Caresheet Helmeted Gecko

Cage size
You can have up to three helmeted geckos in a 10-gallon tank (one male and two females). If you have more animals - you need a bigger cage. You can only have one male in each cage since the males are very territorial. Several females are ok though.

Temperatures
The ambient temp in the cage shall be around 77-80 F. But the geckos need a warmer spot as well - around 89-90 F. Some people use a spotlight and others a heating-mat (I do). Make sure it doesn't get too warm - it isn't good for them. During the night the temp can drop a little.

Light
Helmeted geckos are nocturnal but they benefit from UV-radiation anyway so in my opinion you shall have that. The geckos are sometimes active during the day too.

I leave the light on for 13 hours during the summer-months and 11 hours during winter.

Humidity
Helmeted geckos are "desert dwelling" lizards but despite that they requires quite a lot of humidity since they live near the coast. Mist the cage and the animals once a day (preferably in the morning) and keep a small spot of the sand moist in one corner for example. Some of the hiding spots shall also have moist sand underneath. Humidity is especially important with young animals.

Substrate
Since the helmeted gecko is a ground dwelling lizard in a desert like environment, fine sand is a good substrate. The bad thing about sand is that they can digest some of it by accident and then get impacted. Unfortunately there aren't any perfect substrate - in my opinion.

Decorating the cage
There must be several hiding places at both the warm and the cool end. The substrate under one hiding place at the warm area should be moist and the same goes for the cooler part of the cage. You also have to have dry hiding places - at both the warm and cool end. The lizard must have the opportunity to choose what he needs.

Helmeted geckos are not great climbers - but they do like it so some branches and stuff like that is also good to put in their cage.

Food
Helmeted geckos are carnivorous lizards so they eat small crickets, mealworms, zophobas and other small insects. Just make sure that the food isn't too big - helmeteds are small lizards and they shall have "small food". No bigger than the space between the lizards eyes. I feed my young geckos every day and the adults every second day when the lights go off. They don't eat a lot so you have to make sure you don't feed them too much. Left over crickets in the cage can stress, and even hurt your lizard.

Calcium & vitamins
Like all lizards helmeted geckos needs quite a lot of calcium. I dust all the crickets I feed them in calcium and once a week I exchange the calcium for multi vitamins. I have used Rep-Cal's Herptivite Multivitamins so far, but recently changed to Sticky Tongue Farms "Miner-All I". This product is highly recommended by Stacy Yankee at HelmetedGecko.com.

Water
You rarely see a helmeted gecko drink water from a bowl, but you should have a shallow bowl with water in the cage anyway. When you mist the cage in the morning the geckos can also drink water droplets from the glass or from stones and branches etc.

Hibernation
To imitate the geckos' natural life in Morocco it is recommended to let them hibernate for about 4 weeks during the winter. Hibernation also stimulates breeding. The information I have found about hibernation varies... Somewhere between 50-59 F seems to be the common recommendation.

Shedding
You shall always keep an eye at your gecko when it is shedding to see that there aren't any problems. A helmeted gecko sheds all its skin at once. If the cage is too dry the lizard can have a problem with shedding and the old skin can get stuck around the toes etc. If you see that the gecko has problems shedding raise the humidity by misting the cage.

Newly hatched babies shed the first or second day of their life and if it isn't humid enough they can have serious problems. But - on the other hand - don't mist too much! They do not like an environment like a tropical rainforest.

Take care of the eggs
Read more about mating and egg laying under "facts". If you decide to hatch the eggs they have to be put in a dry substrate or else they will mould quickly. On the other hand - the air around the egg must be quite humid..! Tricky..! I solved this problem by putting the eggs in dry sand in a small bowl. Then I took a plastic container and covered the bottom with vermiculite. I mixed the same amount vermiculite and water in weight - not volume. (Take 40 grams water and 40 grams vermiculite for example). Then it's usually moist enough. Then I put the little bowl with the egg in the moist vermiculite. I built my own incubator and it worked just fine.

In a temperature of 84 F it took 75-85 days for the eggs to hatch and at a lower temp it took a bit longer.

Hatchlings
The hatchlings shall basically have the same conditions as the adults, but you have to pay attention to the humidity even more. If it gets too dry - they die. But it shouldn't bee too wet either... I know it is difficult..! I wet the sand in one end of the cage and leave the rest dry. Then I mist the cage with hatchlings 1-2 times a day. I had my first hatchlings on papertowels but it got too dry and they died despite me misting several times a day. The papertowels simply didn't hold moisture enough. When I switched to sand not a single hatchling has died.

Hatchlings are very shy and several hiding places are very important. They get easily stressed if you are handling and "looking at them" all the time. So leave them alone as much as possible.

Offer the hatchlings pinhead crickets (very small crickets) once or twice a day when the lights go off. Dust the crickets with calcium every day and exchange the calcium with multivitamins 1-2 times a week.

The young helmeted geckos shall be separated from the adults. Cannibalism doesn't occur (from what I know) among helmeted geckos but the young helmeteds has difficulties competing for food with the adults. It is best to keep different sizes separated from each other. When they get sexually mature (they can be as early as 5 months) you must separate the males from the females. It is not a good idea if siblings mate... It is not that good to mate a female too young either. She must be fully-grown before you mate her. I recommend that you wait until they are at least one year old.


References:
Reptilia the European Herp Magazine, #17 2001
Reptiles Magazine, January 2001
Geckoes, Henkel/Schmidt
Geckos - all species in one book, Henkel/Schmidt
Terrariet vol. 2 1998, No3, article by Mikael Sörensen (in Swedish)