Origin
Madagascar ground Gecko or Malagasy Ground Gecko (Paroedura Picta), as it is known to us, belongs to the class Reptilia, order Squamata, suborder Sauria, family Gekkonidae, subfamily Gekkoninae.
Old scientific names: Diplodactylus pictus, Phyllodactylus pictus, Phyllodactylus madagascariensis, Paroedura pictus, etc.
Names under which it can be found in other international languages: Madagascar Ground Gecko, Ocelot gecko, Malagasy fat tailed gecko or Panther Gecko.
It is an endemic species, living only in the south of Madagascar, in the forests of coastal areas.
Paroedura picta is a terrestrial gecko, foraging for food through the fallen foliage of forests in southern Madagascar.
Ground Gecko food
They can feed on any kind of insects they can eat, from crickets, beetles and grasshoppers, to Bream, mealworms and even smaller superworms. Calcium and vitamin supplements should always powder the insects offered as food.
A small container filled with calcium carbonate (JBL MicroCalcium or others) should not be missing from the terrarium.
A vessel with fresh water must be present in the terrarium at all times, but the vessel must not be deep to allow the animal to get out easily if it falls into the water.
Earth Gecko features
Paroedura picta is an easy-to-care gecko in captivity, but is not a very docile species, being very skittish, especially when young. As they grow they become more confident and through repeated manipulation you can have a fairly quiet specimen.
It is a nocturnal species, during the day sitting in hiding places dug in the ground, in hollows or between stones, wherever it finds a safe hiding place. At night he goes hunting for insects through the fallen foliage in the forests where he lives. It is a relatively small gecko, reaching a total length of 10 – 15 cm, in rare cases even 18 cm, the males being larger and more robust than the females.
They have a large head relative to the relatively small body, with large eyes and lack of eyelids. The coloration of this species is quite variable, in shades of brown with dark spots and stripes, but also with drawings lighter than the background color. There are many varieties of color or design, such as "striped" or "amelanistic".
Terrarium
You have to arrange a terrarium for terrestrial species, a terrarium of H 60 cm x L 40 cm x l 40 cm being enough for a pair or a trio of adults. You can use napkins, coconut fiber or even Earth, newspapers or sand as a substrate.
Puppies should only be kept on napkins to avoid intestinal blockages if they swallow substrate. The terrarium must be arranged with several hiding places because it is a skittish species, staying hidden all day.
You should not miss the water bowl but be careful not to be tall so that the animals can easily get out in case they fell into the water. A "wet cave" must be present for animals to enter when they shed or lay eggs. These geckos need medium humidity, from 50 % to 80%, and you can maintain it by watering part of the substrate and spraying part of the terrarium with water daily.
The preferred temperature of these geckos is 28-32grc during the day, during the night they can go down to 22-25grc. The terrarium can be decorated with twigs, stones, dried wood or others, according to everyone's desire and taste.
Breeding ground geckos
Males are larger and more robust than females, having at the base of the tail two very visible protrusions, the hemipenises.
Paroedura picta reaches sexual maturity about a year after birth. around the age of six months, the differences between the sexes can already be seen, with the males already having their hemipenises developed enough to be visible. It is a very prolific gecko, after mating, at about two weeks the female begins to lay two eggs a month or even more often, in a casoleta with coconut or wet vemiculitis.
The male must be removed from the terrarium after mating so as not to stress the female. A single mating is enough for the female to lay fertile eggs 5-6 times or even the whole season. during the spawning season the female should be fed more intensively with food well supplemented with calcium and vitamins.
The bowl with calcium should not be missing from the terrarium. After laying the eggs must be removed from the box in which they were deposited and put in the incubator at an average temperature of 27 GRC. Be sure to hold the eggs in the same position they were laid, twisting them leads to the death of the embryos.
You can mark the eggs before the move with a permanent marker to know what the top of the egg is during the move. After 30-60 days, depending on the temperature at which the eggs were incubated, will emerge chicks that are very small, about 2.5 cm, and are very scared and fragile. You need to give them maximum care in their first months of life and not stress them more than necessary.
Chickens will hold onto the substrate by napkins because they can die very easily if they swallow sand, coconut or other materials that can cause intestinal blockages.
