# Gecko?



## Kithy (Nov 21, 2012)

I was moving my piano to open the window a little while ago and out scurried a tiny little gecko. Definitely hatched this year, only about an inch long and skinny skinny! 

Of course, my son loves him already. Keeping him in a critter keeper at the moment because it is chilly outside and he was in here because it's warm. Not sure what to do with him. He's awful cute and awful small and they're awful common. 

I'm not against keeping him cause I love little guys like this and I wanted a gecko but the husband was like "I'll just catch you one rather than pay XX monies" Well.. this guy just appeared under my piano.

But I don't know too much about them. I was already going to downgrade my fish from five tanks to two so this isn't exactly unwelcome.

He's much too small for crickets though. I could catch some ants though but I don't think he'll eat much in the next day. He's currently covered in the critter keeper cause he is probably terrified. I did almost squish him when I moved the piano :X


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## Sathori (Jul 7, 2013)

I personally have mixed emotions of keeping "wild" caught animals. A lot of people in my area catch leopard frogs, painted turtles, and tiger salamanders and keep them as "pets", to which most of them die due to stress. Very few stay alive in captivity since it's very hard to mimic their habitat that they are use to. It's one of the reasons our Leopard Frog population is nowhere near what it use to be, and we are seeing less and less turtles and salamanders as well 

If it's cold in your area, he may have been looking for a safe place to hibernate, and if you would release him during the warmer part of the day (mid-day), he may still be able to find a place to sleep til it's warmer again. If it's past that point, you can try to keep him alive through the cold period and release him again once the warmer season hits. (Sorry, I'm not very familiar with Texas seasons/weather, I'm Canadian after all )

That being said if you are planning on feeding him - check with your local pet store that sells live insects. When leopard geckos are young, we feed them mealworms since they are typically smaller than crickets. Some stores carry very small crickets (some as small as 'pinheads'). Crickets are easier to digest than mealworms since they do not have the harder outer shell.
Do some research into what type of habitat they prefer and you can try to mimic it as close as you can. Just be aware that some wild-caught critters don't take to the domestic lifestyle.

A good example is my friend's blue tongue skink. After purchasing it from a pet-trade store, she found out that it was a wild-caught. Not domestically bred. It ate fine, but was not nearly as friendly as most skinks should be. It bit and would whip its tail if the wrong person tried to handle it, and after she moved, it showed obvious signs of stress. It was constantly whipping it's tail against the tank and showing extreme aggression anytime anyone walked into the room. She eventually had it euthanized (can't exactly release a blue-tongue skink into the wild in Canada...) since it was so horribly stressed out.

Not saying this will be the case with all wild-caught critters, but some are not made for the domestic life style. I think it may be easier to stick with domestically bred geckos - there are a lot more guides to how to keep them and they typically are not quite so stressed out with human interaction.
In the long run - all exotics are bred from wild-caught, but I like to leave the care of wild-caught to people who are experts in the field.

He is super cute though - I love little geckos and lizards  I own 3 leopard geckos and they can make great pets


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## Kithy (Nov 21, 2012)

Thanks for your input ^_^

I'm probably leaning toward letting him go tomorrow or the day after. He's got a small amount of water in there and is still covered in a warm area. I probably could replicate what it's like outside in our area but I don't know what type of gecko he is so if he gets particularly large.. I'm probably not able to get a bigger tank right now. I have a broken 55g sitting outside but no place for it in the house or THAT would be fantastic. I was brainstorming planting it with live plants and small bushes or tiny trees and get something cool like a chameleon. Buuut that's a lot of money and I want to be more financially secure before I do something like that so that I can do it correctly.

I'm concerned I might do something wrong. He is young but while I was trying to herd him or when I moved the piano he did get his tail detached. It's now somewhere in the keeper no longer on his butt. I think it would be neat to keep him but it would be sad if he died because we did something wrong or just because you don't know what wild animals have in them. 

I think the reason we aren't getting any kind of lizard friend is my MiL is immuno-compromised and some of these little critters carry things that could make her sick and shes paranoid. Though it could keep her out of our room  Guard lizard.

Dallas weather is weird. It was 96 yesterday here and 62 here today. Tuesday will go over 70s so maybe that will be a good day to release him, the day after it rains.


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## Sathori (Jul 7, 2013)

I know leopard geckos drop their tails in times of stress or if they feel threatened. Sometimes if I wake my male up suddenly, he sticks his tail in the air and slowly waved it back and forth. This is to get the predators attention so they will go for the tail, to which the gecko then drops it and runs while the predator is left with a squirming tail. Leopard geckos usually grow their tails back - not sure if this guy will or not, but we can be hopeful  

My next reptile will be a bearded dragon - but then I'll have to save up for a 70+gal 

Best if luck with the little guy, and hopefully you can get a herp of your own


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## bettacrazygirl86 (Jan 21, 2013)

I can't tell what type of gecko it is from the picture. I have a leopard gecko (the most affectionate, demanding little thing who is currently staring at me from his cage). I feed him mealworms, since he has trouble catching crickets. Petsmart has mealworms back where you get crickets. You might have to ask someone to get them for you, since they're back in the fridge. They have small and large sizes. I usually get the small ones. They come in bunches of 50 or 100. 50 is usually enough to last my gecko a week-ish. You could try those, if you still have them.  It's cheap, around $3 for the small 50. He needs water available all the time, and a heat source to lay on, if you can get one. Under tank heaters are what I use. They have $15 ones at Petsmart. I taped a small one to a 3 gallon critter keeper for my gecko when he was a baby, just so he wouldn't be scared by all the space in his real tank.


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## Kithy (Nov 21, 2012)

We let him go when it was about 75 out after we knew it wasn't going to rain for awhile. He was like, completely pink when we released him. But he did eventually scurry out of the keeper and onto a leaf. My kiddo was a little sad but I told him it was better for our little friend to live outside and be happy than in a cage. Maybe we'll look into getting something like a leopard gecko after things settle down and I can downsize my fish population.


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