Care Tips for Your Geckos

Geckos are good starter pets that wouldn''t put much of a dent in your pockets, being inexpensive and easy to find. But then again, every Gecko owner should take note of a few Pet Care Tips that would help ensure the health and well-being of this reptile.

Handling Your Geckos

Geckos are quite domesticated with some species, like the Leopard Geckos, largely bred in captivity and are therefore used to subsisting in a terrarium environment. These creatures also have very low-aggression tendencies and are therefore very easy to handle and maintain as pets. You can even grab them by their tails without eliciting a hostile reaction and most Geckos can regenerate their tails in case it falls off.

Housing Your Geckos

Adult Geckos would thrive well on a humid and moist environment. Therefore, the pet''s terrarium should be designed to contain a reasonable amount of moisture and heat to achieve the conditions of its habitat. A 15 to 20 gallon plastic container reasonably filled up with patches of moss, vermiculite and the volcanic glass, perlite at the bottom of the tank should do the trick. There are also tanks made of glass, plastic, metal and wood coated with melamine that can be purchased from pet shops. However, plastic and wood tanks come in highly recommended.

Note that Geckos are climbers and should therefore be provided with an elevated tank as well to provide more vertical crawl space. For its substrates, better choose dry materials such as paper towels, calcium-based sand, a reptile carpet or slate rocks to which captive bred Geckos are quite used to.

Being nocturnal creatures, incandescent bulbs and reptile bulbs should be installed accordingly at the mouth of the tank while sustaining an ideal temperature gradient which would help Geckos and most reptiles regulate their body temperatures to aid in pertinent bodily functions such as digestion.

Feeding Your Geckos

It is important to maintain a steady supply of water and moist in the Gecko''s tank. You can put in a sturdy container for this as these lizards like to drink a lot and would even lap at the droplets of water produced by its moist environment.

Geckos would enjoy a meal of crickets, worms and locusts that would easily fit into their mouth. It is also important to feed your pet with nutritious meal, 2 or 3 times a week. Therefore, its prey?the insects?should be nourished with Gut-load; 12 hours before feeding the same to the Geckos. Moreover, prey should be dusted with calcium supplement which helps in the development of a strong bone structure for your pet.

Renske Buursma, pet store owner with lots of helpful articles and a free newsletter about pet care at http://yourhealthypetsonline.com