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I am setting up an enclosure for a Gekko smithi. It's a 24" x 24" square base and 12" high with a sliding screen top, but I am turning it on its side for more vertical space. Problem is that now the top is all glass. I have set up a hood with two incandescent bulbs that provide a good heat gradient of 88 degrees at the top and 75 at the bottom of the enclosure, but the glass next to the bulb is quite hot. My question to anyone familiar with Gekko smithi or any of you Tokay owners is, is the gecko likely to cling to the top of the enclosure and possibly get burned, or do they pretty much stay on the vertical sides of the enclosure? Alternatively, I suppose I could heat the tank from the (screen) side, but that would get a little complicated. Any insight or suggestions? Thanks!

Chris

1.2.0 C. variegatus bogerti
1.1.0 C. variegatus abboti
0.1.0 C. mitratus

Yes, he will climb up and get burned. You can heat it from the side if you clamp a light to the side. Put a stick up on which he can sit and heat up since they dont like to hang out on screen, only smooth surfaces.

First, Gekko smithii can exceed a Tokay in size and is more secretive. Hence it needs a big enclosure. 3 x 2 ft and 4 ft tall should be the minimum size in my opinion.
So a G. smithii won´t be able to live nicvely in your tank and of course it will get burned.
Second, almost all G. smithii in the pet trade do not belong to this species but are G. siamensis.
The difference is easy to tell: Only G. smithii has a Y shaped dark mark on the head and G. siamensis is much more vividly patterned.
Importantly G. siamensis needs a totally different setup since this species is a rock dweller and G. smithii is a very secretive inhabitant of large trees in rainforests.
So first check out, which species is offered and then reserve your tank for quarantine or raising babies and built sth which can house such giant geckos.

Ci@o

Ingo

Thanks for the feedback. It turns out that the gecko I wanted to purchase was not Gekko smithi or even siamensis, but rather Tarentola annularis! Shows the danger of relying on common names, but at least the eyes were green(ish).

I had not realized that smithi had such large housing requirements; do you suppose that a cage 3x2x4 would be able to house a male and female together, or would I need to go even larger? I know that larger is better, but would this size do as a minimum for a pair? Despite the rarity, I would still hope to acquire a smithi or two at some point. Have you finished your book which deals with smithi, ulikovski, etc? If so, is it available for purchase in the U.S.? I would be very much interested.

Thanks again

Hi,

I think the mentioned size should be OK for a pair, even though -guess what - I ´d try to make it bigger.
The bookwork is still ongoing. I think I will have finished the text next month, but I doubt it will be out before next year. I am planning to talk with my editors about an english version too.

These days G. smithii is hard to get. I am hoping to be able to aquire a piar next week, but I am still afraid they may turn out to be siamnesis again.

Ci@o

Ingo