Sphaerodactylus care help needed

[Keri]

I have not been able to leave the sunshine coast to get to the city to find cork bark Hopefully soon. I am seeing it for sale online though and if I can't get out that way soon I'll go that route. In my internet "window shopping" I've come across dried magnolia leaves. We have magnolias here, could I heat-dry some leaves and add them to the tank? I'm sure she could hide in them as she is very small. I've also got some bamboo to add vertical hiding spots.

I have also changed the cage around a bit, mixed in sand to keep it drier, added a large rock, more fake leaves on the ground, bamboo pieces and a pipe for him to hide in.

A bit better?
Unfortunately my stepfather brutalized his magnolia tree this year trimming it right down to nubs so it's barely got any leaves but I will find some elsewhere.

 

[hexentanz]

I have also changed the cage around a bit, mixed in sand to keep it drier, added a large rock, more fake leaves on the ground, bamboo pieces and a pipe for him to hide in.

A bit better?
Unfortunately my stepfather brutalized his magnolia tree this year trimming it right down to nubs so it's barely got any leaves but I will find some elsewhere.

Did you mix in the sand very thoroughly? At the moment it looks a bit too sandy and in need of a good mixing.

It is possible to use a number of leaf types: Bamboo, Tree Fern, Oak, Beech, Catappa - You just need to give them a good soaking if you collect any from the wild and let them dry out well.

You could until you find some cork use some small upturned clay pots, with a wide enough hole at the bottom end for her to enter through and hide in or cut some styrofoam cups in half and lay them over the soil.

 

[Keri]

I mixed it a lot but the cocofibre was mostly dry and seems to have stuck together a bit? I mixed it while in the tank too so the edges may be a little bit less mixed. I will remix it again in a couple of days, let her settle down again from her time in the highball glass while cleaning, she hates it!

I will go find some little clay pots and I have bamboo in my yard so I will wash and dry some leaves of that too.

Thank you

 

[hexentanz]

I mixed it a lot but the cocofibre was mostly dry and seems to have stuck together a bit? I mixed it while in the tank too so the edges may be a little bit less mixed. I will remix it again in a couple of days, let her settle down again from her time in the highball glass while cleaning, she hates it!

I will go find some little clay pots and I have bamboo in my yard so I will wash and dry some leaves of that too.

Thank you

Yeah that is a big problem with the cocofibre, when it is wet it is often too wet and when it wants to dry out it does so too much, which is why I use a Sphagnum Peat Moss, Cocofibre, Soil and Sand mix in all of my tanks (all fertilizer free btw!). This creates not only a nice fluffy soil that the geckos like, but the plants like it too and it does not have the chance to become overly wet unless you really heavily spray. The humidity stays just right with it too.

 

[Keri]

It may not be perfect (yet) but it's gotta be more natural than the hotel/suitcase this girl was living in prior to coming to me!

 

[Keri]

So I went and raided the bamboo growing in my back yard and I took each long leaf and curled it around a fat marker securing it with a rubber band till they dried and now she's got a bunch of leaf tubes!


I also picked up a piece of wood with several tillandsias on it that I may add to the cage after soaking it several times to be sure no pesticides are on it (The flower shop assured me there weren't but just in case)

 

[hexentanz]

So I went and raided the bamboo growing in my back yard and I took each long leaf and curled it around a fat marker securing it with a rubber band till they dried and now she's got a bunch of leaf tubes!


I also picked up a piece of wood with several tillandsias on it that I may add to the cage after soaking it several times to be sure no pesticides are on it (The flower shop assured me there weren't but just in case)

Be careful with soaking the Tillandsia, they do not like things wet and if kept this way, or even with a few soakings you can kill off the plant.

You can smell pesticides and fertilizer very well. Both smell like chemicals naturally, but the fertilizer smell will be stronger.

 

[Keri]

So I ended up crossing the border this weekend and went to check out the Emerald City Reptile Expo in Seattle and picked up 2 cork tubes. How can I sterilize them? Having been at a reptile show I worry about mites, I haven;t even brought them in my house yet lol. Can I bake them for a bit?

 

[hexentanz]

So I ended up crossing the border this weekend and went to check out the Emerald City Reptile Expo in Seattle and picked up 2 cork tubes. How can I sterilize them? Having been at a reptile show I worry about mites, I haven;t even brought them in my house yet lol. Can I bake them for a bit?

I have gotten quite a few things at reptile shows (cork, leaves, bamboo, etc) and never did any sterilizing with them and have not had any issues. If I tear down a vivarium however and have a really cool piece of cork i'd love to save and it is small enough to do so I toss them in the dishwasher without any soap (and anything else in there) and give it a run through. Never had any issue with this as well.

 

[Keri]

I should mention that this gecko passed away a little while ago She was eating very well, no shedding problems and quite active but then I found her dead in the cage .... I guess without knowing her history I'll never know how old she was but it was rather sudden?

 

[Yann]

Hi!!

Very sad to hear your loss...
Possibly she had problem laying egg??
That is often a reason for losing females...
Cheers
Yann

 

[Keri]

Hi!!

Very sad to hear your loss...
Possibly she had problem laying egg??
That is often a reason for losing females...
Cheers
Yann

That's entirely possible, if they retain sperm for long periods or she had decided to lay on her own.

Thanks, you guys we a big help with a species I was unfamiliar with, I just tried to make her time here as comfortable for her as possible, I'm sure moving to Canada wasn't what she had in mind when she hid in that suitcase!

 

[hexentanz]

I'm sorry to hear that! Sphaerodactylus can be tough little animals to care for. I lost several females when I started out.