Reptile & Amphibian Forums

he is a desert banded gecko. I have tried ants, tiny water beetles but they are all too small or too big. I am going to petsmart tomorrow morning to pick up some baby crickets. I don't know if they will be too big but I have to try. I can't release him in the immediate are because of all the cats and pesticides.

First of all...its not a desert banded gecko. Look, he has toepads and no free eyelids.
Its not so easy to ID babies from one pic. If you tell me, where you caught him, that may help.
You may feed him baby crickets, Drosophila, Alphitobius larvae, field plancton et etc.
Easy to raise.

Ci@o

Ingo

In Arizona...amazing, they do look so alike.

do you think he could eat pinhead crickets? or would those be too large?

That gecko is a hatchling Hemidactylus mabouia.Just take an aquarium fish net out in the yard and sweep some plants.Sift out the stuff thats too big.An easy way to tell the difference is that banded geckos(Coleonyx)are in the Eublipharinae or eyelid geckos.They actually have lids like people and can close their eyes.Plus they have clawed toes with no toepads.Your gecko is in the Gekkoninae,or "typical" geckoes.Of which some have claws and toepads but NONE have functioning eyelids.You can also try fruit yogurt or babyfood some Hemidactylus will take it.

I didn't have my digi cam with me so I just grabbed a pic off the internet that looked just like him, same size and everything. after some more searching I think he is a mediteranian gecko because he has long toes just like them. but I cant get bigs outside because of the pesticides....and I live in phoenix, we don't have wild grass.

I think he is a mediteranian gecko

I think he is, too. Med gex are common in the larger cities throughout the southern US now. They started after being introduced on both coasts and worked their way inland.

Did you catch it in your yard? If so, you can release it. Maybe he'll make it, maybe not (due to cats or other predators) but the local population will survive either way.

I've observed baby med geckos eating ants before, so those should be acceptable. That thing will probably try to eat anything smaller than its head and soft enough to crush in its jaws.
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Chris McMartin
www.mcmartinville.com
I'm Not a Herpetologist, but I Play One on the Internet