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African Fat Tailed Gecko Care Sheet

 
 
 
 
 
Where to get your pet African Fat Tailed Gecko

 

 

African Fat Tailed Geckos are native to West Africa. There has been a flood of wild caught African Fat Tailed Geckos into South Africa recently. I have seen these specimens and they are in a shocking state and I would recommend that you avoid buying these like the plague. Luckily a few captive bred Fat Tailed Geckos are offered for sale at South African reptile expos and from South African reptile breeders. Purchasing a baby Fat Tailed Gecko will ensure that it is captive bred as all the wild caught African Fat Tailed Geckos are adults. As with all reptiles captive bred is always better, do not support pet shops who import and sell wild caught reptiles. African Fat Tailed Geckos are nowhere near as common as Leopard Geckos in the South African pet trade but if you look around you can find captive bred Fat Tailed Geckos including albino African Fat Tailed Geckos.

 

Housing

 

I keep all my geckos including my African Fat Tailed Gecko in plastic tubs in a rack system. African Fat Tailed Geckos will do equally well in a glass terrarium of the appropriate size. Plastic tubs and glass terrariums should measure 45cm x 30cm x 20cm for a single African Fat Tailed Gecko. Use paper towels as a substrate to avoid gut impactions. Sand does not make a good substrate for African Fat Tailed Geckos. You can house pairs or small groups of one male and two females together. Do not house more than one male African Fat Tailed Geckos together as they will fight over territory.

 

Heating

 

The best way to heat African Fat Tailed Geckos is to use a low wattage heat pad which is placed under one half of the cage to produce a thermal gradient. The temperature on the warm side of the cage should be 28-30 degrees Celsius and the cool side of the cage should measure 25 degrees Celsius. Use a thermometer to monitor the temperatures. You can also use a thermostat to control the cage temperature.

 

Humidity 

 

African Fat Tailed Geckos look very similar to Leopard Geckos and their care is almost exactly the same with the exception that African Fat Tailed Geckos require more humidity than Leopard Geckos. Putting moist sphagnum moss in your African Fat Tailed Geckos hide box and spraying your Fat Tailed Geckos cage a few times a week will provide enough amount of humidity for your pet gecko to thrive.

 

Feeding

 

African Fat Tailed Geckos eat a variety of insects in the wild. In captivity they will thrive on a diet of crickets and mealworms. Fat Tailed Geckos show a preference towards crickets and may ignore mealworms. Provide a calcium supplement containing vitamin D3. Place a bowl of calcium powder in your geckos cage to allow it to lick the calcium powder whenever they feel the need for calcium. You can also dust crickets with calcium powder to ensure your African Fat Tailed Gecko receives enough calcium in its diet. Feed baby and juvenile Fat Tailed Geckos 6-8 small crickets once a day and feed adult Fat Tailed Geckos 6 large crickets 3 times a week. Feed gravid African Fat Tailed Geckos as much as they will eat every day.