The Gecko Palette

fireflyjar — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:02:29 +0000

The hatchlings are growing so quickly! The one pictured above, hatched on May 9th of this season, was one of my two first hatchlings (out of Martini x Gyro). It looks like most of the Martini x Gyro babies are going to be nice flames with only a little dalmatian spotting, with a plain olive dalmatian hatching out about 25% of the time. It’s these “plain” olive ones I’m the most interested in. The father has a bright yellow head and a nice blush–it would be nice to know if any of the hatchlings inherited these traits. It would be even nicer if I got an olive female.

The other hatchlings, out of Martini x Torque, hatched smaller and are slower to grow:

Torque’s babies are inheriting Martini’s long snout and general structure instead of just the color traits. It looks like they might have some of Torque’s harlequin color, but at this age it’s difficult to tell anything at all. The one pictured above and its clutchmate hatched out of Torque’s first clutch of eggs, so I was surprised they hatched at all. I’m hoping her next clutches hatch out large offspring like Gyro’s. Either way, they’ll be her last–she’s definitely retired.

+ Digital Camera

fireflyjar — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 14:14:08 +0000

I have a digital camera again, thanks to my mother when she came to visit over the weekend! (Thanks so much, mom!) Also thanks to her I have a new adult female crested gecko named Honey. She’s a blinding yellow with a creamy dorsal, huge white portholes, nice white fringing, lots of dalmatian spotting, and a whitish flame pattern. Just a gorgeous animal. She has no tail, but to me that’s not a huge fault on an adult of this species.

The new lady

Torque the extreme harlequin female is now permanently retired. Her escape incident early this summer was too traumatic for her health. She and my other female, Gyro, somehow escaped their latched enclosure and also mysteriously ended up outside. After a week and a half I found Torque in a plant on my porch but Gyro never turned up. Her weight dropped from 35g to 27g, her floppy tail became much more pronounced, and her hips looked even more sunken from MBD than when I first got her. She recovered her weight and continued to lay healthy-looking clutches, but this past month she’s lost that weight and one of her clutches died just before hatching. From now on she’s “pet only” and will never be bred again. She was my first gecko and so she’s very dear to me; I want her to have the best, healthiest life possible.

All of the others are doing fantastic. The hatchlings are all eating their CGD and growing rapidly. As soon as I can decide which ones to let go, I’ll put a few of the older ones (8-14 weeks old) up for sale.

Aww, hatchlings…

fireflyjar — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 12:58:44 +0000

I rooted some variegated philodendrons last month and this past week they shot up some new leaves. Now that they’re definitely rooted and growing I put one pot in each crested gecko hatchling Kritter Keeper. They’re loving their plants! The babies will climb into the pot, find a spot under a leaf just behind the rim, and then rest their heads on the edge. When you look in at them all you see are these little heads peeking out from over the pot at you. I guess it’s an ideal lookout post for a baby to feel secure from.

Another plant I rooted is an angel wing begonia I think is called “ice princess” or “ice queen”, a variation with dense white spots on solid, small green angel wing leaves. The original plant was a present from my mother and it’s one of my favorites because of all the shoots it puts out–you can get so many nice rootings from it! I put these in the older juvenile enclosures and so far they’re a huge success. They do well with my schedule of a light misting in the morning and a heavy misting in the evenings. It’s an ideal size plant for the juveniles to climb on and hide in, but probably too small for the adults to have without damaging. My adult pair just gets philodendrons for now.

Two of this season’s crested gecko babies out of Martini (male olive dalmatian) and Gyro (high contrast flame I no longer have) probably inherited their dad’s olive color. I might hold these back just to see if they turn out female because I keep reading no one can find a female olive. It would be worth it to start an olive project just to see if it’s a sex-linked genetic trait.

Introduction

fireflyjar — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 21:41:50 +0000

“The Gecko Palette” is the name for my online art studio/portfolio and my gecko business. Most of the entries here will provide updates and photos on the gecko colonies, new artwork, and anything I have up for sale.

…once I get the adapter for my digital camera back and figure out how to work it with this laptop, anyway. For now this blog will be text only until I can figure everything out.

The gargoyle gecko trio is one subadult male and two unsexed juveniles. With any luck I’ll have a 1:2 male:female ratio when they mature some more.

The crested gecko colony is getting huge now that the breeding season is here and all of my eggs are hatching. This summer I have just one pair breeding; five eggs are in the incubator and one of those eggs is due to hatch any day now. I have eight hatchlings so far, six of which I’ll sell once I can decide which two I’ll hold back. In addition to the breeding pair and the hatchling group there’s eight juveniles/subadults I’ll be raising up for next year’s season. So the total is at 3.5.11.5 (male.female.unsexed.eggs)

The female from this season is going to be given a rest for a year or so to see if a floppy tail/calcium issue she has can recover. I’ll probably separate her from the male in the next week or two. When I bought her from work at a pet store my coworker had fed her only crickets, so she’s started showing some deformities from poor nutrition. I’ll probably end up making her break into an early retirement.