House gecko hatchling

Question
QUESTION: I have 4 house gecko eggs and I wasn't sure they were fertilized or were going to hatch, but I kept them and followed instructions carefully on incubation for the past few months and as a result, at least one of my eggs have hatched. It looks like another may hatch in the next few hours, but I would like to know what to do now that my gecko has hatched. I have it in a separate carrier currently with some substrate, but have not gone beyond that for fear of harming it. Should I attach a heating pad to the carrier or put up a heat lamp?

ANSWER: Hi Molly

Congrats on your hatchling!
I hope that the other eggs hatch for you as well

What is the temp of the room that the hatchling is in?

House Geckos do not need extremely high basking temps as many other diurnal lizards do

You can use a light on the top of the tank -just keep an eye on the tank temperature if it is a small tank/container as it can heat up very hot -very quickly with even a 40 watt bulb on it

As soon as the little one sheds-usually 2 to 5 days after hatching-it will be ready to eat small insects
Make sure that you feed insects that are small enough for it to handle
Small crickets and small mealworms are a good diet for them

Humidity is important with them-mist the plants and the side of the tank twice daily both for them to drink and to raise the humidity

You can provide a very shallow dish of water but make sure that the hatchling can easily get in and out of it

Here are a few care sheets with temps and other info such as supplements that you need to dust the insects with

http://www.reptileallsorts.com/housegecko.htm

http://www.the-lizard-lounge.com/content/species/house-gecko.asp

Good Luck with the little one!!

Sandy aka LadyGecko





---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you so much for your help!

I wound up with two babies. One of them has shed and the other is working on it. I have a heat pad attached to their temporary 5 gallon carrier right now at night and I keep a damp coconut hut in there to keep the humidity up. I plan to find my fogger and put that in there, but I wanted to run that past you first. Is there a better way to keep the humidity up for them?

I ordered some pinhead crickets, but not a whole lot of them survived. I put a few in the carrier and one of the babies seems pretty active. How should I be sure they eat? They're so small that I don't know what else to give them.

How soon will I be able to tell their gender? I read it was 6 months. Is that correct?

Answer
Hi Molly

Please excuse the delay in my getting to your question

I would manually mist the plants in the babies tank twice per day with a spay bottle with the mist set on fine

I think that using a fogger on such a small container would be too much humidity for them

Unfortunately "pin head" crickets do not seem to survive for very long
I would up to the next size of cricket-you can also feed small meal worms and you can leave a shallow dish of those in with the babies 24/7

The fact that they are in a small container should allow them to find their food relatively easily

I would say that at six moths of age you will be able to sex them with certainty and maybe even before that depending upon their rate of growth

Good Luck with  them
:)
Sandy aka LadyGecko