Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have been looking into day geckos more and more, and I was wondering: how often do other species of small day geckos, besides laticauda and dubia, show up in shops or at herp shows? I seem to remember years ago a pet store in my area selling the species along with gold dusts.

I'm a little confused butt here goes:

before madagascar clamped down on exports, the gold dust, lined and peacock day geckos were more widely available for around $25-35. in the late 80s early 90s they were one of the new "things" for herpetoculturists, much as crested geckos are today. anyhow, after people began breeding them more, they fell off in pet stores. part of the reason is because most casual buyers don't see day geckos as any different from say, green anoles, so only dedicated herpers bought them (one reason why i am glad they were never made really cheap).

now that madagascar has clamped down on exports, wild-caughtday geckos are not as available as they once were (may not necessarily be a bad thing if you ask me). only phelsuma dubia and the gold dust day gecko show up very often because they can be found in other places besdies madagascar. the other small species are only avialbe sporaticly, much as mantella frogs have been in pet stores. Reptile Depot recently got a shipment of the peacock and lined day geckos, and Glades Herp usually does as well. I talked to some friends who went to a herp show a couple of weeks ago in Northern VA, and they said there were lots of wild-caught gold dust and peacock day geckos for $40: which is an iffy price for adult wild-caught animals in my opinion...

Which brings us back to the price issue: small, wild-caught Phelumas are too expensive now. I saw your post about the three male gold dusts in the pet shop. I've seen that before its not uncommon. nobody except the desperate breeder who needs new blood for his breeding groups would spend that much money to buy and then deparasitize those critters.