Lygodactylus kimhowelli

[Kevin McRae]

Anyone else keeping these? One thing I like about keeping geckos is you can get beautiful species for cheap! I have a pair of these guys, and their alot of fun. I feed them house flies, mealworms and banana. They are currently in a 5 gallon critter keeper, with live plants and peat moss substrate.

I keep them at 80 F, and 60 % Humidity.

Sound good? How do you guys keep yours? Got any pics of your geckos and enclosures?

 

[Lygodactylus]

I keep them the same way as my Phelsuma's. In this topic you see pics of how I keep them: http://geckosunlimited.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8245 (the left two enclosures in the upper row contain pairs of L. kimhowelli)

 

[geckomaster]

I got mine pretty cheap as well along with a pair of mourning geckos. They all share a decent sized screen enclosure with a large leafy plant. Temps in the high 70's and twice a day misting and a uv lamp. The lygo's are I believe a 2.1 ratio. I saw her gravid once but as of yet have seen no offspring. They get along great with the mournings, but I'd like to get 3-5 more females as I have mucho room to spare. Hopefully I along with some of you other lygo newbies can have some success breeding them. Does anyone know where they lay their eggs. The mournings are attached up high, but I saw a pair at the base of the leaf of the plant and wonder if they belong to the lygos?

thanks,

Mark

 

[Lygodactylus]

The eggs are mostly layed in the armpits of plants or inside bamboo pipes. Most of the time they produce two eggs at a time, but sometimes only one (here mostly at the end of the breeding season).

 

[geckomaster]

Thanks so much, that's great news as the eggs I was curious about are in the armpits of the plant, which I thought was odd as the mournings always lay theirs at the upper corners of the tank. Do you think I should leave them in the plant (I'm worried cause mournings are voracious little beasts and may chow on them upon hatching) or should I remove them to incubate and if so what humidity and heat do you recommend?

thanks,

mark

 

[Lygodactylus]

I always take the eggs out and place them in an incubator, because not only mourning geckos, but also the adult kimhowelli's prefer hatchlings as food source...
I incubate them at 27 degrees Celcius and a humidity of about 60%. At that temperature, it will take around 80-90 days till hatching. I also bred them at higher temperatures, but then you get mostly males..