Hallo dearest Forum members,
Since this is my first post in the forum i should probably start with an introduction just so you know what kind of pet owner i am.
I have never kept any reptiles, but i guess i was alway very fascinated by them, gekkos especially i loved to catch during my summer holidays in italy. As time passed i stopped because i felt bad about 2 of them loosing their tailes in the process, choosing to observe them instead.
Now a couple years later i have a couple of invertebrates as pets that i considered easier to start with and get accoustomed to taking care of on a regular basis. Those include 4 birdspiders (2 Pamphobeteus sp. machala, 2 Lasiodora parahybana), a communal of whipspiders (euphrinichus bacillifer), phasmides (Aretaon asperrimus), as well as a growing colony of roaches (B. lateralis) and fruitflies (D. melanogaster) as feeders.
All my animals so far i got from people that breed them. I dont like most petstores.
Now i will get to the situation at hand. I got the chance to receave a gecko egg for free and incubated it without knowing the species first. It was an impule decition and i dont regret it but still, not smart. At the time i didn't even think it was going to hatch at all, but thought i would try.
2 months later on MY birthday the surprise, the gecko had hatched. I panicked and instantly researched as much as i could about the little bugger because i had simply neglected to do so beforehand. Turns out it is a Gekko monarchus. I can't really say were i got it from, but lets say zoos are not actualy allowed to give them away were i live.
Its ancestors were from Borneo though.
Now at first i didn't find much and if i hadn't known the origins of the gecko i probably would have never found the species. I then procceded to seek help from a german reptile forum and even found a guy who breeds them, but he was very stingy with advice, merely stating that they are very tolerant, robust and that i should keep him like a Gekko gekko and by him HIS gekko food.
Now i even bought i small book on Gekko gekko, but i couldnt help but notice that Tokey hatchlings are much bigger at first and it is exactly the first few months i am worried about.
And in fact it didnt eat for the first two weeks, which had me extremly worried. I had left it in the incubation box at first, to better monitor its feeding behavior. Provided Banana-Apple-Hony mush, vitamin/mineral dusted D. melanogaster and even a pinhead cricked. It didnt touch any of it, i knew it probably still had some yolk but still.
I didn't catch it eating but i saw the flys grooming themselves, cleaning off the powder. IS THIS A PROBLEM?
Finally after 2 weeks it pooped and must have eaten at least 4 fruit flys and pooped 2 more times in the last week so i decided to move it into a hopefully proper rearing enclosure. A 20x20x20 foodgrade plastic box filled with a 50/50 mixture of clay-rich dirt from the woods in my area and rose-earth (i dont like using coco fibre or perlite etc.), i added 3 peaces of corkbark, a stone(wall) and detrivores likre springtails and a few isopods. The box has 3 vents in the side, Close to the substrate as well as a bigger one in the top to create an airflow and proper air circulation. All those are fitted with a 0,5 mm steelwire mesch, to keep D. melanogaster in and keep pesky other flys out. I also added a few leaves. I mist once a day if i think its not to damp.
For lighting i decided to forego any lamps at the moment as it is summer and temperatures range from 20+°C in the night to 26-32°C (sorry i have no clue how to read °F, Kelvin is ok). The room has a West facing window, with the animal-rack on the south wall, where it is bright but the sun never touches the cages directly. Gekko monarchus is nocturnal anyway and doesnt need all that much UVB. AT LEAST THATS WHAT I FOUND, FEEL FREE TO ENLIGHTEN ME IF YOU KNOW BETTER!!!
ANY INSIGHTS REGARDING HOUSING, FOOD, ETC. ARE WELCOME, I KNOW THIS METHOD WORKS GREAT FOR MANY INVERTEBRATES LIKE MY WHIPSPIDERS AND I DO THINK THAT BOTH ANIMALS WOULD ENJOY THE SAME KINDS OF CREVICES IN NATURE BUT STILL I HAVE NO EXPERIENCE WITH PROPER REPTILE CARE.
For the winter, which does get pretty cold in austria i have bought a small heat mat/tape. My room shouldnt get colder than 16°C though. CAN IT TOLERATE THAT OR DO I NEED TO GET A HEATEABLE CABINET IN ADDITION TO THE HEAT TAPE I WILL INSTALL IN THE PROPER GLASS TANK SETUP I PLAN ON BUILDING IN THE NEXT MONTHS?
One thing i am curious about is the hatchlings behavior. In the incubation box, which was very small, to be honest too small probably the gecko never ventured from the 1 small piece of corkbark i gave it, even if it didnt like the white paper towel i used to control humidity i would have expected it to al least move on the flat black stone i put in as well, but it never did climb on it. As soon as i put it into the bigger rearing-box though it started exploring its surroundings, and since then i have seen it on multible different locations (hopefully hunting xd) but generally beeing hidden a lot. 20x20x20 ISN'T TOO BIG FOR THAT TINY THING, IS IT? It certenly seems like it is much more relaxed and curious now in comparison to his ald spartan enclosure.
Sry for the longwinded questions i just hope to torough and give you all the info to properly jugde how i treat the animal and to give me useful advice for the benefit of the animal. I will try to post a few pictures next so you can see waht i have been describing.
Thx in advance,
Wolfram
Since this is my first post in the forum i should probably start with an introduction just so you know what kind of pet owner i am.
I have never kept any reptiles, but i guess i was alway very fascinated by them, gekkos especially i loved to catch during my summer holidays in italy. As time passed i stopped because i felt bad about 2 of them loosing their tailes in the process, choosing to observe them instead.
Now a couple years later i have a couple of invertebrates as pets that i considered easier to start with and get accoustomed to taking care of on a regular basis. Those include 4 birdspiders (2 Pamphobeteus sp. machala, 2 Lasiodora parahybana), a communal of whipspiders (euphrinichus bacillifer), phasmides (Aretaon asperrimus), as well as a growing colony of roaches (B. lateralis) and fruitflies (D. melanogaster) as feeders.
All my animals so far i got from people that breed them. I dont like most petstores.
Now i will get to the situation at hand. I got the chance to receave a gecko egg for free and incubated it without knowing the species first. It was an impule decition and i dont regret it but still, not smart. At the time i didn't even think it was going to hatch at all, but thought i would try.
2 months later on MY birthday the surprise, the gecko had hatched. I panicked and instantly researched as much as i could about the little bugger because i had simply neglected to do so beforehand. Turns out it is a Gekko monarchus. I can't really say were i got it from, but lets say zoos are not actualy allowed to give them away were i live.
Its ancestors were from Borneo though.
Now at first i didn't find much and if i hadn't known the origins of the gecko i probably would have never found the species. I then procceded to seek help from a german reptile forum and even found a guy who breeds them, but he was very stingy with advice, merely stating that they are very tolerant, robust and that i should keep him like a Gekko gekko and by him HIS gekko food.
Now i even bought i small book on Gekko gekko, but i couldnt help but notice that Tokey hatchlings are much bigger at first and it is exactly the first few months i am worried about.
And in fact it didnt eat for the first two weeks, which had me extremly worried. I had left it in the incubation box at first, to better monitor its feeding behavior. Provided Banana-Apple-Hony mush, vitamin/mineral dusted D. melanogaster and even a pinhead cricked. It didnt touch any of it, i knew it probably still had some yolk but still.
I didn't catch it eating but i saw the flys grooming themselves, cleaning off the powder. IS THIS A PROBLEM?
Finally after 2 weeks it pooped and must have eaten at least 4 fruit flys and pooped 2 more times in the last week so i decided to move it into a hopefully proper rearing enclosure. A 20x20x20 foodgrade plastic box filled with a 50/50 mixture of clay-rich dirt from the woods in my area and rose-earth (i dont like using coco fibre or perlite etc.), i added 3 peaces of corkbark, a stone(wall) and detrivores likre springtails and a few isopods. The box has 3 vents in the side, Close to the substrate as well as a bigger one in the top to create an airflow and proper air circulation. All those are fitted with a 0,5 mm steelwire mesch, to keep D. melanogaster in and keep pesky other flys out. I also added a few leaves. I mist once a day if i think its not to damp.
For lighting i decided to forego any lamps at the moment as it is summer and temperatures range from 20+°C in the night to 26-32°C (sorry i have no clue how to read °F, Kelvin is ok). The room has a West facing window, with the animal-rack on the south wall, where it is bright but the sun never touches the cages directly. Gekko monarchus is nocturnal anyway and doesnt need all that much UVB. AT LEAST THATS WHAT I FOUND, FEEL FREE TO ENLIGHTEN ME IF YOU KNOW BETTER!!!
ANY INSIGHTS REGARDING HOUSING, FOOD, ETC. ARE WELCOME, I KNOW THIS METHOD WORKS GREAT FOR MANY INVERTEBRATES LIKE MY WHIPSPIDERS AND I DO THINK THAT BOTH ANIMALS WOULD ENJOY THE SAME KINDS OF CREVICES IN NATURE BUT STILL I HAVE NO EXPERIENCE WITH PROPER REPTILE CARE.
For the winter, which does get pretty cold in austria i have bought a small heat mat/tape. My room shouldnt get colder than 16°C though. CAN IT TOLERATE THAT OR DO I NEED TO GET A HEATEABLE CABINET IN ADDITION TO THE HEAT TAPE I WILL INSTALL IN THE PROPER GLASS TANK SETUP I PLAN ON BUILDING IN THE NEXT MONTHS?
One thing i am curious about is the hatchlings behavior. In the incubation box, which was very small, to be honest too small probably the gecko never ventured from the 1 small piece of corkbark i gave it, even if it didnt like the white paper towel i used to control humidity i would have expected it to al least move on the flat black stone i put in as well, but it never did climb on it. As soon as i put it into the bigger rearing-box though it started exploring its surroundings, and since then i have seen it on multible different locations (hopefully hunting xd) but generally beeing hidden a lot. 20x20x20 ISN'T TOO BIG FOR THAT TINY THING, IS IT? It certenly seems like it is much more relaxed and curious now in comparison to his ald spartan enclosure.
Sry for the longwinded questions i just hope to torough and give you all the info to properly jugde how i treat the animal and to give me useful advice for the benefit of the animal. I will try to post a few pictures next so you can see waht i have been describing.
Thx in advance,
Wolfram
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