Can my Juvenile and adult geckos live together?

Freja

New member
Hi all- I just recently joined this forum, and had a couple of questions.
My adult and juvenile Marblet Velvet geckos are living apart as I got them seperatly from the same breeder at different times. I was wondering if I might be able to put all four in same terrarium? Two are adult males and live in harmony together, the other two are unsexed juvenile, who likely are fathered my one if the adults.

Thanks lots- please let me know if you have any suggestions :)
 

acpart

Well-known member
I am not familiar with these geckos at all, so I can offer only some general guidelines:
--for many, though not all, species of gecko it is not recommended that males be placed together. Sometimes males raised together do fine until they become aware of females. For all I know, this species of gecko may be fine with males cohabiting, but I'd recommend some more research
--In my experience with the many gecko species I keep, juveniles who adhere to a juvenile feeding schedule (in the case of my geckos, this means needing to eat every day) are not appropriate to keep with adults, mostly because if they eat on this schedule, they are probably much smaller than the adults. I have not had problems housing sub-adults (i.e. maybe at 80-90% adult size) with other adults. In some cases, I had adult geckos of very different sizes (for example 100 gram and 60 gram geckos) doing well together
--If you house males and females together you will get breeding. If you're not prepared for housing and feeding offspring this can be a problem. If you choose not to incubate the eggs or allow them to develop, you are asking the female to use tremendous body resources for no result. If your unsexed juveniles are females and are related to the males, inbreeding for a generation or two is not a problem, but the dynamics of mixed gender groups can be difficult.

These are points to consider when making your decision.

Aliza
 

GeckoLeen

New member
I would also advocate more research on this species. MOST geckos are solitary, and are much healthier and happier alone. MOST male geckos will fight eventually. They may be fine for a while, until one day they aren't.

And, I'll ditto Aliza's comment on the breeding. Don't do it if you are not prepared for babies.
 
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