Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a pair of Giant Day Geckos that have been together for about a year now. These guys are the most vocal geckos I have ever heard. I have about 55-60 various geckos and lizards but none are as vocal as these two. My tokays are louder but not as persistent! Is this part of their mating ritual or is it some aggressive or dominance thing? Or maybe is it just normal? In all my reading up on these guys I haven't heard much on their vocalizations. My female, Athena, used to do most of the "talking" when her mate, Zeus, would chase her and do his funky head thing, but now Zues seems to be the chatterbox, especially when Athena goes into his favorite piece of bamboo! I've also only had two eggs in the whole time they have been together. One ended up infertile and the other was broken before I could find it and cover it. Any suggestions for increasing the odds of getting babies?

Thanks!
Lisa

Usually only males 'bark' at each other when fighting for dominace but males and females do bark at each other during mating rituals. So far I've only owned my day gecko species in singles but within the month I'll have boyfriend and maybe a girlfriend for my current female Standing's Day Gecko. When I owned a Giant Day Gecko she laid eggs the night I brought her home. The first pair hatched and the second pair didn't. I didn't owned the babies very long until I had found homes for them.

If those eggs you had found were laid recently then expect more. If that was last year you'll need to reduce the amount of time the lights are on to about 10 hours. Keep that up for a month or two and then gradually increase it back to 12 or even 14 hours. This should induce them into breeding if the weather outside hasn't already got them into the mood.

I recommend taking the eggs out over keeping them in the tank. You'll have a higher success rate and the eggs will hatch sooner. Mine took 56 days which was right dead in the center of the shortest and longest average incubation time. The higher the temp the sooner they will hatch. It's also believed that the initial temp determines the babies gender. If you do end up having babies try not to handle them at all. They're skin is even more delicate than the adult's.