Saturday, as we were setting up for the reptile show, and the last gecko deli cup was added to the table, I started to look around for Speckles our male crested gecko that has been to about 50 shows with us.

He is an attractive flame crested gecko, not spectacular and not really that large of a male. However, he is very well behaved. When he comes out at a show, there are a couple of jumps and then he settles into his walking from hand to hand.... then he just settles into his 'I'll just lay here in the warmth of this person's hand'.

With everyone that has held Speckles over the years, he has become if not famous, at least beloved. One show about 6 months ago, I mistakenly brought one of the females in his enclosure instead of Speckles (I'm packing animals at 4:30 am for the show so I'm usually half awake). People were actually mad at me for not bring him!

As I brought Speckles out for Saturday's show I had a great idea (yes, I've had one or two in the past). I will take photos of folks holding Speckles and put them on the web page ! I think people will get a big kick out of seeing their photos with Speckles and it will be interesting to see these photos years later.

IF YOU HAVE BEEN CAUGHT HOLDING SPECKLES, PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW TO IDENTIFY YOURSELF

She Asked for it!

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Last year at the reptile show (NARBC) in Chicago friends like John, Nick, Harold, and Derek were throwing names of geckos around like crazy. My head was spinning. I just couldn't keep up talking about... well leopard, crested, and day geckos. I had to know more about the rich and wonderful group of reptiles we classify as geckos. At the show, I decided against purchasing new cresties and leos and picked up 5 N. wheeleri from John Z.  Beautiful animals. This was my start into diversifying my collection. In the past few months, several animals from different genus have been added (more on this later). Then, in April (2011) a wonderful breeder at the Scott Smith All animal show, Julie TenBensele of Chamo Wear offered me a pair of Uroplatus ebenaui for a very fair price. I jumped at the opportunity to try this new, and different animal.

As I know little about this (and the other animals I have picked up) I will be logging my maintenance, feeding, and care of these animals. This is as much for me as it is for you, my fellow hobbiest. I'll try to keep this as up to day as I possible can and hope it helps you as much as I am sure it will help me. Check back in once in a while to see how this goes.

Feb 04, '12   It's been a long, cold winter and the pair have been all nestled in their beds.  Misting has been constant but feedings have been reduced to once per week and only a couple per animal.  Temps?  around 65 or so.  Spring is just around the corner and I cannot wait!

Oct 28, '11  With the arrival of our latest shipment of Lygodactylus, and needing the Uroplatus tanks for these new little jewels, I decided to move the pair to a tub on our new Rach Rack.  This turned out to be the perfect enclosure as I wanted to cool them down a bit and provide more space then the 10 gallon tank (their new one will be about 30 gallons).  I will winter the pair in their new digs, maybe they will be setup permanently here.  Oh, by the way, no eggs when I took down their 10 gallon enclosure. 

Sept 15, '11 Checked the enclosure (male and female are together) and no eggs. I did see a bit of shed on the female so I will increase mistings now that we are moving out of Summer and into the Fall.

Aug 19, '11 Checked the females enclosure. No eggs. I believe, as I've been told that they do so well together, that I will keep the female with the male for an extended period of time. Moved the female back in with the male.

JULY 8, '11 Moved the female back to her own enclosure. Julie had mentioned that she would be fine staying with the male but I decided it would be easier for to monitor separated. I'll be watching for egg development (fingers crossed) in the next few weeks.

JUNE '11  A plant (pathos) has been added to each enclosure. I believe this will help a bit with the humidity. They seem to really like 3/4 inch crickets.  Note, this animal's common name is the Spear Point Leaf Tail Gecko.
  

MAY '11  Maintaining the animals. They are doing well with misings every other evening. So far so good.

APRIL '11  Purchased the pair from Julie. She was most helpful in explaining their care but, being super busy at the show and picking up another Uroplatus for Kyle, I forgot pretty much everything she told me other than 'keep humidity high and keep them cooler'.   So off to research I went.  Here are a few notes....

Native to northern Madagascar and surrounding islands, rainforests.  Size- 3.5 to 4 in.  Appearance resembles dead leaves.

Temps & Humidity- 65-78 day with a drop at night. Humidity around 75%-80%

Feeding- Crickets as a staple, supplemented with calcium/multi vitamin

Enclosure- 1-2 can be kept in a 10 gallon aquarium

So, based off this information, I brought them home, set them up in 2 separate 10 gallon tanks decorated the same- peat moss with sphagnum moss on top, cleaned branches, plastic big leaved plants with a florescent light on top. Temps will be kept in the low 70s with a drop of about 5 degrees at night. I'll feed dusted crickets and mist every evening.

Uroplatus ebenaui Male	Uroplatus ebenaui Female

Uroplatus ebenaui setup

I think the most underrated leopard gecko morph is the Super Snow. They are exceptionally beautiful and good-natured, and the potential for breeding morph combinations is endless. I've never jumped on a new morph bandwagon with the exception of my first Super Snow, Luna, that I got from John and Amy Mack at the Daytona Show years ago. I was instantly smitten by her, and paid a lot of money for her. She remains to this day my most treasured gecko.

Marcia McGuiness

Golden Gate Geckos

One of my favorite species that I feel is very underrated would have to be Pachydactylus rangei (web footed gecko). I have not had this species for long but it was always a long term goal of mine to acquire a pair.

I got my pair from John Zabroski of Elusive Exotics at NARBC-Tinley Park this October.  P. rangei is one of the most interesting and entertaining species I have kept so far. They are veracious hunters and for their small size, only a few inches, they are surprisingly tame.  One of the remarkable things about this species is their transparent skin.  Looking at them, you can see their bones and veins, and also watch eggs develop inside of a gravid female.  My other favorite features about this species are their webbed feet and ability to walk on the surface of the sand.  They also love to dig moving more sand around their enclosure than any other terrestrial species I currently keep.

One interesting thing I recently learned is beacause of their transparent skin they can be sexed almost right out of the egg. You shine a light through them and you can actually see the organ that forms into a hemipene in males.

Cody Wilson 

Revolution Reptiles

Facebook.com/RevolutionReptiles

Gonatodes vittatus

After having the pleasure of working with leopard geckos and crested geckos for several years (nocturnal geckos), I found a certain pleasure keeping my first non-Phelsuma day gecko Gonatodes vitattus.  Not only are they attractive with the skunk white stripe down their entire dorsal, they are always active, even when all other geckos in the facility are sound asleep.

My pair of G. vittatus were purchased from Phil Tremper in early 2011 and wereplaced in a 3 gallon cube glass tank with a screen top.  This is perfect for this tiny, 1.5 inch geckos.  Decorated with slate and a pathos plant they feel comfortable enough to gobble up tiny crickets and wingless fruit flies- they seem like they are always hungry.  A misting a day to half the tank and they are all set.  If you are looking for a fun, active gecko, look no further than these Central-South American Gonatodes vittatus.

Wally Kern

Supreme Gecko