Fat Tail Gecko Care Information
CrestedGecko.com
Fat Tail Geckos are quickly becoming one of the most commonly kept and bred geckos. They are small, hardy, long-lived, and relatively easy to breed. They are available in several colors and patterns including banded (normal), white striped, amelanistic (amel/ albino), tangerine amels, and others. With selective breeding, new color and pattern mutations should appear over the next few years. The following information can be used as a guideline for care and breeding of this species.
Acclimating New Geckos: When you receive your new fat tail gecko, it may take some time for it to adjust to it's new surroundings. Geckos can get stressed from being shipped, then placed in a strange environment. This may cause them to go off-feed for several days or more. As long as you set the environment up properly, the gecko should settle in after awhile. One stress factor is the cage type. Most breeders keep their geckos in plastic boxes in a rack system. Their is no overhead light other than the ambient room light. Their hot spot comes from heat tape underneath their box. Geckos raised under these conditions usually do very well. The problem is that most pet owners prefer to keep their geckos in a glass tank. They can be decorated much nicer and are better for viewing the animals. The problem is that geckos don't like change. They may be stressed by the glass. The stress level may go up even more if a bright daytime bulb is being used as the primary heat source. Fat Tail Geckos don't like bright light. It will cause them to hide whenever it is on. The best way to acclimate geckos to a glass tank is to do the following: 1: If you use a bulb, make sure it is a red or blue bulb designs for low light emissions such as a nocturnal reptile bulb. A heat pad can also be used to provide "belly heat". 2: Make sure the gecko has a warm, dark, and somewhat humid hiding place. Geckos need to hide to feel secure. 3: Handle them very infrequently, if at all, for at least the first 2 weeks. 4: Tape black construction paper or cardboard to all four sides of the outside of the tank. Every week, remove on side of cardboard. After a month, all four sides will be removed. This will give the gecko time to adjust to the new cage. 5: Try to feed it the same food type it was eating at the breeder's. Fat Tail Geckos that are raised on mealworms may not view crickets as a food source and vice versa. On the other hand, some will eat any insect that they come in contact with. 6: If you have geckos and you want to add a new one, keep the new gecko separate for at least 30 days to let it acclimate, and to watch for signs of health concerns. 7: If you put several geckos in one cage, make sure they are approximately the same size. Keep an eye on their food intake to make sure they are all feeding and maintaining good bodyweight. Never, ever put more than one male in a cage, no matter how big the cage is.
Cage Setup: Fat Tail Geckos do well in glass aquariums, reptile-specific cages, or custom-built cages. Since they only reach an adult size of about 7-8 inches, they do not require a large amount of space. A 10 gallon tank is enough room for an individual. 2-3 can be kept in a 20 gallon long aquarium. Substrates (bedding) can consist of cypress mulch, reptile bark, or coconut-fiber bedding. These substrates will retain some moisture which is beneficial to these geckos. Do not use pine or cedar shavings as these are toxic to all reptiles. Newspaper can also be used. It is probably the easiest to keep clean and can be replaced as needed. It is important to give them several hiding places on the warm and cool sides of their cage. One of the hiding places should be a plastic container such as a rubbermaid shoebox with a hole cut in the lid large enough for the gecko to enter and leave. The inside should be about half filled with slightly moistened peat moss, sphagnum moss, or coconut fiber bedding. This will provide them with a humid place to hide during the day. The extra humidity will also help them properly shed.
Breeders who maintain larger colonies of fat tail geckos usually use large plastic boxes made by rubbermaid or sterlite to house their animals. Airholes must be drilled through the sides to provide ventilation. These can be kept in rack system, with the boxes pulling out like drawers. A shoebox sized container is enough space for a hatchling or single adult. For pairs or groups of up to 1 male and 3 females, a 28qt box measuring about 16x22x6 is needed. It can be set up very simply- newspaper bedding, water bowl, and a moist hide box. This is the easiest, most efficient way to house a large number of geckos.
Hatchling or juvenile geckos can be raised in small groups of similar-sized geckos, but they do best when kept individually. They can be raised in plastic shoeboxes with a setup similar to the adults.
Temperature: Fat Tail Geckos prefer an ambient daytime temperature of about 83-85 degrees, with a hot spot of about 90. There are several ways to provide these temperatures, depending on what type of cage you use. For aquariums, a heat lamp above one end of the cage can be use. The wattage depends on your room temperature and the cage size. It is best to test this with a thermometer placed on the floor of the cage directly under the lamp. Keep it there long enough to get an accurate reading of the temperature. It is also a good idea to use a small reptile heat pad placed underneath part of the cage. Make sure the pad takes up no more than 1/4-1/3 of the bottom of the cage. It is important that the gecko can get away from the heat source if it gets too warm. The heat pad can be kept on 24 hours a day to supply a constant low level of heat. The lamp should be on for about 12 hours per day. Since these geckos are nocturnal and don't like bright light, a red or blue bulb can be used in place of a daytime bulb. Ultraviolet (UV) light is not necessary for fat tails.
Heat tape or a heat cable hooked up to a high quality thermostat is the best heat source for plastic boxes kept in a rack system. Most commercially-built rack systems come equipped with heat tape and a thermostat. We have very good luck with the Animal Plastics brand of rack systems (www.animalplastics.com). They make a variety of models to suit most needs.
Food and Feeding: Fat Tail Geckos can be primarily fed a diet of crickets. Mealworms and other insects can be used, but we haven't had much success getting them to eat anything other than crickets. Baby geckos should be started on 1/4" crickets. As the gecko grows, you can increase the size of the crickets. Adult fat tails can eat 3/4" to 1" crickets. They will consume 5-7 crickets per feeding. It is best to feed them every other day. Crickets should be dusted with a high quality calcium powder at least every other feeding. During the breeding season, crickets should be dusted at every feeding. A multivitamin powder should also be used once or twice a week. Do not overfeed your geckos. They should only be fed enough that they can consume within a few minutes. Any excess crickets in the cage will lose their nutritional value quickly. Also, roaming crickets can cause stress to a gecko.
Growth and Longevity: Fat Tail Geckos are approximately 2.5" when they hatch. Under ideal conditions, they can reach maturity at approximately 1 year of age. Adult male and female fat tails average 7-8" in length and weigh 40-60 grams. Fat Tail Geckos can live for 10-12 years or more.
Breeding: These geckos have a reputation of being more difficult to breed than similar animals such as the leopard gecko. There are more reports of infertility or non- production from them. In our experience, these geckos are just as easy, although they do tend to take longer to mature and they do not produce as many eggs per season. For most of the year, the room temperatures range from 84 during the day and 80 at night. The geckos have heat tape providing a 90 degree hot spot. In late October, their room is cooled down to 77 during the day, 70 at night. The heat tape is turned completely off. At this time, the geckos eat very little, sometimes nothing at all. A healthy gecko can do this without losing any significant weight. In late December, the room is warmed back up and turn their heat tape back on. At this time, breeding begins. Usually, they will start laying eggs about 1 month after the temperatures return to their normal highs. The geckos always lay their eggs, usually 2 at a time (occasionally only 1) in their moist hide box. Check the boxes for eggs every other day, removing any that are found.
Incubation/Hatching: If you find eggs, you'll want to get them into an incubator asap. They should be placed in a deli cup or small plastic box that has about 1-2 inches of perlite or coarse-grade vermiculite. This should be mixed with water in about a 1:1 ratio by weight. It should me moist enough so that if you take some in your hand and squeeze, it will pack, but no water will drip out. It should easily crumble when running your fingers through it. It does take time to get the consistency right. If it is too damp, the eggs will drown and mold. If it is too dry, the eggs will shrivel. Place the lid of the deli cup. For ventilation, poke one or two tiny holes in the side of the cup. That is enough oxygen movement for the eggs. A good incubator for a small number of eggs is the Hovabator, that can be purchased at most reptile supply companies. You'll want to have one of these set up, with the temperature calibrated, before you get eggs. Fat Tail Gecko eggs can be incubated at 80-90 degrees. The sex of the baby will be determined by the temperature you incubate the eggs at. Low temperatures will produce nearly all females, high temperatures will produce mostly males. If you want to hatch females, incubate all of your eggs at 83-84 degress. Incubate eggs at 88-90 to produce males. Eggs take 8-10 weeks to hatch depending on the temperature. High temps will result in quicker hatching. When it nears hatching time, check the eggs daily. Do not rotate the eggs once they are in the incubator. If the eggs are rolled or flipped during incubation, you may kill the embryo. Once the babies hatch and leave the egg, they can be placed in a simple setup as described above. Plastic shoeboxes are the best cages for single hatchling geckos. Babies will not feed until 3-4 days after hatching. They can be offered 1/4 inch crickets or small mealworms at that time.
This information should get you well on your way to having success with keeping and breeding Fat Tail Geckos. Have fun!