I place damp moss under some of the hides. These geckos enjoy the humidity, and it helps them to shed their skin. Dampen the moss once per week, and change it out about once a month.
Here in Vegas, wild urban banded geckos are found mostly in sprinkler control boxes, and in and around underground water meter boxes. Banded geckos are nocturnal and can be found scampering across roads at night. They also scamper about their enclosure in captivity. A gallon terrarium can hold one male and up to five females. They breed readily, and the damp moss hides are a great place for them to lay their eggs.
In the wild, banded geckos eat a large variety of insects and arachnids. In captivity, they do the same thing. Crickets, mealworms, waxworms, small roaches and other insects that are easy to obtain are readily accepted.
Add a calcium supplement on prey items every other feeding. Feed them as much as they like about three times a week. Banded geckos help keep down scorpion populations in urban areas by eating lots of baby scorpions. This is not required for their mental wellbeing, but a 20 gallon enclosure can adequately house up to 3 geckos.
Males and females should only be housed together for breeding purposes, and males should never be housed with other males! Banded geckos are nocturnal, which means that they are primarily active at night.
In fact, current research indicates that nocturnal reptiles are likely to benefit when it is provided. Reptiles use UVB light to create the vitamin D that their body needs, as well as to strengthen their immune system, and stimulate production of endorphins. UVB even helps keep the enclosure free of pathogens, which is especially important for bioactive setups. Your UVB bulb must be replaced every 12 months to maintain its output.
Resist the temptation to use other brands — when it comes to UVB, brand matters! Because this is a bioactive setup, you will also need a plant light to encourage healthy plant growth.
We recommend the Bio Dude Solar Grow light strip for this purpose. Like other reptiles, western banded geckos are poikilothermic , which means that they need a range of temperatures within their enclosure so they can regulate their own body temperature as needed.
Areas of heat speed up their metabolism and promote activities like digestion and healing. Cool areas slow the metabolism and promote activities like rest and energy conservation. Place a small hide box preferably a black plastic box hide directly under the heat lamp, with a large piece of aquarium slate, sandstone, or flagstone on top to absorb heat. If the warm hide gets too warm, you can plug the lamp into a lamp dimmer like the Lutron Credenza and reduce the heat that way.
If the warm hide is too cool, you will need a heat mat to help. This should be roughly the same size as the warm hide and sandwiched between the hide box and the basking stone. Some banded geckos like living in a humid environment, but western banded geckos prefer drier conditions. This is important to keeping your gecko well hydrated and ensuring healthy shedding. This hide should be lined with moistened substrate and placed on the cool side of the enclosure. Pay attention to the water needs of the plants that you choose to use in your enclosure, and water them as needed.
You can check this by sticking your finger into the substrate or by using a soil moisture meter. A thick layer of bioactive-compatible substrate is essential to creating a bioactive western banded gecko enclosure. Because western banded geckos require a relatively dry environment, no drainage layer is needed. Instead, you can jump right to the dirt. You will need a soil-like mix that mimics a desert habitat and nurtures desert-type plants. You can also add other species like mealworms and superworms!
Live plants in particular are critical to helping your mini-ecosystem function properly. The goal of this study is to determine trends in population, as well as the densities in the area, comparing it with the other species within the same range. In captivity, preparing for the housing of these geckos is easy.
Due to their small size, and the tendency to stick to the ground, a gallon terrarium with a secure top is a good choice. Bedding can also be included, which may come in the form of an-inch deep bedding consisting of ground coconut core, organic topsoil, terrarium carpet, coarse gravel, or Sani Chips. On one end of the tank, you can install a heating pad, providing a warm spot of around 85 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
Depending on the need, you may also want to add a heat emitter, or a heat lamp over this setup in order to achieve this ideal temperature. Make sure that the heat lamp you selected is one of those black or red light varieties since these geckos are observed to be mainly active at night or in the dark. At the cooler end of the enclosure, you can also place a shallow water bowl which is large enough for your pet to drink from.
You can install one hide at the cool end, and another at the warm end. There is no need to place too many hiding places for these geckos. It would also help to add damp moss beneath some of the hides as these geckos also love humidity, as it helps them during shedding. You can dampen the moss at least once a week, changing it once a month. In captivity, these geckos have been observed to scamper and move about their enclosure.
Male geckos do not really like each other, which means that a tank should never have two of them together. A standard gallon terrarium can serve as a good home for one male and up to five female geckos.
They readily breed. They will usually lay their eggs on the damp moss hides that you have prepared. In the wild, these geckos consume a wide variety of arachnids and insects. This is also observed for those in captivity. Among the readily available food options include mealworms, crickets, small roaches, waxworms, as well as other insects. They can be fed as much as they can three times a week.
When it comes to foraging, the stalking behavior of these geckos is similar to that of the feline family.
They fix their elliptical pupils on the prey, holding its undulated body and tail above the substrate, advancing slowly, and then vibrating their tail tip before attacking. This mode is a combination of active foraging and sit-and-wait style of predation. Detection of prey may also happen with or without flicking their tongue.
It has been observed that with these geckos, volmerolfaction tongue-flicking movements when lizards were given swabs rubbed on the surface of crickets, is often a result of a strong stimulus. They primarily rely on olfaction, avoiding tongue flicking moves, which could increase the possibility of their prey escaping.
Geckos that are active in the field have an average of Male geckos are active over a broader range of temperatures in the environment compared with females. Studies also examined the current evolution of some physiological character states among banded geckos.
They have been observed to have a lower evaporative water loss, higher metabolic rates, higher preferred body temperatures, as well as derived features that are often associated with their active foraging behaviors. Ambient humidity needs to be monitored accordingly using a digital hygrometer. For this species, a humid hide is recommended strongly. They also need to be misted lightly every day, or every other day in order to moisten a part of the substrate, while providing dew on the walls of the enclosure and cage items.
Enough ventilation should also be provided in order to allow the cage to dry out after a few hours. You can provide a shallow water dish, though this may not really be necessary if you are adept in misting the enclosure regularly.
Courtship starts when the male approaches the female from behind. The body of the male gecko is held close to the ground while waving his tail. He then makes an initial bite on the neck, flank, or tail of the female gecko.
If the female remains motionless and receptive, he then advances forward with some jerking moves, eventually mounting and transferring his bite to the shoulder or neck. The female then raises her tail, and the male gecko entwines his body, bringing his cloaca beneath the female.
The frequency of female geckos being gravid is observed to be at its highest during May and June, simultaneous with the male reproductive peak.
This suggests the high likelihood of sperm storage occurring. Western banded geckos have an almost fixed clutch size of two eggs, while some females are reported to lay two or more females every year.
The clutch size is slightly bigger than other varieties. Still, due to its multiple clutches in a year, they have a relatively higher rate of reproduction than other species, such as the Desert Night Lizard, which do not produce more than one clutch in a year.
In some years, they do not even reproduce. Western banded geckos are among the so-called eyelid geckos, which are also closely associated with the leopard gecko subspecies. These two groups breed similarly. Even though the Western banded geckos are little, delicate-looking with very thin and almost transparent skin, they are sturdier than their actual appearance.
Provided that they are given the right care, they can thrive really well in captivity. These geckos would thrive well in a terrarium. Since banded geckos, in general, are wild-caught and sold at really low prices, only a few hobbyists breed them intentionally. They are not difficult to breed. They become sexually mature when they reach over 2 inches in length, tail excluded. The sexing of these geckos is easy.
Young males have 8 to 10 pores in a line right in front of their cloaca — something which is not present among females. Mature gecko males also feature noticeable cloacal bones with pointed tips that project out and forward right from beneath the base of the tail. On the other hand, females have flaps of skin. Overall, females are larger, usually by an inch. Just like other geckos, these Western banded geckos breed at springtime, right after a winter of decreased activity.
They are usually observed as more productive when cooled for about two to three months the previous winter. Around Thanksgiving, you can start reducing the feeding of these geckos, gradually dropping the temperature at the same time, to around 65 degrees Fahrenheit, letting it stay at this temperature for about two months.
Also, reduce the length of daytime to less than eight hours every day. This change in schedule will help with the natural process of mating and breeding.
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