caught wild house gecko! opinions and info needed

[Starpphire Enigma]

so my son and i are getting ready to leave the house this morning, when a teny tiny house gecko runs inside! i caught him befor he could get eaten or lost in our house, and my son suggested we try to keep him. we have 3 reptiles, one being a leopard gecko, and ive done my research-

question- are wild caught house geckos ok to survive captivity ( i have a tank, a light, some plants, food, hides,substrait, etc- i have all that i need for the little guy)- id hate to make the poor guy suffer though.

if you guys can put in your two cents about the subject, it would be greatly apreciated in the mean time, ill make him comfortable and see how he does over the next couple hours being captive.

 

[ScottyB]

im not an expert by an means, but i would let it go. wouldnt hold it against you if you kept it, but i just think a wild animal would be much happier in the wild. Im pretty sure my pet shop guy lied to me when he said my tokay was cb and i just think of all the room she once had to roam in. im just happy that i got her and was able to put her in a big tank. i see a whole bunch of tree frogs at my gfs moms house that i would like to get , but my heart wont let me take them away from all of the 30-40 foot trees in there back yard. like i said i wouldnt be mad or anything if you did keep it because that would be stupid. there is a guy on here that is prety knowledgeable on herps. hes tag is riverside reptiles. i take his impute pretty seriously. id try to pm him if you need info. also there may be a care sheet link somewhere on the website. anyways good luck man.

 

[Starpphire Enigma]

thankyou very much ! i have no offence to anything you said- i feel the same way. ive done the caresheets, and have prepared as much as possible- ill give him a day, see if he eats- if he feels or looks like he is misserable, out he goes. should he thrive, ill do what i can to get him a large arborial tank and the nessesities/enjoyables he could use.

the only thing i can think of at the moment to justify this is how we have animals to start with. which i know everyone knows either way, i hope i make the right decisions in his case, and thats why i posted here for advice- you guys are wonderful

i would love to pm him- mabe later though, ive got to run to a doc appt.- no worries, the little guy is all set up and safe in his temp tank- ill mist and check the temp befor i go, and get him some baby crickets to nom later ( see if i have any babies first )

thanks again for such a fast response- im sure i wont have as many kind speakers as you

 

[ScottyB]

No problem. just trying to be courteous. there are a whole bunch of good people on this forum. good luck with the little guy and keep us updated.

 

[Starpphire Enigma]

hes actualy doing quite well- he is seemingly eating, very active, normal activities- so we will see from here {'v'}

 

[DC_Reptiles]

hes actualy doing quite well- he is seemingly eating, very active, normal activities- so we will see from here {'v'}

They dont require that big of setups... I house 4 adult females and 1 adult male in 15"Lx12"Wx18" with plenty of foliage and places for them to hide... mine seem to like flower pots and bark to hide under... also dont use no heat lamps... mine are kept at room temp (approx. 78 degrees) and i also use 2 led lights on the cages and 2 blue at night...

 

[Saskia]

I had one for a little time and it did very well actually, you know? not to offend anyone, and it is NOT my interest to make a discussion out of this, but I personally believe that reptiles live (if provided propper care) better in captivity.... let me explain myself.... I worked in a reptile zoo for 4 years, any many many many many times we had to "rescue" wild snakes, iguanas, monitors, etc that got into people's houses, and 9 out of 10 of those wild animals were in bad conditions, had scars, ticks, injuries, etc, and all the animals in the zoo were in SUCH great shape!! All fatty, alive looking, shiny skin, bright eyes! And I came to the conclusion that in general they do better in captivity, and also, reptiles are VERY primitive animals, they do not have a "family" or "society" sense, they pretty much look for covering their basic needs (food, water, righ temperature and reproduction) and that's it!! If a wild snake finds all that in 1 square meter she would probably not move from that square meter! Of course I am not saying that all reptiles should be captive because they have a very important function in the nature, I am just saying that if provided with enough space to be confortable, provided with right temperature, hides, water and food I doubt they "miss" the wildness ..... (of course I am not mentioning handeling them because that would stress them out), this is just MHO, they are not birds that can fly for miles, or lions that group in packs, of deers who run in the wild, if they don't need to move the won't move

 

[jpstodwftexas]

im not an expert by an means, but i would let it go. wouldnt hold it against you if you kept it, but i just think a wild animal would be much happier in the wild. Im pretty sure my pet shop guy lied to me when he said my tokay was cb and i just think of all the room she once had to roam in. im just happy that i got her and was able to put her in a big tank. i see a whole bunch of tree frogs at my gfs moms house that i would like to get , but my heart wont let me take them away from all of the 30-40 foot trees in there back yard. like i said i wouldnt be mad or anything if you did keep it because that would be stupid. there is a guy on here that is prety knowledgeable on herps. hes tag is riverside reptiles. i take his impute pretty seriously. id try to pm him if you need info. also there may be a care sheet link somewhere on the website. anyways good luck man.

I am curious..do you think wild born reptile have a sense of size ratio that Captive breed animals don't?
ALL captive Breed Animals have their source in the Wild. Someone took a Wild Pair out of their environment and breed them. Does a wild caught animal look through the Glass of a Cage and Know that there are Millions of Miles it can be running around in while a CB Animals say to itself "hey I am 30 feet in the Air" when it is 12 inches up on a Branch in a 18" Tank.

A well maintained animal is better off than a Wild animal..No predators, No lack of Food or Water..What is a Better life, a Baby Gazelle surrounded by lions in the wild or one surround by Lions protected from them by walls in a Zoo?

I do not advocate the complete removal of Animals from Wild and I do not believe that a Artificial Environment replicates a Natural Environment. Sadly daily animals die a slow horrible painful death in the wild and thats nature. It become cruel when we do it to them on purpose or through Neglect.

 

[Saskia]

I am curious..do you think wild born reptile have a sense of size ratio that Captive breed animals don't?
ALL captive Breed Animals have their source in the Wild. Someone took a Wild Pair out of their environment and breed them. Does a wild caught animal look through the Glass of a Cage and Know that there are Millions of Miles it can be running around in while a CB Animals say to itself "hey I am 30 feet in the Air" when it is 12 inches up on a Branch in a 18" Tank.

A well maintained animal is better off than a Wild animal..No predators, No lack of Food or Water..What is a Better life, a Baby Gazelle surrounded by lions in the wild or one surround by Lions protected from them by walls in a Zoo?

I do not advocate the complete removal of Animals from Wild and I do not believe that a Artificial Environment replicates a Natural Environment. Sadly daily animals die a slow horrible painful death in the wild and thats nature. It become cruel when we do it to them on purpose or through Neglect.

Exactly my point, they don't "miss" the wildness because they lack that part of the brain! They are primitive animals (with primitive and small brains) and therefor if their primitive needs are satisfied they live just fine! once again, they shouldn't be massively removed from their nature because they have a function there, but just one house gecko ..... :scratchhead: it's not that much

 

[ScottyB]

i kinda agree with both you guys. reptiles are pretty primitive. given the right conditions they really wont even move. my bearded dragon is pretty darn lazy. but my tokay gecko is pretty smart. it really didnt even take her a day to realize that the big white jug i put in her cage every night has food in it. i just feel that a wc reptile that has had a 30 foot tall tree to climb would recognize that its in a 30 gal. tank with boundaries and maybe a cb reptile would not no any different. now im not trying to say that reptiles even wild caught ones would benefit from being in captivity. a responsible herp owner will provide the best/right conditions that will allow them to live longer and healthier lives.

As for them living in packs/groups. Bearded dragons in Australia do live in large colonies with alpha males. they actually do better in groups. I dont know if this holds true for other herps but i sure they are not they only species.

as for just one gecko, its not that much. the tokay gecko in Asia is becoming a hot commodity. not only is it used by locals for medicine, but it is being over harvested for the pet trade in America. We might not even have any wc tokays in 20-30 years. who knows. It probably started with just one gecko.

Like I said in previous posts on this thread. Im not mad or anything for you catching it and the like. I would love to have a tree frog that is native to Ohio. I just wouldnt do it. How is the little guy by the way. Is he doing alright.

 

[Ricky_81]

Re:

im not an expert by an means, but i would let it go. wouldnt hold it against you if you kept it, but i just think a wild animal would be much happier in the wild.

I agree, but it could also mean a better life for him/her. Survival in the wild maybe quite hard (although natural), and for all we know some bird or snake gets to him. The changes of reaching a high age in captivity seems a little better. At least it gets plenty of food and would not be chased by hungry predators

I also have a couple of house gecko's and they seem at least somewhat happy with their life in captivity. They are well fed and look healthy and lay eggs.

So I am not sure of animals are always better off in the wild.. But I think how they are cared for makes a lot of a difference.

 

[zackleeright]

I too found a house gecko. I live in eastern N.C. so I thought I found a baby leopard gecko that someone released.. I found it only because I looked down as a co worker was shuffling his foot forward while sitting on the tail gate at break time. I looked at his foot and a little tiny gecko sticking out from under his foot. Looking up at me and doing jazz hands. I yelled for him to stop and grabbed his foot and rescued the lil guy. I have two leopard gecks so I figured I would try to help this one out. He had a deep bruise all the way around his midsection. I wasn't sure if he would make it. On the way home I stopped to get pin heads but only ones they had were too big. That's when the guy told me it was a med house gecko. He suggested I just turn it loose but I didn't want to leave the lil guy to his own devices just yet. I set a small tank and tried to feed him. I'm sure he was in pain but the next day he was stalking and eating termites nicely. I kept him for a week and then released him near my compost pile where he could get pleanty of fruit flies. I think they are adorable and would love to have a pair to keep inside. Would also like a dozen pair to turn loose for my insect control outside. I always have extra pin heads now because I'm breeding crickets. Today I dumped several hundred pin heads by the compost pile becuase I have no need for so many. It was last summer when I last saw the med gecko. I often hope it found a mate.