Hi,
I translated my care sheet from
www.zwerggeckos.com to reach the english readers too
I hope it is understandable! If you find mistakes or uncommon words please tell me.
OK there it is:
Paroedura androyensis
Distribution
The genus
Paroedura can be found together with 13 other endemic species in Madagascar. One
Paroedura species (
P. sanctijohannis) belongs to the Comoros. Even today new species of this genus are discovered and there will be more
Paroedura species in the forests and open areas of Madagascar.
Paroedura androyensis can be found in the south and east of Madagascar.
Description
Growing up to only 7 cm length
P. androyensis counts to the small species of the genus
Paroedura. Males stay a little smaller (mostly under 7 cm) and can be recognized by the clearly thicker basis of the tale (Hemipenis pockets). Other gender specific differences are not to be found. For beginners it is sometimes very difficult to differentiate the sex of the adults and it could be necessary to compare the gender directly, because the females do have a more or less thick basis of the tale too.
The base color of the animals is brown-grey, sometimes fawn to light brown with lighter and darker markings. Often hatchlings are looking very different. Even if some adults are lighter and some are darker the mature animals appear mostly very similar. The ventral site of the geckos does look light-colored nearly white without any colored marks. The base color of the throat is white; it is interspersed by dark brown to black stripes. The dorsal marking appears as fawn-brown rhombus pattern starting from the neck down to the basis of the tale. The conspicuous fat and whorled tale is lighter than the rest of the body.
Habitats
Paroedura androyensis is an inhabitant of primary and secondary forests and woods. It can be found in the leaf litter, in root areas and the basis of trees. Home of the species are forests of deciduous trees with distinct dry and rain seasons while temperature stays nearly the same all over the year. Near the ground it can become sometimes very warm.
Keeping and breeding P.androyensis
The madagscar bighead geckos are very popular in circles of gecko keepers certainly because of their typical gecko habitus with big eyes, childlike face and characteristic feet. Ancillary to commonly bred and kept
P.picta there are also
P. bastardy, P. masobe,
P.sumpffi, P. gracilis and
P. vazimba to be found in german terrariums.
Paroedura androyensis is not easy to get and it is even harder to find CBs of this nice geckos.
For one male and two to three females a tank with a ground area of 60x40 cm is enough. The tank should contain a lot of hiding places and structure. Craggy cork tubes and branches as well as bark at the back wall are more liked than even ground. Planting is up to the keeper. Some areas of the soil in the tank should be relatively dry. There the females burrow their eggs. If every place is very humid they will get problems to find an acceptable spot to lay the eggs, the risk of eggbound would rise. Every 3 to 4 weeks the females lay two eggs. The clutch is burrowed in a depth of 2 to 7 cm in the dry soil. Sometimes eggs are placed under barks or the leaf litter (but commonly they are unfertilized in such cases). It is better to take the eggs out of the tank to incubate them. It is necessary to be very careful while handling the clutch because they have a fine eggshell. Incubated at 25-30°C the offsprings are hatching after 65-90 days. The female should be fed very varied and they need to have the possibility for calcium uptake all the time. Favored prey of
Paroedura androyensis are woodlice,
Thermobia domestica, small crickets, flies and insects caught from grasslands.
Offsprings should be kept single in boxes or in small groups (feed enough!). If fed varied breeding is no problem.
Paroedura androyensis is a highly active and a well to monitor gecko that brings life in the nights and evenings of the terrarium. A lot of the behavior could be read from the tale of the animals. Hunting geckos at night wear the rolled up tale like a mirror of their mind. Excitement, danger or stress is translated into tale movement.
Paroedura androyensis walks not very fast. In dangerous situations or while hunting they can be surprisingly speedy. If a gecko is caught it happens that it articulates its displeasure loudly. With wide open mouth they audible squeak. At intraspecific conflicts (which seem to be very rare) this was not observed yet. In contrast to many descriptions Paroedura androyensis does not prefer the ground area of the tank. Very often they are moving at branches and back wall barks. Tubes that lay on the ground are mostly not accepted as hiding places. Instead the geckos use tubes and cracks in the bark of the back wall and hiding places in the upper area of the tank. Contrary to some experiences which could be found in the internet, these geckos (when fed well and manifold) are durable and do not prone to deficiency syndromes. Probably these findings are based on enfeebled wild caught.
Co-housing with other small geckos like
Lygodactylus williamsi or
Gonatodes ocellatus is no problem, some breeding experience and an adequate terrarium assumed.
Regards
Sacha
3Likes
Paroedura androyensis care
I love these guys and hope they get more attention. I've got 1 adult male and what I believe to be a subadult female right now. They're a blast to observe hunting and have wonderful patterns.![[B][U]Strophurus williamsi 3:2 Group or Pairs..,](http://www.geckosunlimited.com/community/./vbclassified/uploaded/thumbnails/402ib9vlcb.jpg)
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