Reptile & Amphibian Forums

From what i have read in deVosjoli's book and Seipp and Henkels book these guys seem to be pretty close in requirements to a crested, anyone experienced with them care to impart some first hand experience type advice as to what goes into this species care?

I currently have 2.3 chahouas. I keep them exactly like my ciliatus. They get a little bigger, so a tad more space is desirable. I feed mine a diet heavy in T-Rex crested gecko diet, supplemented with a few crickets. I use both screen cages and 29 gal. aquarium with screen tops. Either caging option works well. My gecko room is fairly humid and I make sure that fresh water is available at all times, so I have not found a need to mist the cages (at least not for the adults). Chahouas are beautiful and charming geckos with very mellow temperments. I think that you would really enjoy this species. Let me know if you have any other questions.

beautiful pic!!!

We love the cresteds and gargoyles, but these are our favorites.
Excellent temperment and they do seem to be out more in the open and tolerate handling well. Hopefully we will see more available in coming years.

Thank You,

Not to mention that they are generally very hardy and easy to care for. I have a fairly large rhaco collection and the chahouas still inspire me the most. Unfortunatly their comparitivly low reproductive cycle and small number of clutches will keep them from becoming ultra common any time soon.

Mike

You know I was just thinking of how the chohoua isnt mentioned to much on this forum. I also keep mine the same as my cresteds, with the exception of a larger cage. But I find my guys to have a more spunky/energetic personality, I hear them running through the cage all night. They also eat a lot more than the cresteds I never have to pull food out the next day and they devour the baby food. These guys are one of my personel favorites, and they look great in large naturalistic enclosures.

Dan
Kryptic Morphs

Just got my pair today. The male looks great but the female is pretty skinny through the hips and tail, the guy I bought her from says this is because she is gravid, and is near to laying eggs and has been off food. Not sure about that, but I am wondering if I should seperate her from the male for a while. I have noticed at least just after transit, they like to bask under a little 15 watt night bulb I have over one far end of the enclosure, anyone else notice they like a little more heat than cresteds maybe?

Not sure about them liking more heat than the cresteds, but my guys tend to sleep out in the open during the day, I keep all my geckos at around 80F. If she is gravid I would make sure she is eating a lot with lots of calcium.

Dan
Kryptic Morphs

Will do, I have also seperated them, went down to the room they are in and the male had her by the tail, I am assuming he was trying to breed her, she wasn't cooperating however. I am going to keep her seperate til she fills out again, do you suggest a nestbox or just using a good quality cage substrate?

I use a cage substrate deep enough for females to lay thier eggs in for all of my rhacs(aurics, chahoua, sarasinorum) but my chahoua never bury's her eggs. I have a small piece of cork bark arranged at a very low angle on the cage floor just big enough for her to get under and this is where she lays her eggs every clutch. Makes her feel secure and also eggs easy to find. Now the saras and aurics bury them wherever they like and that becomes a job to find them but i have yet to miss finding a clutch "knock on wood".
Nate

My chahouas will usually use a nest box, but do not bury there eggs. If she is skinny and has a kinked tail like you mentioned in your email, I really hope she is not gravid. These girls can calcium crash pretty hard, be careful and extra attentive to her until she gets her weight back. Do you know her gram weight and length?

Don't have her measurements, will get them asap however, need to find a good kitchen scale.