Gargoyle Gecko Origin
The gargoyle gecko originated from a group of islands northeast of Australia, called New Caledonia.
They live in rainforests, and rather humid habitats in trees and bushes around 1-3 meters tall.
There they prefer to stay hidden, and since they are nocturnal and crepuscular animals, they don’t often come out in the daylight hours.
Appearance
They are named after the bumps on their head, which makes them look a bit like gargoyles.
They are born with long tails, although some drop them and live the rest of their lives without.
Size:
The gargoyle is a medium-sized gecko, which tends to be around 50g at adulthood. This however varies a lot for each animal. They get around 20–30cm whereas the tale makes up a good amount of that size.
Diet:
The dietary requirements for this gecko species are very specific. Luckily great companies have spent years on making foods that fit every need for the animal.
Companies like; Pangea, Repashy and Gecko Nutrition to mention a few.
These foods are often referred to as MRP or CGD. It’s a powder that is mixed with water.
It’s often talked about if you can feed your gecko anything else, like baby food. And that is strongly recommended not to do. Instead, make sure they eat their MRP and offer them insects 2 a week. For a treat, mashed up fruit maybe once a month is also fine.
However, you should make sure to always dust insects, fruits or whatever you decide to give them that isn’t the MRP with calcium.
Also make sure to provide a small water dish, although they drink mostly from small droplets from mistings.
Geckos often tend to use a few days and up to a month to settle down into their new home. So don’t be scared if they don’t start eating in the beginning.
And smaller geckos only eat a tiny amount, so you might not be able to tell at all.
If you want to make sure they are eating, you can place a food bowl with just a tiny bit of food, so you can easily tell if there are any lick marks.
Housing
Temp and Humidity
These geckos are used to the humid and mid temperatures of New Caledonia.
It’s therefore recommended to keep them at around 22-27 degrees celsius.
They can survive both hotter and colder temperatures, but don’t thrive well in them, and especially not over longer periods of time.
They thrive with a humidity of around 70-80%, but need a dry period, preferable during the day. If you mist at night, then you can wait again until the next night to mist again.
If the enclosure dries out quickly, you can pour water into the substrate to make sure it’s humid (Although never wet, as that can cause problems).
Lighting
Gargoyle geckos are known to survive both with and without any UVB, and it’s a current heavily debated subject. So let it be up to yourself if you want your gecko to have it or not.
They do however need some form of light, and for that natural daylight is just fine, so they can get an idea of the time of day. They won’t come out much during the daytime anyway.
Setup
When creating the enclosure for your gecko, you want to recreate its natural environment.
That means giving them plenty of height, hiding spaces and places to climb. These geckos are not good glass climbers, and also have tiny nails to hold on with.
There are plenty of reptile substrates to choose from, but not all are safe for these geckos. Substrates like sand, carpet, clay or shavings are not good for your gecko. Instead, you want to go for either paper towel or soil.
When using paper towel, you will have to clean it out more often, and it turns mouldy quickly.
The size of the enclosure can depend on multiple things. Some people prefer starting with a small one for a baby and then upgrading to a bigger tank. It mostly depends on people's “beliefs” and how much space they have to utilize.
You don’t need the tank to be a terrarium, since some aquariums work nicely and plastic tubs are also a cheap and great way to house geckos. Just remember ventilation.
When decorating the enclosure, remember to use plenty of sticks, cork rounds, plants (Fake or Real) and whatever you can come up with that makes for good hides or climbing options.
Need inspiration? Check out our Facebook album called “New Caledonia Enclosures”.
Cohabbing
This is a big no go. Since this species will fight to the death if they cohabit. Even when breeding this is a very dangerous way to keep your geckos.
Some people do and haven’t experienced any issues, but all it takes is a few minutes of fighting which might start out of the blue, and then your gecko will be severely hurt or maybe even deceased.
So cohabiting is only for your sake, and not in the animals best interest.
Quarantine
When getting in new animals, no matter how known the breeder is, you’ll always need to quarantine it.
This goes for all reptiles and the rules are somewhat universal. But most importantly, keep them away from your other animals, and wash hands between touching your new pet and your old one.
You want to have them quarantined for a minimum of 60 days, but it’s commonly done for 90.
Sex determination
With gargoyles, it’s not always the easiest thing to do. When sexing you will be looking for something called pores. Males have pores, whereas females have none, this species is however known for pseudo pores, where the female has “fake” pores, which makes it hard to determine sex. An easier way to go about it is looking for a bulge between the hindlegs right underneath the tale. Males have big bulges when they reach adulthood, and females dont.
Googling a photo of this might help you better understand.
Eggs
Some females lay eggs, also called duds when not fertile. They are usually less round and more yellow than a fertile egg, and when lighting them with a flashlight it’s yellow inside all the way around.
However, it is possible for females to lay partho eggs, where she fertilisés her own eggs. These eggs look like normal, white and round eggs.
Lighting them will show a small red ring inside, which you want to turn up when putting them into a hatching medium.
Handling
There is a recommended 2 week acclimation period, before starting to handle your gecko. Make sure it is eating, pooping and thriving before starting to take it out of its enclosure.
Start slowly, with a few minutes and build up from there. Some geckos might already be used to being handled and some might not and therefore get skittish, jump or seem frightened.
You want to stay calm! Try starting with handling them somewhere safe, like above a bed or close to the floor, so if they do jump the landing isn’t too harsh.
You can do the “Hand Walking”, which is basically where you hold one hand out in front of the other, allowing the gecko to walk or jump into it. And keep moving your hands, so there is always a hand for it to walk into.
Geckos don’t get tame. But they can get used to being handled nonetheless. Some however might stay skittish and will prefer to be left alone.
Taildrops
This species can drop its tail for a lot of reasons, that sometimes end up being a mysterium. It’s usually because of it getting scared, or hurt in some way. They do however grow back, though not as beautiful as before and often without the original patterns.
Breeding
As previously mentioned, breeding is not always without a cost. Your gecko might get hurt in the process since they might fight or bite each other when breeding.
It's a discussion of how much they need to weigh, and how old they should be before breeding but the minimum is 2 years and 45g, although it is adviced that they are bigger and older for better results. Some females lose weight when laying eggs, and to make sure she won't be completly underweight, you want her to have a good size before starting.
Depending who you ask, breeding is done in differnt ways. Some people use a small box and put the geckos together to watch them lock, and seperate them afterwards, others put the male into the female's enclosure for a few weeks and seperate after. They only really need one lock for the females to lay eggs, but some breed them twice to make sure.
Around 30-45 days after breeding the female should lay eggs that need to be incubated in either dirt, vermiculite or another hatching substrate. Repashy has a really good hatching medium. Make sure to flash the egg with a lightsource to see if they are fertile, which can be seen if there is a red ring inside the egg. Let the ring be upside down, and put them in a humid hatching medium and keep them around 20-26 degrees. Then babies hatch after 60-120 days depending on how warm it is.