Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Help!
My husband and I have become the unplanned parents of four baby geckos. They seemed to have hatched from the soil of our new tropical plant. They are small, lack eyelids, have padded toes with claws but no webbing, are peach to brown in color with spots on their bodies and bands on their tails. They seem to be most active at night. They look to us like mediterreanean geckos.
Would anyone know if there are any other gecko species that our buddies might be?
Also, I have not been able to find much information on care for med geckos. We have purchased a tank, a heater, dried flies, and a UV light (along with some fun things for them to climb on). Does anyone have any insight or know of any reliable web resources on proper care for baby med geckos?
Thanks!!!!

>>Would anyone know if there are any other gecko species that our buddies might be?

Yeah--about 100 of them! They are likely Mediterranean geckos,(Hemidactylus turcicus) or at least close relatives. The care will be similar.

We have purchased a tank, a heater,

What kind of heater? Where do you live? I had some for a short period and used no supplemental heat. Then again, it's 78 degrees Fahrenheit in my house!

dried flies,

I predict little to no success with dead flies. The movement of live prey is what stimulates many lizards to feed. I would look online for wingless fruit flies (since you have hatchlings, the size will be appropriate) and order them.

and a UV light

The pet store ripped you off here. These geckos are predominantly nocturnal and UV lighting is not necessary. The only time I see them during the day is when I scare one up doing yard work.

(along with some fun things for them to climb on).

Cut up some cardboard and lay it in the cage for them to use as hiding spots. You can get fancier later, but at least it's a start. Once you do this, though, you won't see the geckos until it gets dark!

I hope you have a tight-fitting lid for the cage!

Does anyone have any insight or know of any reliable web resources on proper care for baby med geckos?

I'm sure there are some out there, but I haven't found any recently in a cursory search. Small insects, tight lid, 75-85 deg F, mist the cage for them to drink, that's pretty much it. They're fairly accepting of less-than-perfect living conditions, as evidenced by their rapid spread to many parts of the world.
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Chris McMartin
www.mcmartinville.com
I'm Not a Herpetologist, but I Play One on the Internet

You were entirely right! The flightless fruitflies are a hit! And with the heater it is about 80-82 degrees in their tank (we live in Massachusetts, which makes it cold in the winter and in the summer we endotherms, (myself, my husband, and the cat) like our AC!). Thanks for the advice!
Birds and Bones

You were entirely right!

There's a first time for everything!
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Chris McMartin
www.mcmartinville.com
I'm Not a Herpetologist, but I Play One on the Internet

The baby geckos you found could very well be Mediterranean geckos, but don't forget that the juvenile colouration of many geckos is different of that of adults. There are dozens of small geckos that may fit the description you gave. Maybe post a pic later to see if anyone on the board can ID them?

In any case, most of these small geckos have similar care. Most are nocturnal, so no additional lighting other than a heat bulb is necessary.

So that they are easy to monitor, you may want to consider housing them with paper towel as a substrate and a small potted plant or two to hide in. They should be fed pinhead crickets (very small crickets, literally the size of a pinhead, they can be bought at most pet shops) and dusted with a vitamin/mineral supplement daily (also available at pet shops, HerpCal is a good brand). Also, mist the enclosure twice daily with warm, dechlorinated water, most geckos don't drink from a bowl, but lap up water droplets from leaves and the sides of the enclosure.

To keep the enclosure warm (if you don't already live in a warm region) you could set up a 40 watt (or lower) incandescent bulb over the enclosure. Although a greater wattage, like 60, can be used to warm adults, I'd worry that a hotter bulb might dehydrate or fry the little guys during the day.

Here are a few links to some sites that may help you out:

http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/7917/medit_gecko.html (Meditteranean gecko caresheet, although I don't agree with some of the info on this page. I'm not sure about reversing the gecko's photoperiod, messing with the lizards' internal clocks may not be a good idea. Anyone have any input on this? And heat rocks are bad. Very very bad. Never use them.4 geckos for a 10 gallon tank is also cramped.)

http://www.gekkota.org/html/h__turcicus.html (Some more photos of Mediterranean geckos, are you sure this is what you have? This site has many great photos of tons of species, you might want to do some browsing to see if you can figure out what kind of geckos you have.)

http://www.anapsid.org (Great site on reptile care overall. Lots of info you can use.)

Hope this helps at least a bit.

Christina Miller

Herptiles.org

Thanks for this advice!
We are going to get some vitamin/mineral supplements for them. For now we have them split up between two tanks, and they are devouring the live flies. We tried taking pictures, but they did not come out. We'll just sit tight until they are older, and then hpoefully we will have an easier time IDing them!
~sarah
Birds and Bones

Hi those geckos sound like meditteranean geckos. I would also try out pinhead crickets and live fruit flies for them.