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A few questions for the people that keep Nephrurus spp especially levis.
Are they completely nocturnal or are they crepuscular? I'm considering buying a pair, but unsure if they can be housed successfully together? I have read care sheets but would like to hear some first hand experience. Also do you heat from beneath the moist end of the tank or the dry end?

Thanks

While there are far more experienced keepers around these parts, I will give you my experiences anyway :)
Never saw my few pairs during the day. They would all come out in the early evening and be very active, this is when i would feed them(sit back and watch the show!)
Never had any aggression issues with my pairs over their life (M/F pairs).
I mist the "cool end" which should be much thicker for them to burrow etc. Misting the cool end gives the sand more structural integrity for the burrows.

Epic animals! Get some! ;)
 
While there are far more experienced keepers around these parts, I will give you my experiences anyway :)
Never saw my few pairs during the day. They would all come out in the early evening and be very active, this is when i would feed them(sit back and watch the show!)
Never had any aggression issues with my pairs over their life (M/F pairs).
I mist the "cool end" which should be much thicker for them to burrow etc. Misting the cool end gives the sand more structural integrity for the burrows.

Epic animals! Get some! ;)


Thanks for the reply treeofgreen.

That's great to hear your experience, but if you don't mind, I have a couple more questions. You said they come out in the early evening, great, but how sensitive to light are they? Do you have some form of night light, or do you just use the room light when you are feeding/watching them?

Also, I'm having a bit of a headache trying to suss out how I'm going to heat their enclosure. It's no problem having a mat and stat controlling the hot end, but I'm worried about controlling the cool end. My flat is very cool, with the room temperature sticking around 16/17 degrees C. Meaning the cool end of the enclosure and the ambient temperature will be the same. How would you suggest I deal with this?

My two trains of thought are, firstly, having two heat mats running off two stats. This would deal with the substrate temperatures, although it's slightly inconvenient, but do nothing for the air temperature.

My second thought is having a small globe over the cool end. Obviously I would have this on a stat as well, but along with it increasing the air temperature, it would dry out the moist sand very quickly.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers
 
Dont worry about it. The cool end should be just that...cool. It is not necessary or advisable to have an extra heat source at that end.
One heat mat, up one end, is enough. Your gecko will figure out where it feels the most comfortable and move there. The idea is to set up a temperature gradient from warm/hot to cool. Just make sure you provide a hide at either end so it has options.
 
Dont worry about it. The cool end should be just that...cool. It is not necessary or advisable to have an extra heat source at that end.
One heat mat, up one end, is enough. Your gecko will figure out where it feels the most comfortable and move there. The idea is to set up a temperature gradient from warm/hot to cool. Just make sure you provide a hide at either end so it has options.

Thanks butters,

So you don't think the moist end of the enclosure will be too cold for them? The 16/17 degrees C I stated was day time temperatures, this drops even further during the night. The heat from beneath will be ok at the hot end, but directly above it, the air temperature will still be very cold.
 
dannydee, about the lighting: I never bothered with IR reptile lights or anything like that. The reptile area has natural lightning and the lighting from other rooms is enough for feeding and observation(while obviously not bright enough to simulate daylight).
 
dannydee, about the lighting: I never bothered with IR reptile lights or anything like that. The reptile area has natural lightning and the lighting from other rooms is enough for feeding and observation(while obviously not bright enough to simulate daylight).

Brilliant, thank you. I think I'll worry about the lighting after I get my head around the heating. I know they are meant to be simply to look after, but when you do not live in a warm climate, some extra issues raise their ugly heads.

I also saw that someone else has had a problem with his male dropping its tail. Is this a common problem when keeping a pair together?

Cheers
 
Usually only if the other gecko sees the wiggling tail as food. It does happen but that's one of the risks you take of keeping and feeding animals in the same enclosure. Tails grow back but never the same. If you are concerned just house them seperately with short visits for breeding.

The cold night time temps aren't really a problem, neither is the air temp as if it does get too cold your gecko will just move to the warm end. Over winter your gecko is likely to be curled up in the substrate in an area that is the right temp for it. That's the whole idea of a heat gradient. The animal can go where it wants.One end warm, one end cool, let the animal work it out. As long as the heat source at one end works they will be fine. Remember night time air temps in the desert are much lower than 10C over winter but the animal wont usually be exposed to them. it will be burrowed somewhere with a more stable higher temp.

Lighting for nocturnal geckos is only for you. They don't need it and actually don't like it in most cases. If its too bright in the room they wont come out. Subdued lighting in the room of an evening (like from a desk lamp on the other side of the room) is usually enough for you to see them and for them to feel comfortable enough to come out.

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If it makes you feel better about the temp thing I live in Brisbane and none of my reptiles get night time heating year round. In winter we get periods where temps drop well below 10C for weeks on end at night and I've never had a problem. It probably gets colder where you are but if you leave the heating on at night one end will always be warm. In fact your whole enclosure will probably stay warmer overall than mine do here in Brisbane.
 
Usually only if the other gecko sees the wiggling tail as food. It does happen but that's one of the risks you take of keeping and feeding animals in the same enclosure. Tails grow back but never the same. If you are concerned just house them seperately with short visits for breeding.

The cold night time temps aren't really a problem, neither is the air temp as if it does get too cold your gecko will just move to the warm end. Over winter your gecko is likely to be curled up in the substrate in an area that is the right temp for it. That's the whole idea of a heat gradient. The animal can go where it wants.One end warm, one end cool, let the animal work it out. As long as the heat source at one end works they will be fine. Remember night time air temps in the desert are much lower than 10C over winter but the animal wont usually be exposed to them. it will be burrowed somewhere with a more stable higher temp.

Lighting for nocturnal geckos is only for you. They don't need it and actually don't like it in most cases. If its too bright in the room they wont come out. Subdued lighting in the room of an evening (like from a desk lamp on the other side of the room) is usually enough for you to see them and for them to feel comfortable enough to come out.

- - - Updated - - -

If it makes you feel better about the temp thing I live in Brisbane and none of my reptiles get night time heating year round. In winter we get periods where temps drop well below 10C for weeks on end at night and I've never had a problem. It probably gets colder where you are but if you leave the heating on at night one end will always be warm. In fact your whole enclosure will probably stay warmer overall than mine do here in Brisbane.

That is reassuring, I only keep Australian snakes, and they do fine with no heat at night. In fact, they are a lot hardier than I initially gave them credit for.

Ok, so the ambient air temps I'm now comfortable with, but I'm still hot happy. The thing is there will be no heat gradient. Yes, I will have a heat source under a third of the tank, but it will not create a gradient, it'll create a heat step (from hot to cold)!
Maybe the heat, if I'm lucky, will transfer an extra inch or so, but I fail to see how a heat mat will create a gradient. Effectively, by using a heat mat I will have a hot area and a cold area, no in between. So the gecko has a choice of two temperatures, 32 or 16/17.

Am I creating a problem where there isn't a problem?

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Brilliant, thank you. I think I'll worry about the lighting after I get my head around the heating. I know they are meant to be simply to look after, but when you do not live in a warm climate, some extra issues raise their ugly heads.

I also saw that someone else has had a problem with his male dropping its tail. Is this a common problem when keeping a pair together?

Cheers

Yes. I use to have a male and female housed together until the male's tail disappeared one day (supposable eaten by the female). Now i keep them separate until it's breeding time.
I also use to keep hatchies together until the same thing happened. Now i don't let them go past about 4 or so months without being housed separately for this reason alone.

Regarding the heating. I use to live in Canberra where night time temps would get as low as -5 celcius so room temperature would be between 0 and 5 celcius. I don't think my geckos were adversely affected by this cold during night times. Their natural climate is semi-arid Australia which gets very hot during the daytime, particularly in summer. But people don't realise that at night time during the winter, the desert areas get pretty cold (not as cold as your winters though!).
Anyhow like others have recommended, just have one heat mat or heat cord for the hot end (about 31 celcius) and let the other cool side be room temperature. The gecko should thermo-regulate it's temperature to stay warm and very much alive.
I don't bother with any special lighting, just normal lights if you want to view them. Otherwise they will still be able to see with almost no lighting.


EDIT: your taking gradient to be a slow progression of temperature from one end to the other. So long as the gecko can move freely between the two temperatures, he/she will be able to go from hot, to cold, to hot, to cold side many times to keep a relatively constant temperature. I wouldn't worry about it
 
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Yes. I use to have a male and female housed together until the male's tail disappeared one day (supposable eaten by the female). Now i keep them separate until it's breeding time.
I also use to keep hatchies together until the same thing happened. Now i don't let them go past about 4 or so months without being housed separately for this reason alone.

Regarding the heating. I use to live in Canberra where night time temps would get as low as -5 celcius so room temperature would be between 0 and 5 celcius. I don't think my geckos were adversely affected by this cold during night times. Their natural climate is semi-arid Australia which gets very hot during the daytime, particularly in summer. But people don't realise that at night time during the winter, the desert areas get pretty cold (not as cold as your winters though!).
Anyhow like others have recommended, just have one heat mat or heat cord for the hot end (about 31 celcius) and let the other cool side be room temperature. The gecko should thermo-regulate it's temperature to stay warm and very much alive.
I don't bother with any special lighting, just normal lights if you want to view them. Otherwise they will still be able to see with almost no lighting.


EDIT: your taking gradient to be a slow progression of temperature from one end to the other. So long as the gecko can move freely between the two temperatures, he/she will be able to go from hot, to cold, to hot, to cold side many times to keep a relatively constant temperature. I wouldn't worry about it


Thanks Thyla,
I think I've been over complicating things. I just need to set up the enclosure now, and get on with things. The pair of levis that I've ordered will not be ready until June, so still plenty of time.
Do you keep them in an old fish tank? I suppose with having moist sand at one end, then tank comes into its own. I'm just struggling to find a fish tank with the dimensions that I'm after!
 
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