Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have ten geckos; four species and I want to expand on my growing...addiction as geckos are smaller than boas and monitors and feeding them is easier on my mom's conscience. I've been looking into satanic leaf-tails, peacock days and crocs. The main thing I want to do, is mix and match and keep them all in the same enclosures, according to habitat. Any suggestions?

Another thing that's been REALLY bugging me is that my female marbled is/has been gravid since I got her back in maybe november-january and won't lay her eggs. I have two egg boxes for her with a medium of vermiculite and water; both boxes are in different locations and different sizes. I spook to my vet and he said that some reptiles can hold their eggs up to a year until the conditions are jusr right. SO what are the right conditions? Other than not laying her eggs, she's perfectly healthy as far as I can tell. Any ideas?

The geckos that come into the US under the name "marbled gecko" are Gekko grossmanni. If this is what you have, it will not lay its eggs in a nest box. They glue their eggs to surfaces like glass or bark. The female could easily die from not laying her eggs. It is a possible indication that she is egg bound. Occasionally they will reabsorb their eggs, but it seems the majority of the time, if they're egg bound, they die. Females often produce infertile eggs when there are no males, and only occasionally become egg bound from it. The best thing for you to do, is just to continue taking care of her as you normally would, because unfortunately, it costs a lot to have a vet do any sort of operation and vets don't typically have any experience with an operation like that in the first place, so the chance of survival is slim.

Also, there aren't many species of gecko that you can or should mix and match. Most geckos are very territorial and putting them together is in many ways just a ticking time bomb. In the past I've had males of the same species together for years, but then just suddenly kill the other male in the cage. Your best bet is to just keep like species together, and only as male/female pairs or trios.

- Alejandro -
Gecko Database

Marbled geckos, Gekko grossmanni are rock dwellers. They do attach their eggs to a verticall rockface directly underneath a leaf lying parallel to the wall. If they do not find such places, they very often eat their eggs and only sometimes they attach it to glass or other surfaces.
Thats why there is so little breeding success with this species.
Provide a sandstone backwall covered with vines and you will end up with lots and lots of babies.

Ci@o

Ingo