I caught a juvenile house gecko with a regrown tail on Sunday this week. I've been planning on getting a crested gecko eventually, so I'm not entirely clueless about geckos, and I know a fair bit abut reptiles and cold blooded critters in general. They're also an invasive species in my area, so removing it is for the best.
Anyway, for lack of better housing, I put it in a large cookie jar with the intention of buying it a proper setup next time I went to the pet store. I figured it would be too stressed out to eat, but I did offer it two small crickets on Monday night... and to my surprise, it happily munched them down! I gave it another two last night, one of which is still alive, and I've been misting the enclosure for a water source.
For those of you who keep this species, I have a few questions, which are as follows:
1. How large of an enclosure do they need? I'm thinking 10-20 gallons would be optimal, but it's a juvenile that's only half the size of most adults I've seen, so it could probably fare well in 5 at the moment.
2. What substrate do you use? I have it on coconut fiber at the moment, as that's what I use for my mantis, but I've heard it can cause impactions.
3. Heating requirements?? My gecko is doing fine at room temperature for now, but I want to be the best gecko mom possible. My house always stays between 70-80 F, generally around 77-80 this time of year.
4. How much, how often, and what to feed? So far it's happy with crickets, but won't even (figuratively) bat an eyelid at mealworms or crane flies. Crane flies are a bit big for it, though.
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5. Can they be housed communally? If I can get a large enough terrarium set up, I'd be interested in keeping two of them, maybe even a breeding pair.
Thanks for any advice! I really appreciate it, and my new gecko probably will, too!
Anyway, for lack of better housing, I put it in a large cookie jar with the intention of buying it a proper setup next time I went to the pet store. I figured it would be too stressed out to eat, but I did offer it two small crickets on Monday night... and to my surprise, it happily munched them down! I gave it another two last night, one of which is still alive, and I've been misting the enclosure for a water source.
For those of you who keep this species, I have a few questions, which are as follows:
1. How large of an enclosure do they need? I'm thinking 10-20 gallons would be optimal, but it's a juvenile that's only half the size of most adults I've seen, so it could probably fare well in 5 at the moment.
2. What substrate do you use? I have it on coconut fiber at the moment, as that's what I use for my mantis, but I've heard it can cause impactions.
3. Heating requirements?? My gecko is doing fine at room temperature for now, but I want to be the best gecko mom possible. My house always stays between 70-80 F, generally around 77-80 this time of year.
4. How much, how often, and what to feed? So far it's happy with crickets, but won't even (figuratively) bat an eyelid at mealworms or crane flies. Crane flies are a bit big for it, though.
lease5. Can they be housed communally? If I can get a large enough terrarium set up, I'd be interested in keeping two of them, maybe even a breeding pair.
Thanks for any advice! I really appreciate it, and my new gecko probably will, too!