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Top 5 Tips for African Fat Tailed Geckos

 

1. Humidity

African Fat Tailed Geckos require more humidity than their cousins the Leopard Geckos. A humidity level of 60-70% can be maintaned by providing a moist hide filled with Sphagnum moss and by spraying the cage down with water every two days or so.

2. Substrate

I orginally kept my first African Fat Tailed Gecko on paper towel as a substrate. My gecko stopped eating and I suspected parasites after a course of deworming the gecko passed out paper towel and began eating again. My African Fat Tailed Gecko had been eating its paper towel so to avoid future gut impactions I swopped to a substrate of sphagnum moss which is organic and if eaten will be digested. The moss also aids in keeping up humidity. Never use sand as a substrate for African Fat Tailed Geckos as this is too dry and will cause gut impactions.

3. African Fat Tailed Geckos Prefer Crickets

If you own an African Fat Tailed Gecko prepare to feed it crickets. These geckos will often ignore every insect you give them except for crickets. They can be converted to eating mealworms but this is not always successful.

4.  Brumation

Unlike Leopard Geckos African Fat Tailed Geckos require a period of cooling before they breed. Keep your African Fat Tailed geckos at 20-25 degrees celcius for 6-8 weeks. This is especially important for the males.

5. Take Extra Care Of Males When Breeding

We all put most of our efforts into maintaining healthy female geckos when breeding them and tend to forget about the males. With African Fat Tailed Geckos it is important to look after your males well during breeding season as they will stop eating and get very skinny during the breeding season so start of with males that are a healthy weight and feed them heavily when they will eat.