Geck questions

[trogdor1988]

Ok ok, so the curse of the herps has struck me again and i find myself in need of more reptiles. After only buying my first Eremiascincus richardsonii last week to add to my ever growing collection of critters im now looking for more geckos, but to be more specific some velvet geckos. Not to sure what ill be getting yet, most likely O. monilis, marmorata, castlenaui, robusta, coggeri or tryoni... so yeah, prob a pair of one of nearly all the species. But i have a few questions, im told they prefer a drier habitat.. how do you give them moisture? Damp coco-peat sub or do they prefer sand or? Do you just give there tank a daily light misting or what. So far i only keep tessies and thick taileds so these will be my first climbing geckos and i want things to be right. If anyone can help without just telling me to search it then do so, if not dont bother saying anything.

Cheers
Steve k

 

[greeny1]

i mist my o. monilis & o. marmorata every second to third day. nothng extra. i do keep them on peat moss. marms rather rocky sort of areas. heres a pic of my marmoratas encosure. hes really happy in there.

 

[GeckoJosh]

I keep my marms and castelnaui on washed river sand and mist every few days on the walls and mist under their hides 4-5 times a week
Iv had a problem in the past with a bacterial infection on one of their tails that came from having too high humidity and what i think was a bad shed but that was never confirmed (the shed)
The breeder i got them of also uses washed river sand

 

[trogdor1988]

cheers.. so peat and mist every 2-3 days.. damn.. now i gotta use messy peat lol. Bad enough using it for the tarantulas, trapdoors and funnelwebs.

 

[greeny1]

you can use sand instead but i rather peat moss as it has less of a risk for impaction

 

[trogdor1988]

yeah i understand that.

 

[GeckoJosh]

If u use washed river sand opposed to stuff like desert sand it is much co****r and u will find that it does not get stuck to the geckos face or their food so ingestion is quite uncommon

 

[greeny1]

yeah im sure river snad is just as good. i just use peat moss as someone else told me it was really good. i personally havn't had any problems with sand but i know some people have and it is probably wise to stay away from the "desert sand"

 

[warren63]

I use washed sand for substrate and they have a small bowl of water, i never mist them. If you keep tryoni or Robusta they wont require any heating in this area
Acutally if they are hatchlings they get misting but once they are over 6 months its the water bowl

 

[GeckoJosh]

im yet to see a gecko drink from a water bowl, u should still mist as it will help them shed too

 

[trogdor1988]

I dont mist my thicktaileds or tessellated geckos, they just have small tubs with a hole cut in the front and damp paper or spaghnum moss in there, condensation builds and causes water droplets which they drink to appear. So you dont have to mist all geckos, water bowl would cause humidity but i think to be safe id use both with velvets.

 

[GeckoJosh]

That sounds good like a good idea
Got any pics as i like to try it

 

[trogdor1988]

i dont know if it would work for climbing geckos, but its just a chinese food container with a square big enough for them to get in it cut in the side and then filled with damp paper towl. Dont have any pics.

 

[GeckoJosh]

Ok i can picture it now, thanks
Im sure it would work for any gecko once they got used to it being a water source, as long as it was in the same place
But il soon find out

 

[Lovemydragons]

I have velvets, and I have a small water bowl in there all the time. I'm not sure if they use it or not, but I'd prefer to have there just in case they do. I also mist a couple of times a week anyway, mine also shed fine.

I use peat too, but find that they don't spend much time on the floor for impaction to a problem anyway. They live in their hollow tree or gecko cave, and poop on the glass walls. I even catch them hunting from the walls and will just crawl down the walls to catch the crickets, or wait for them to climb up to them.