The African fat tail gecko is a land gecko that originated in the savannahs and plains of West African deserts. The are ground dwellers, meaning they do not live in trees and spend their spend their lives running through dust and dirt. This partly explains why they have thick movable eyelids, like their cousin, the leopard gecko.
These lizards get their name from their thick, bulbous tails. Their tails serve the gecko as a store of extra fat in cas of a calorie deficit. However, they can quickly shed their tails by an action called caudal autonomy. This is done when the gecko feels threatened or vulnerable. It helps them to move faster or escape the clutches of a hungry predator.
Because they naturally live in very dry environments, African fat tail geckos are usually found in moist shelters at the edge of rivers. During the day, however, they emerge to bask, like any other cold-blooded animal, on a sunny rock.
You may also want to know more about leopard gecko care.
How much does a African fat tail gecko cost?
When shopping for an African fat tail gecko, you will find a wide price range. Typically, they range from $75 to $500. This price range depends mainly on two things: appearance and breeder.
Rare color variants tend to go for much higher prices than their typical color variants. Also, a reliable breeder will often charge more per gecko. You won’t normally find these lizards find them at your local pet store, but there are plenty of breeders online available.
Shopping online for your gecko can be a very convenient process because it allows you to be much more selective about the appearance and
breeding history of your African fat tail gecko.
Typical behavior and temperament
Many gecko species are quite aggressive and fall under the adage: watch, but don’t touch. This is not the case with the African fat tail gecko. It is not certain that they enjoy being held and being grabbed, but at least they don’t seem to mind it as much like it as much as other geckos.
They are fairly docile and remain calm in neutral environments. During the day, they are often hidden in the logs and shade of their habitat or are sunbathing on a sun stone.At night, however, it is a different story, however. They are a nocturnal animal and become more more active. That’s when they prefer to hunt, so feeding is best done in the evening hours.
The males are generally the loudest of all the sexes and use a series of clicks and squeaks to claim their territory claim, alert other males and even to attract breeding females. Females usually raise their voices only when they feel threatened. However, your African fat tail gecko communicates through its tail. They wag, stiffen and even rattle their tails, depending on their mood.
Appearance and varieties
The African fat tail gecko is born with one of two forms: striped or banded. Striped geckos have dark bands that extend the length of their bodies. Striped geckos have a long thin stripe that runs vertically along their length running from tip to tail.
The gecko’s natural color pattern is a beige or light brown base with darker brown stripes. However, through selective breeding however, many different morphs have been created. You can now find find different colors such as bright orange, black and white, albino, and more
many more.
Care of African fat-tailed geckos
Habitat conditions and setup
When building your African fat-tailed gecko habitat, you will want to follow the wooden vivarium approach. They act as good insulators
to keep your gecko nice and warm. However, you need to make sure that there is an air flow. Your vivarium should have vents that will promote this.
Since they won’t grow too much, you can start with a 10-gallon aquarium and maintain this as well. However, if you plan to breed them or keep multiple geckos in the same enclosure, we keep, we recommend that each gecko have a minimum of 10 gallons. For example, if you have two adult geckos, you should keep them in a tank of 20 gallons, and so on.
Your African fat-tailed gecko should also get 12 hours of light every day. However, they don’t really need a strong UVB lamp. A simple T8 or
T5 lamp with a timer is fine for them. Also, make sure you mount the lamp mounted in a back corner. These lizards like to hide in the dark. A corner-mounted lamp can provide this better than a lamp mounted in the middle.
These critters also like to be warm, and that means heating. Ideally ideal case, you want to avoid heating under the substrate because they
can burn themselves on that. Instead, opt for a basking light. This will provide all the heat they need.
As for the substrate, paper is the best choice for your African fat-tailed gecko, and it can be easily cleaned every day be cleaned. The disadvantage of paper is that it needs to be changed every 2-3 days. Compressed coconut ground cover is also a good choice and only needs to be changed weekly.
Its African thick-tailed geckos good terrarium partners?
One of the biggest concerns in keeping multiple geckos is to determining whether or not they will play nicely together in one enclosure.
African fat-tailed geckos are very territorial, and it is not recommended advisable to keep two males in the same enclosure. It would only a matter of time before they attack each other in a dominance show, in which one (or both) would be seriously injured or would be killed.
However, you can keep a male with other females. Remember however, that this can and will lead to reproduction. So, unless you are
looking for more geckos, it is better to keep them separately.
In general, several females can be successfully housed in one enclosure. They are not nearly as territorial as the males, but it is possible that one of them may emerge as a terrarium queen.
What do you feed your African fat-tailed gecko?
Like most geckos, the African fat-tailed gecko is a strict carnivore. Their diet should be 100% insect-based. Although they are not gourmets, they are more fond of crickets and mealworms than of other insect species. However, they also eat wax worms, hornworms, silkworms and even pink mice!
In addition to their standard insect diet, your African fat-tailed geckos need extra supplements, especially as they adjust to a new environment. This can easily be accomplished by sprinkling their insects sprinkled with special powders to give them the nutrition that they need.
You should give them only live prey, as this stimulates their natural hunting instinct. However, you may find that your gecko doesn’t want to eat every night. After a large meal, they store extra fat in their tail, which they can use for a few days.
Keep your African fat-tailed gecko healthy
These are relatively healthy and hardy lizards. And once established in their new home, they do extremely well from day to day well. The most dangerous time to get sick is during the transfer to a new habitat.
Simple daily maintenance can keep them at their best. You should clean their aquariums on site every day and remove their feces. This minimizes the chances of them contracting cryptosporidiosis – a disease caused by feces – contracted. In addition to daily cleanings, you should thoroughly clean their aquarium at least once a month, scrubbing them completely and disinfected.
Breeding
African fat-tailed geckos have a separate breeding season each year which usually lasts 5 months – normally from November to March. While
females can lay up to five clutches during this period, the most lay far fewer, with only one or two clutches.
Females usually lay only two eggs at a time, which are between 1 and 1.5 centimeters long. The sex of these eggs during incubation be affected by temperature. For a greater chance of hatched males, the eggs should be incubated at 88°-89°C. For females, 83°-85° C is the ideal temperature.
Eggs hatched at temperatures lower than this are considered fatal. Eggs hatched at higher temperatures incubated may survive; however, these eggs bring mainly aggressive, poorly incubating females.
