Gecko Baby! (October 2004)
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2004 Gecko Baby
On Thursday, October 21st, after around 48 days of incubation, one of
the tiny eggs laid by our geckos Gilbert and the Chickadee, who live at
Holly's office at
LiveOps, hatched! The new baby is
about 1 1/2 inches long, including tail; and there is another egg that
hasn't hatched yet, that we're waiting on. Here are some rough initial
pictures.
High
resolution pictures now available from Holly!
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| The nursery tank setup |
Philodendron with thermometer on left, sanseveria with hygrometer on right |
Slightly blurry closeup of eggs sitting on a film canister cover |
Our new baby gecko crawling around the top of the nursery enclosure |
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| Gecko walking across the viewing window |
Closeup from above |
The viewing window is this gecko's favorite spot to bask |
Holly taking photos with her Canon 20D equipped with a 50mm macro lens |
We had a nursery tank setup already set up, since we had been waiting
anxiously for some days for this to happen (typically, Phelsuma
laticauda laticauda eggs are supposed to hatch after 40-45 days of
incubation). The nursery tanks are plastic
Lee's Kritter Keepers,
each with a sanseveria and a philodendron, planted in terra cotta pots
which help hold humidity. I cut some cork mats to size for a floor layer,
and there is a small thermometer and hygrometer in each tank.
For heat and light we have four 12V halogen
ESPRESSIVO
lamps from IKEA, as well as a space heater which puts the ambient
temperature at around 80°F. For humidity, we vigorously manually
mist the enclosures. We'll probably soon have to get a small room
humidifier as well. Inside the enclosures, it's right around 78°F,
warmer near the top, and around 65-85% humidity, depending on how
recently we've misted.
These pictures are all pretty poor quality—the lighting in the
nursery tanks is far from ideal, and our little baby gecko is so tiny
that my point and shoot digital camera can't autofocus on him or her.
You should take a look at the
higher-fidelity
hotos Holly took with her fancy Canon 20D, equipped with an amazing
50mm macro lens.
You might also want to check out
pictures of our geckos for more about the
new baby gecko's parents and uncle.
Andrew Ho
(andrew@zeuscat.com)
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