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#2254851 Tempestborn View Profile	I found a wonderful tiny creature! hi, i’m tempestborn. i hang out mostly on the beardie and iguana forums, sometimes the water dragons, and i bought this wonderful little gecko today, and help would be appreciated. i went to this reptile expo in arlington today. it was terribly lame, almost all snakes (don’t get me wrong--i love snakes, too). not one single iguana in the building, and i had it written down to meet a rhino. but i really went in hopes of finding a new baby green iguana. they had a lot of geckos, two monitors (juvenile), some beardies, a gorgeous red tegu--i’d never met one before; big, heavy critters! three skinks, several chameleons (i might need one). but i found this incredibly beautiful minuscule creature! he’s a "madagascar giant day gecko with snub tail." he’s maybe 2 inches long (max). the guy said he’ll get to about ten inches, and i just happened to have a large exo-terra gecko tank sitting empty at home... and the guy (it was lll reptiles i got him from) said i can’t ever touch him! he says day geckos have incredibly delicate skin and touching him will tear it. it’s a defense mechanism, the guy said, which doesn’t sound very effective to me... the container with the lizard in it weighed 1.2 ozs; the container without the lizard weighed 1.1 ozs., which is (i think) approx. 2.8 grams. he’s beautiful! they’re hard to see, but he has tiny orange dots on his back. and i tiny orange triangle on his head, and the most expressive tiny brown eyes! i thought he looked just like the geico gecko, and then i realized why: looks familiar, huh? ok, so: i know NOTHING about geckos. this one does need UVB, and i’m told he’s very fast and climbs walls, so i’m supposed to just leave him alone in his little tank and let him be beautiful. i don’t know what he eats, bugs, i’m assuming. and i have many teeny tiny beetles, so that’s probably good. and he’s a baby (i was excited and forgot to ask how old), so i need to know if he eats a lot like beardie babies. i gave him a water dish, but i don’t know if he can see water that isn’t moving, and i don’t know if he’d appreciate a little pond. i don’t know if he eats veggies, or how warm he has to be, or how humid, or if he can have an under-tank heater to keep his heat right. and he’s so tiny--he went running straight up his UVB lamp and sat on top of it. i have it vertically in his tank, so wherever he is on his little climbing wood he’ll be right by it. so i guess i’ll brave strangers and post this in the gecko forum, too, with large and loud requests for HELP! ’cause i just paid $50 for a tiny, perfect, delicate, beautiful thing and i don’t want to harm him. oh, and, no hornworms and no beetles except for these little deli containers of 6 grown ones that one vendor was selling for $15 apiece. i think i might have to let my monsters breed... jesse
02/11/12  06:32pm
#2254852 Tempestborn View Profile	Message To: Tempestborn   In reference to Message Id: 2254851  I found a wonderful tiny creature! and an estimate of his age would be nice. and will he catch tiny bugs, or do i need to get them cold and slow them down. and what about veggies? i’m worried about it because he’s had a long day and he’s probably hungry. jesse
02/11/12  06:42pm
#2255062 Crotus View Profile	Message To: Tempestborn   In reference to Message Id: 2254852  I found a wonderful tiny creature! Hi, I spend most of my time on the frog and newt forums, haven’t kept any day geckos lately but am very fascinated by them, probably would be keeping some now if my bank account were in better shape. :-P Yours looks like a juvenile specimen, probably just a few months old, they grow quickly properly cared for, I understand, but can be somewhat demanding as lizards go. Make sure to give it plenty of small crickets, gut loaded with vitamins and minerals... day geckos also have high calcium requirements in general so so they need some cuttlebone or crushed eggshells, as well as a fruit-honey mixture to lap, this is extremely important to them, because they are like the hummingbirds of the lizard world. Make sure you keep him (her?) in a high, well-planted tank, well lit with good UVB lighting covered at all times with a tight-fitting screen top.
02/13/12  02:15pm
#2255064 Crotus View Profile	Message To: Crotus   In reference to Message Id: 2255062  I found a wonderful tiny creature! I wanted to add, day geckos are completely arboreal and rarely if ever go down to the ground, so a water bowl or pond wouldn’t really serve any function... they get their water by licking droplets off of leaves or the sides of the tank. So put in some good climbing plants like snake plants (Sansevieria), philodendrons, pothos, etc., and maybe a wooden branch or two for the vining plants to grow over; and make sure to mist the enclosure once or twice daily with some spring water to make sure your gecko has enough to drink.
02/13/12  02:25pm
#2255066 Crotus View Profile	Message To: Crotus   In reference to Message Id: 2255064  I found a wonderful tiny creature! One more thing, I suggest that you should set up a UVB lamp or hood above the tank, but outside of it, because the day gecko could possibly get overheated or burned if it perches on the light or too close to it... it is completely sufficient, preferable in fact, to set it up outside the tank as long as the rays are properly directed so the lizard can bask under them.
02/13/12  02:30pm
#2255209 Tempestborn View Profile	Message To: Crotus   In reference to Message Id: 2255066  I found a wonderful tiny creature! my concern is, if he never goes to the bottom, how will he eat? i’m trying to figure out some sort of raised platform, but no idea how to attach it to the glass... jesse
02/14/12  12:21pm
#2255236 Crotus View Profile	Message To: Tempestborn   In reference to Message Id: 2255209  I found a wonderful tiny creature! Don’t worry, he’ll go after small crickets that are climbing the plants or branches... also I think maybe they do occasionally come down to sip the fruit-honey mixture from bowl (important -- you need to provide this).
02/14/12  02:32pm

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