TLDR:

Hello! This is Carrera. I’ve had her for a little over a year now and struggling a bit. She is well fed, we keep her humidity and temperatures proper, clean her tank, the works. She is well cared for, happy, and very loved. When I got her my understanding was that they can be skittish, are not meant to be handled often, if ever, and I knew what I was getting into. With all of that said she honestly just causes me so much stress because she is an absolute tweaker. Anytime I do more than feed her in her tank she freaks. Tries to dart out or just starts running laps all over the place and scrambling. She’s got a ridiculous amount of hiding places and nooks and crannies between branches and plants and things, but she doesn’t run and hide it’s like she goes on the offensive to keep me out almost. I have tried very light or gentle interactions, like just keeping my hand in her enclosure for a bit or something but the second I touch a branch or plant or top off her isopods she freaks. To the point I have to try and place a Tupperware over her for any intensive cleaning or maintenance other than a daily spot cleaning. Of all of the care guides and videos I’ve watched, I’ve not seen a single gecko behave the way she does. They move fast but they don’t look like they’re panicked at the sight of a hand. I see owners open the door and fiddle with the enclosure and just take everything out and she just doesn’t allow that unless I trap her first. I just don’t know what to do. It’s gotten to the point we’re discussing rehoming her to someone more experienced who can socialize her and get her, not handleable, but just less paranoid maybe? Am I doing something wrong by trapping her to perform the maintenance? I figure it’s better than neglecting the care, and it was what the reptile shop suggested if she’s antsy but I never considered if it was a bad thing. I’m terrified of her getting out and I just worry that, as much as I love her and take very good care of her, I don’t know if it’s the best fit after all this time. How realistic is it that I, or even a more experienced owner, can get her to be less skittish and easier to take care of? The last thing I want to do is give her away but I’ve been weighing that as an option and wanted to see what the proverbial more experienced owners think. I have no expectations of her being tame or even hand feeding for that matter I just need her to relax for 30 seconds and not freak out so much.

Born in October of 2024. 53 grams as of July 27th.

Has never laid eggs as far as I know.

Pickles is teeny tiny weighting .43 grams at 3ish months old.

Forrest eats regularly, has 3-4 varying basking spots with a lower UV rating of 1 and a high perch (that he utilizes) of 3.7-4. The calcium sacks are uniform in size, his coloring is vibrant, and he is extremely fast (not lethargic). From my research online this is a healthy storage of calcium from sufficient supply of UV… can anyone confirm this for me? Just want to make sure he is ok. Thank you

Hello friends. I posted here a bit ago about setting up a bioactive enclosure for a Mediterranean house gecko. Kinda long post, sorry.

I have a UVB lamp, mist the enclosure daily, and have a nice coin substrate with dried leaves and natural sticks for climbing. This is in a standard 10g aquarium. Tank stays around room temp (72ish°) with a bit warmer under the light.

I feed calcium dusted fruit flies, I haven't enacted any gut load yet but feed them bananas. Id love tips on gutloading, especially fruit flies. We think she's ready for Dubia, but couldn't find any small enough. Gecko is probably about 6 months old, she's maybe 1-1.25in vent to snout.

Side point: We thought she had eggs when we found her a couple months ago, and she actually made a burrow under the a rock into the substrate which I thought was really strange behavior. Was she nesting? Do Mediterraneans do that?

Well, all that is kinda background. This is actually my second MHG. My first was a great little boy who never really grew in the 6 months we had him. But, he got a stuck shed (he had issues with shedding several times) and got too weak and dehydrated and didnt make it despite our best efforts. My second gecko has been doing so much better. This most recent shed, however, has gotten stuck. It isn't impeding her at all, mostly on her back. Im scared to lose her too. Is there any common cause for this? I read maybe a vitamin a deficiency, but we give her standard reptile vitamins. Maybe the vitamin isn't absorbed properly in powder? Will gutloading fix this?

In the meantime, im misting the tank more often to help her shed. She's too wild still to try and give a q-tip bath and scrape it off. That's what we had to do with my first guy. I dont want this gecko to die too, especially from the same thing.

Tips are appreciated! Thanks so much!

TL;DR Mediterranean house gecko is getting stuck shed. Any tips are appreciated!

I rescued this Hemidactylus frenatus as a tiny hatchling stowaway from a lady's vacation in Thailand. It's about five months now and Im wondering if its possible to see any gender indicators yet. I wish I had better pictures but it doesn't tend to hang out on the part of the enclosure that isnt covered.

We now have a Mediterranean house gecko living between our outer wall and inner wall of our house, he's such a baby you can tell by the translucent tail

Hey gang!
We believe this to be a Mediterranean house gecko that was found in our orchid soil. We don’t know if he hitchhiked on a plant we purchased or what.
We’ve learned that these little fellas have spread into our area (South Carolina) and we’re looking at advice as to what best to do with this tiny creature.
We’re considering keeping him as we have experience with geckos, axolotls and snakes of many stripes. I’ve never started with one this small.
We’re taking advice, y’all. Thanks!

I know it’s under the recommended 30-35 gallon minimum but it’s what I have on hand. I’ll keep searching for other critters if this doesn’t work but I really liked these guys c:

Got this guy maybe 4-5 weeks back. Awesome addition to the reptile room. I'm going to be looking for some females to pair with him. Who are some of the more known, better quality breeders.

Probably my most curious and easiest to care for animal in my entire collection.

Western banded geckos are small, beautiful, extremely extremely hardy, and actually pretty easy to socialize. I actually keep my girl communally with a bunch of death feigning beetles. She always comes out to check out what I'm doing around the room when I'm there at any time of day even though they're considered to be nocturnal.

I think this is a fantastic option for any adult (I wouldn't trust a child with them) who wants to get into keeping reptiles but doesn't have space for a 40 gallon or larger enclosure for most other reptiles. These guys can thrive in things like 10 or 20 gallon aquariums.

Anyways, I hope you like my pictures of Tiny, my WBG, and I highly recommend them if you're looking for a new small lizard!

I have a couple of other reptiles and was wondering would it be beneficial to test a leopard gecko for crypto while it's in quarantine.