconut halves over your type of hide when I offered both.