Ingo Kober wrote:
Dear Hilde,
I think I remember some of your posts on G. smithii on Kingsnake.com. I hope, you don´t mind
if I ask that you are sure that it was G. smithii and not G. siamensis.......I do that because
almost all G. smithii I have been told about by US Herpers so far turned out to be G.
siamensis....but if yours shouted "GECK" loudly at nigth, they must have been smithii of
course.
Good memory, it's been ages since I posted on Kingsnake, and the smithii posts were quite a few
years ago.
If being loud as a fog horn makes them smithii, then that's what they were. I don't recall ever
seeing anything that showed the distinction between smithii and siamensis, so I can't say for
sure what they were. I'm in Canada, so maybe we do/did have smithii here. :)
Can you shortly describe me, how you kept them? Give me a short insight into your experiences
with husbandry and breeding?
And more important: Do you have quality colour slides which you may like to contribute?
Thank you in advance for any contribution/info.
Most of the info I had written down was lost when my old PC crashed, but I think I might still
have some of it on a zip disk, just need to find it. My organization skills don't extend to
removable media.
A quick rundown of what I remember off-hand:
I started with 3.8 , but ended up keeping 3.4. They were sub-adults for the most part and once
I sexed them they went into a 90 gallon tank, more or less naturalistic but not a gorgeous
display tank. It had a lot of branches, some hides up high and on the ground, bark mulch and
silk vines along with some pothos vining all over. The geckos ate insects, preferring sub-adult
roaches, grasshoppers and other big bugs, but also went nuts over pillbugs/sowbugs/woodlice.
Their staple for the most part was Blaberus discoidales and crickets. I always leave some food
in the tanks for gutloading bugs until they get eaten, and use some mashed fruit similar to what
I feed the Rhacodactylus, specially if I'm using roaches. I did notice the geckos eating some of
it once in a while, but not as a regular part of their diet.
The geckos themselves formed a hierarchy with what I'd describe as an alpha male and female.
Even the subordinate males got along well with everyone. All females laid eggs, but it seemed to
me that the 'alpha female' got the better spots to glue her eggs. Everyone took turns guarding
the eggs. What really surprised me was that they'd bask a while, then make a mad dash to the
eggs lower down where it was cooler, and sit on them for a while, almost like they were
transferring heat to them. Once the eggs hatched, all the adults took care of the babies. During
the day anyone not guarding eggs on the walls would be huddled in the biggest hide, babies on
the back wall, adults at the front. If there was any sign of danger, one of the adults would
give this loud bark or cluck, and the babies would fall off the walls, hide on the floor, while
the adults all crammed around the door of the hide. Even in the evening when everyone was out
and about, they'd still give that same loud call when anyone approached. The babies would run
back into the main hide, adults piled in front guarding the babies. Someone would always run
over to the eggs that weren't in that main cave and sit over them as well.
I'll see if I can dig out more info, this is just what I remember at the moment. I do recall
that they were the loudest geckos I've ever had. They were on the east side of the herp room in
the basement. The livingroom is directly above it. I could sit at the opposite side of the
livingroom, one floor up and about 30 feet away, and hear them clearly enough, even with
acoustic tiles on the herp room ceiling and carpet on the living room floor. I think that
qualifies as somewhat loud?
If my leopard and Rhac collection hadn't grown as it did, I'd still have the smithii. They're
not the most colourful gecko, but they make up for it with personality. Unfortunately I don't
have any pictures of them. Back in those days I didn't have my digital camera yet, and any
pictures I did take of them were so blurry, I could barely recognize anything.
Hilde
