Geckos and Skinks

Captive care and husbandry.

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KevinS
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Joined: June 14th, 2010, 3:48 pm
Location: West Virginia

Geckos and Skinks

Post by KevinS »

I thought I'd share a few pics of some of my current collection. I recently transitioned from snakes to lizards only and have been picking up a few of the less popular species in the hobby that I find interesting.

Pachydactylus tigrinus were the first to get me hooked on dwarf geckos. Here are 2 subadults.
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Following my success with them, I recently picked up a pair of Pachydactylus caraculicus.
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Although they're not as flashy, Paroedura androyensis are easily among my favorites and I'm finding them just as easy to breed as the Pachydactylus, though more bold and fun to watch.
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This lumpy girl will probably drop some more eggs tonight.
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I picked up a pair of young Hemidactylus triedrus a while back after finding a male with an aberrant pattern.
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One of my latest additions is this female Homopholis fasciata. Apparently they're no longer imported, but this girl was cb in Europe and I'm hoping I'll be able to track down a male for her in the near future.
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My skink collection is less diverse at the moment, but I am considering a few more additions. Here's my pair of Egernia striolata doing their part to increase my skink quota. I'm really fond of this species and would like to get some more of them.
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I just got a trio of Chalcides mionecton which I'm already thoroughly enjoying as well.
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Here's an outlier in the group-I've got a few young Gallotia stehlini as well. I'm starting to question my ability to provide enough space for them as they grow, so I may not raise and breed these like I initially planned, but they're certainly interesting captives even at this small size. They remind me of my old ackies as far as behavior, though these are omnivorous. While they won't win any beauty contests, they make up for it with their personalities and fondness for vocalizing to one another.
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Kelly Mc
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Re: Geckos and Skinks

Post by Kelly Mc »

Unique collection - what a lovely post.

I like the androyensis i have only seen them in a couple pictures but your pic captures what you describe - the carriage and countenance. Those things, like body structure and habits attract me even more than color and markings, of any animal.

The pic of striolata mating is epic moment - its beautiful

Its interesting how much when young the stehlini resembles young palmae and you have my sympathies - my gallotia take up so much of my time and space - if they were the big stehlini i would need a bigger house to live, for sure.

Thanks for posting your guys very much enjoyed :thumb:
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CCarille
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Re: Geckos and Skinks

Post by CCarille »

Pretty cool collection!

I couldn't imagine no longer keeping any snakes, but geckos/lizards have always really interested me.

I love the H. fasciata you have there. Is it CBB or LTC?
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Nshepard
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Re: Geckos and Skinks

Post by Nshepard »

Kevin, nice update!

I've started to branch out into the gecko world with Gonatodes, Lygodactylus, and Lepidodactylus myself. Why did you decide to get rid of your snake collection?

Nice on the Pachydactylus tigrinus, I'd be interested in keeping those sometime.
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KevinS
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Re: Geckos and Skinks

Post by KevinS »

Kelly Mc wrote:I like the androyensis i have only seen them in a couple pictures but your pic captures what you describe - the carriage and countenance. Those things, like body structure and habits attract me even more than color and markings, of any animal.
They're loads of fun. They express themselves with their tails-constantly curling/uncurling and/or waving them when excited. Mine are imports, but are very bold and come out to see if I have food whenever I open their lid (if they're even hiding to begin with). Their eggs are the smallest I've ever seen, but they sure do show through the females.
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CCarille wrote: I love the H. fasciata you have there. Is it CBB or LTC?
She's cbb, but I just noticed some imports available today so I'll have to get a male for her while I have a chance. I think this species looks very unique and I only know of one person breeding them in the U.S., so if Tanzania shuts down for good, I'd like to make sure there are a few cb specimens floating around.
Nshepard wrote: I've started to branch out into the gecko world with Gonatodes, Lygodactylus, and Lepidodactylus myself. Why did you decide to get rid of your snake collection?

Nice on the Pachydactylus tigrinus, I'd be interested in keeping those sometime.
Nate, the snakes took up more room, were more expensive to feed, and produced more odor. The multi-year wait to get a hatchling to maturity kind of wore on me as well. Once I realized how much more I was enjoying my few lizards, I just decided to take the plunge and I'm happy I did now. Nothing against snakes, but I'm just more interested in the lizards now, especially the dwarf geckos that I can set up in naturalistic enclosures and breed my own feeders for (and the generation time is so much faster).

I was considering some Gonatodes vittatus a while back, but have only seen albogularis available lately...which I may still try at some point. I actually just sold the last of my Lepidodactylus lugubris this morning. I very nearly got another parthenogenic species (Hemiphyllodactylus typus) in a previous order, but switched it up at the last minute. I'm also considering trying my hand at Sphaerodactylus (nigropunctatus in particular interests me) at some point. There are just so many options and these species are so small that I actually have room to take a bunch on, but I don't want to get in over my head. My first P. tigrinus eggs should be hatching in 2 weeks or so if you want to keep some sooner than later. Here's a pic of momma:
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I also just claimed a female Coleonyx elegans today and hopefully I'll be adding a few more Chalcides species in the near future (and a few more sporadically available dwarf geckos I'm waiting for as well).
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KevinS
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Re: Geckos and Skinks

Post by KevinS »

While I'm going through the photo album, here are a few that I owned in the past.
Goniurosaurus orientalis
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Thecadactylus rapicauda

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Pachydactylus rangei
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Hemisphaeriodon gerrardi (I'd like to get more of these now-I really miss the ones I used to keep)
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Reptiluvr
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Re: Geckos and Skinks

Post by Reptiluvr »

I love the androyensis. I miss keeping those. The babies are a pain to feed. It was amazing how hungry androyensis were. Those little guys would attack and manage to eat adult crickets! If I kept them in large groups they tended to huddle up together under cover which is pretty adorable.
How do you like H. triedrus? I love the way they looked but they were too skittish and never showed themselves if I was nearby.
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KevinS
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Re: Geckos and Skinks

Post by KevinS »

Reptiluvr wrote:I love the androyensis. I miss keeping those. The babies are a pain to feed. It was amazing how hungry androyensis were. Those little guys would attack and manage to eat adult crickets! If I kept them in large groups they tended to huddle up together under cover which is pretty adorable.
How do you like H. triedrus? I love the way they looked but they were too skittish and never showed themselves if I was nearby.
My androyensis are the same way, right down to the communal sleeping areas. I have a lot of fruit flies, bean beetles, isopods, etc so I'm hoping I'll get the hatchlings off to a good start (7 of their eggs in the incubator now). I actually just traded the triedrus toward another gecko purchase. The female would never eat in front of me and both were very secretive as you said, but they were easy to care for and they definitely look interesting. They were my test run with Hemidactylus (was also considering some H. fasciata) but I think I just enjoy some other geckos more. On the bright side, I did manage to get a pair of Homopholis fasciata so I can (hopefully) breed them now.
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MadameX
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Re: Geckos and Skinks

Post by MadameX »

The P. Tigrinus are so adorable. Thanks for sharing! An amazing collection you have going.
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KevinS
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Re: Geckos and Skinks

Post by KevinS »

Thanks, I've been hatching tiger geckos lately as well as a few P. androyensis. I ended up getting a clutch of Homopholis fasciata eggs as well.

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KevinS
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Re: Geckos and Skinks

Post by KevinS »

John Vanek wrote:
Gorgeous! So you have a tongue shot? Do you feed it snails, dogfood, or something else?
I'm sure I can find a tongue shot somewhere in my old pics. If not, I'll take one since I just got a group of juveniles. I've fed snails, slugs, and earthworms, but made the bulk of their diet pinky mice and supplemented chicken or turkey baby food.
Hornemadness
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Re: Geckos and Skinks

Post by Hornemadness »

ive never been able to get my pink tongues to go for any live food (except for snails, as ive never fed them snails). Mine seem to like their dog food. Maybe ill try pinkies again now that they are larger...
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KevinS
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Re: Geckos and Skinks

Post by KevinS »

Hornemadness wrote:ive never been able to get my pink tongues to go for any live food (except for snails, as ive never fed them snails). Mine seem to like their dog food. Maybe ill try pinkies again now that they are larger...
I only used thawed pinkies. Mine never went for anything live other than earthworms, slugs, and snails either.
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Kelly Mc
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Re: Geckos and Skinks

Post by Kelly Mc »

I start off every baby tiliqua Ive ever raised on pinkies.

As they grow I offer different foods. I use UVB with mine and dont have to try to trouble shoot calcium to phosphorus ratios. All have grown perfect in conformation and strong.

I love your gerrardi Kevin its really a wonderful animal.
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