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I care for all of
my Rhacodactylus in almost the exact
same way. Because of this, I have
provided a care sheet to cover all of
them, with notes on variances where
appropriate.
Feeding
I feed all of my Rhacs almost
exclusively on the Repashy Superfoods
produced by Allen Repashy. (Click
here to learn more about this diet.)
On occasion, I feed crickets, roaches,
or even pinky mice as a treat for my
geckos. In the wild, these geckos eat
over ripe fruit and insects, and for
this reason I do mix real fruit into the
food from time to time.
Housing
I house all my geckos in either
glass or plastic enclosures. I do not
use all screen cages because I feel that
it is too hard to keep humidity up this
way. My enclosures are as small as the
mid size plastic containers you can buy
almost anywhere, up to 60 gallon custom
built homes for my larger leachies. I
provide more height than width for all
of my geckos except for my gargoyles,
which need more floor surface than
height.
Humidity
All of the Rhacodactylus require a
heavy misting at night, and should take
most of the day to dry out. If you
notice your geckos are drying out too
fast, or if they are still wet when you
go to re-mist, adjust accordingly.
Substrate
I use paper towel or commercial cage
liners for all my geckos, but some
people find coconut shell bedding more
appealing. I do not recommend using this
type of bedding if you are going to be
feeding insects because it can cause
intestinal impaction in your geckos.
This also makes finding eggs a game of
hide and seek. For breeding, I make a
next box with the coconut bedding inside
a plastic container set in a discreet
corner of the tank, so I know exactly
where to look for eggs.
Decoration
I make sure all of my geckos have
cover at all levels of their cages. I
place fake plants at all levels of the
cage so they may move up and down
picking a place they're comfortable as
they would naturally. Using live plants
is also a viable option, as long as it
is a non toxic plant. Keeping your
geckos without adequate hiding areas
will stress them to a level that will
prevent them from eating."
Heating and
Lighting
I actually use no heating or
lighting for my geckos. Room temperature
is fine for them, but I tend to keep
mine slightly warmer by placing their
enclosures near my snake tanks. Whatever
you prefer between 68 and 77 degrees
should work fine for your collection.
Water
I keep
a bowl of clean, filtered water in my
cages at all times for my geckos, even
though I rarely if ever see them
drinking from them. Most of the water
they need they will drink at night
during your misting. Note that if you
buy a gecko from me locally, you most
likely have Chicago water, which is
chlorinated. This makes Chicago water
good for tank cleaning, but bad for
gecko drinking. Yes, my geckos drink
bottled water.
Why you shouldn’t feed baby food
With a
chance of doing something like this to
your animal, why risk it?
I have people
tell me all the time that they still
feed baby food, or that the breeder they
bought from told them baby food was what
their gecko should eat. I do admit that
when I first bought a crested I fed baby
food, and that I do know people that use
baby food and appear to have no problem.
However, I know of far, far more
instances when the gecko suffered from
serious metabolic bone disease due to
the lack of good diet. Below you can see
some pictures of two female gargoyles
that are both two years old. The
gargoyle on the left grew up on Repashy
Superfoods only, and the one on the right
on crickets and baby food.
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