[Peter B]

Hi,

A couple of weeks ago i purchased 2.3 Ptenopus garrulus garrulus.At the moment i keep them in quarantaine-boxes with only 1 cm of playsand as substrate and one pair in a terrarium with 4 cm of sand. They dig like rabbits. In the terrarium with the thickest layer i try to keep the bottom-layer moist so it stays solid enough to dig in.
I was wondering if anybody has experience with these Ptenopus and what your idea's are about substrate. Which type of sand do you use? Playsand? Fine sand? Desert-sand? How thick is the layer? How do you find the eggs when you use a thick layer?
Thanks for your help.

[David]

Hey Peter!
how are they feeding? They look skinny, you should try to offer some waxmoths, red runners nymphs work fine also.

Here is an example of the setup I'm using for them. I put 2-3cm of desert sand that harden after spraying (fine play sand remains too humid). I mist the plastic shelter once or twice per week.

[David]

Once they have adapted shelters and get used to it, they will stop excavating everywhere.

[sune jensen]

I have different experience.

Years ago I kept them, including some breeding succes (not much)

I think it is important for them to be able to dig tunnels in order to feel safe and keep hydrated (they probably absorb moisture through the skin like soft skinned nephrurus, T. microlepis etc.). Therefor I kept them in a cage with around 5-10 cm. sand. Moist in one end. Other end had dry hide with an upside down potting plant saucer. I used red terrarium sand. This seems to contains some clay and allows the geckos to dig stabile tunnels.

By this method of keeping you don't really see them a lot. But after all they are borrowing geckos and I suppose we should accept that. And the few times you do see them they look healthy. At least mine did. Finding eggs was no problem to me. They were laid in dry loose sand in the hot end. They are single egg layers in my experince.

I'm not arguing that the method David is suggesting is wrong. Just sharing my experience.

Also, I agree with David that they look skinny. Wax moth larvae could solve that problem - if they will eat them. Another possibility would be to offer them as many relatively small black cricket (gryllus bimaculats) as they care to eat for whatever time period of time it takes to get them fatter. But the skinny issue could also be related to dehydration. Once again the need to be able to dig into moist sand comes into mind,

Best,
Sune

[David]

first of all my experience is limited (about 6 months) and I didn't breed them yet, need to wait next year before I would introduce them

I think your method is more logical and natural

when I got mine, my point was to find a setup where they will feel secure but that allow me to give them proper care and watch them carefully

so I followed Jon's suggestions as it was close to my needs

until then, they are thriving, eating anything at any time, sometimes my males even continue to bark in front of my hands while I'm removing dirts
they never show any behavorial disorders since they find their half cutted tubs
so I decided to let them thriving in that type of enclosure, time will tell

[sune jensen]

I suppose both methods can be sufficient. It is a matter of priority: one method (mine) is possibly more 'natural'. The other method (Davids) allows for better monitoring of the animals.
Anyway, I hope you will be succesful (both Peter and David). These are not geckos that are easy to produce in large numbers so the hobby could really benefit from more succesful keepers,

Best
Sune

[Peter B]

Dear David,
Dear Sune,

Thank you both for your very usefull comments. I will take them at heart.
3 of the 5 animals i have are indeed pretty skinny. I normally never buy wildcaught animals but this time...... I keep them seperately and feed them every day about 5 waxworms each so they gain weight bit by bit. I will also try small ckrickets next week. I think they were also a bit dehydrated when i bought them. I spray the vivariums lightly every day at one end to provide them with moisture.
I don't know if any of you tried to keep them in group? I am thinking about installing my 2.3 in a 120cm long vivarium but i don't know if the males would fight?

Thanks again.

[Minhawali]

Hi Peter,

I thought I had the only Ptenopus in Belgium.

I keep mine on 2 to 3 cm red desert sand.
I have 3.3. and I keep them seperate.

I spray them every other day.
I feed mine crickets without any problems. Little pigs.

Succes,
Johan.

[Peter B]

Hi Johan,

Shared luck is double luck
Let me know when you have your first young.

[ptenopus]

I would strongly advise you to keep all Ptenopus species, and especially acclimating garrulus garrulus singly, in shoeboxes with a thin layer of sand. Cut some PVC or paper towel tubes in half, longways to make artificial tunnels for them. Keep them warm and dark. No night time temperature fluctuation is needed. I recommend keeping the temps in the low 80's on the warm side and mid 70's on the cool side until they have gained some weight. Then bump the temps up to 78-80 on the cool side, and 88-90 on the warm side. They do enjoy wax worms, but only one or two at a time, as they will eat more, but regurgitate them later. Lighty mist the boxes twice per week

Keeping them in a group is fine once everyone is healthy. Just monitor the animals......very important when keeping them in a group......very difficult when they are 5 cm under sand. They will have minor squabbles and bicker here and there, but usually everything works out fine. Sometimes over-aggressive males will bully females into not eating. Keep an eye out for this.....I've had many more problems with this than with males bothering each other.