Turner's Or Bibron's?

[satyr666]

I bought this gecko at Petsmart as a Bibron's it's the first reptile of any type I have owned. I've done some research and it seems more likely that it is a Turner's gecko, if anyone could verify that it would be great also if anyone one could tell me if its male or female I believe its female but not 100% sure. I have owned it for 3 days now and it hasn't eaten anything although I have been told this is normal when they come to a new home any tips to get it to eat would be appreciated though.

 

[touch 13]

This looks to be a female Turners.

 

[satyr666]

Thanks, that's what I figured. It has been a week and she still hasn't eaten anything, although she has eaten calcium dust, she looks like shes losing some weight. Should I be worried yet? is there anything I can do to get her to eat? I have left meal worms overnight in a dish and left cricket's in the cage for a few hours then removed them and she hasn't paid any attention to them.

 

[touch 13]

This will happen, if you start to see a dwindle in health, you may have to take action and see your local herp vet.

Untill then, time is the key, make sure all of the requirements for the species are met: temps, substrates, hides. They don't use all so much humidity but i would purchase a therm/hydrom to ensure the readings are correct.

 

[touch 13]

This is my set-up for my male hope this can give you the right idea

 

[satyr666]

She still hasn't eaten yet although she seems to be acting normally. During the day she lays in her basking spot. At night she explores a bit but mainly climbs in her tree. Yesterday it was odd that in the morning she was inside her humid hide, normally she sits at the top of the tree in her basking spot, she stayed in the hide all day but today I found large chunks of shed skin so that makes sense now. Other than not eating she seems healthy her tail and body haven't diminished in size much, I leave calcium dust out for her and she seems to eat that every night.

As for housing she has a 18x18x24 tall viv. I used coconut husk substrate, a half log hide with sphagnum moss that I keep moist, a climbing tree that gives her a basking spot under the heat lamp, a rock, and a small plastic skull hide. I also leave a water dish and a meal worm dish for her.

I mist her moist hide, change her water, top up calcium powder, and add dusted meal worms or crickets at night when her lamp gets shut off.

So far the average temp's and humidity i have recorded are :

Day: 80.4 F
Night: 71.6 F
Basking: 90.1 F
Humidity: 68%

Any advice is appreciated there is a lot of contradicting info on the web about how to care for Turner's or Bibron's Gecko so info from an experienced owner would be great.

Here's some pics of my set up.

 

[touch 13]

add some rocks, they love to wedge themselves as deep as possible within a pile of rocks. i went down my street to a local stream grabbed around 5 pounds of rock, cooked them on a pan in my oven at 125F for 15mins. Then leave them in water overnight.

Their native home is a arid area, with bushy shrubs for cover, rocks and mountains to bask on during the hot sunny days. Provide them with a little bit of greenery, LOTS of rock surfaces, I even use the slate tile in one corner where my UTH is.

 

[satyr666]

Thanks again I will be sure to add some rocks for her, and I might try and find some snake plants I read that they are easy to keep alive inside a viv. She finally started eating yesterday, she has ate around 8 meal worms now. I guess she just needed a lot of time to settle in.

 

[touch 13]

I am so happy she finally came around! patience is the key.
on another note, she may have not been fed worms from the previous home and this is a new food group. Most of my geckos don't accknowledge worms. They don't move enough, or burrow in too deep.

Glad i could provide some info satyr666.
BOL
Lee Carpenter.