Anyone owned cat geckos in groups?

[justanotherfroginthepond]

I have a breeding male and two breeding females coming on Thursday, and I'd like to make sure I'm covering all my bases.  I know all about the RO/purified water, humidity and temp. requirements, but I'm more interested in hearing how other people have kept theirs as far as pairs and groups go.  I know they do best singly or in pairs, but the three coming have all been housed together and are already mating... anyone have any experience housing whole groups successfully?  Thanks, guys! 

[honuman]

I have a breeding male and two breeding females coming on Thursday, and I'd like to make sure I'm covering all my bases.  I know all about the RO/purified water, humidity and temp. requirements, but I'm more interested in hearing how other people have kept theirs as far as pairs and groups go.  I know they do best singly or in pairs, but the three coming have all been housed together and are already mating... anyone have any experience housing whole groups successfully?  Thanks, guys! 

Keep them and have bred them for a while.  I have kept them in any of a number of combinations mulitiple males with multiple females. in 1.2 trios.  I have kept them on fir bark with moss patches over the top of it and kept that very moist or with keepers' choice and moss.  Live plants like philadendron are excellent and I give them lots of cork bark to hide under as well as nest boxes.  The key is to provide them space and lots of hide spots and you can keep them together in any combination with no worries.  I also litter the cage bottom with those almond leaves that you use when breeding bettas.  It makes great cover for them.  You know you are doing right by them when you don't see them.  LOL!!!  They are not that hard to keep if you get their environment right.    The babies hatch out large and able to take 1/4 inche crickets from day one. 

Once you have the environment set up nicely and they are hunkered in and happy. NO TOUCHY!!!!!!!  If they are happy leave em alone.

[justanotherfroginthepond]

Thanks, Steve!  I was thinking about using a 29 gal. Rubbermaid (28L X 19 1/2 W X 18 H) for them.  Should that be enough space for the three?  I was plannng on Eco-Earth or Bed-a-beast for the substrate, sphagnum moss in patches over about 1/2 of the bottom, cork bark tubes and losts of fake plants and vines wrapped in garland.  I always save all my extra leaves that have fallen off my silk plants, and was going to use that as leaf litter for now.

I hear any aggresiveness will probably come from the females towards each other, so I know to watch for that.  Worse comes to worse and I'll separate the females and switch the male out between them.

Do you heat incubate or shelf incubate your eggs?  General incubation length?  I'll probably be getting gravid females, so I want to be ready.  Is incubation humididty the same as the cresties?  And they bury their eggs, so a (or 2) smaller gladware container a couple inches deep with laying substrate?  Do you use R/O water or just purified water?  I appreciate you letting me pick your brain...   

The only info I've been able to find is a few basic care sheets, and some random forum discussions, but they sounded too cool to pass up!

[honuman]

To be honest never any aggression from them.  Ever.  They are very docile animals. 


 They all get along just fine.  I know people who keep multiples in smaller situation but what you hare planning is perfect in my opinion.    lots of hide space is key and get those almond leaves (you can get them on ebay really cheap)  They are excellent cover for them .The temp requirements are the same basically as cresties and i would just incubate the eggs at room temperature. You will be able to clearly see if your girls come in gravid. The eggs are pretty large in those thin bodies.    I don't use RO water and to be perfectly honest they have been doing fine.  HOWEVER, we have excellent water quality where I live.  If you have water quality issues most definitely use the RO water.

The only issue I have ever had with some of the young is difficulty shedding skin.

[justanotherfroginthepond]

Thanks, again!  There is an almond orchard a few blocks from me, so I think I'll hit 'em up for some left over leaves (if they even have any this time of year) and then just heat treat them.  If that doesn't pan out then E-bay it is!