Tiny Hatchling - help!

G

GSKorelys

Guest
Hello everyone-
On Friday, one of my students brought me a teeny tiny lizard in a cup that he claims to have caught outside his house. From the coloring it looks like a very tiny leopard gecko - but he's no more than two inches long!

I put him in an available empty terrarium with clean paper towels, the smallest cave I've got, and a piece of driftwood (which he's currently hiding under). There's one 25w sun bulb, but no UTH, because I'm afraid it'd fry him. I shredded some lettuce and put it in the corner and mist the cage. He's very active after two days in there, running around like crazy whenever I open the doors.

What else can I do to care for this poor little guy? I was thinking of getting some flightless fruit flies but I worry that even those may be too big. I'm positive that both my juvenile beardie and adult leo would gobble him up, he's smaller than the superworms they eat.

Any advice on this guy that fell into my lap?

K
 
acpart

acpart

Geck-cessories
Staff member
Messages
15,146
Location
Somerville, MA
Where do you live? If you are in the SW, it is likely a SW banded geckos which are cared for a lot like leopard geckos but are much smaller (the adults are about 10 grams). Here's a picture of one of my newborn coleonyx:

CVBHatchling1.jpg


Without knowing what it is, it's hard to give care instructions, but I did write a general article for Gecko Time online magazine about caring for gecko hatchlings in general. Here's the site: http://www.geckotime.com/care-and-feeding-of-gecko-hatchlings/

If you post a picture we may be able to help.

Aliza
 
G

GSKorelys

Guest
Here's the hatchling. I live in Las Vegas, so that would make sense! I've never seen really colorful lizards running around in the desert, and I hike a lot, but who knows? He's next to the cap from a 2-liter for comparison.
 
acpart

acpart

Geck-cessories
Staff member
Messages
15,146
Location
Somerville, MA
It's a small, blurry picture, but it does look like coleonyx. I would assume it's not a newborn, but young. My hatchlings will eat very small mealworms and tiny crickets. If you can find a source of pinhead crickets that will do nicely. The flightless fruit flies are a pain to deal with because they don't seem that flightless to me. If you can dust some very small mealworms in calcium with vitamin D3 it may take them. I feed my hatchlings mealworms when I can't get small enough crickets. You will probably not be able to get mealworms that small from the pet store. See if you can find someone in your area who is breeding mealworms (try posting on this forum, or your local herp society). Take a look at some leopard gecko care sheets. Care is very similar though mine like to dig and burrow more and seem to enjoy a bit more humidity even though they are desert species.

Good luck,

ALiza
 
G

GSKorelys

Guest
That's helpful. I'd hate to turn this little guy out now, but I will tell my student that if he finds any more to let them be since they appear to be native. Thank you!

K
 
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