Re: [Gecko] Adopted Sphaerodactyulus notatus gravid?

[Racodactylus]

I incubate S. elegans eggs on a sand-peat mix at 82F.  Incubation was 59 days for my last hatchling who busted out on Sunday.  I also have some eggs incubating in situ.  Eggs I incubate are placed directly on top of the mix and covered with a dead leaf.  The medium bordering the delicup is kept moist, and the resulting air humidity keeps the leaf moist, which provides the egg with some managable direct contact with moisture.  All the eggs I found and collected in Key West had a similar setup.  Be it under palm fronds, or in the nooks and crannies of a strangler fig.

S. elegans babies are just at or just under 1/2".

Spharoedactylus aren't necessarily easy to sex, unless they are diamorphic.  I though S. notatus was?  The Audobon Field Guide says, "Female and young show 3 light-centered dark stripes on head[...]"  Look at the female on the GGA site Tony photographed.  Any how, the best way I know of is to look at the base of the tail from about 45 degrees.  Bumps are present in males.  Also, if you put the animal in a very clear dish and shine a light through the base of the tail, you can see two pale white growths in the males.  This at least works for my elegans.

It's a shame this group of geckoes is over looked.  They live close to home, have very interesting behaviors, beautiful, and are colony geckoes.  They are also reproductive machines.  Since September 17, I've gotten 4 eggs.  Not too shabby for such a tiny gecko that lays one egg at a time.

Keep up the good work with such a marvelous gecko.