Crickets Killed Day Gecko Hatchling

[Aiion]

Hi,

This morning I found my newborn Giant Day Gecko hatchling dead with injuries in it's cage. This was going on his 3rd day with us and about day 5 of life. He was doing great and suddenly he was dead.

The pet store told me that the crickets probably killed him. I had 8 small/medium crickets in the cage. They were all hiding behind a piece of bark that was against the wall of the cage so I left them in there. They were there from day one. There was also 1 mealworm in the cage that was crawling all around. My temps were perfect. He was also supplied repashy.

Do you think that crickets could have killed my hatchling? I will be picking up a crested gecko tomorrow and I need to be as informed as possible.

 

[acpart]

There's no way to know for sure. If you bought him at 5 days old from a pet store, they had no business selling you one that young. It takes them a few weeks to become well established and viable for sale. It's not unusual for a gecko to die on its own and for the critters in the enclosure to then start eating the dead gecko, so it's usually hard to tell for sure.

Please don't buy any gecko that's less than about 4 weeks old. I think in general the crested gecko is more of a beginner pet than the giant day gecko so you may do better there.

Aliza