Viper Geckos.
Viper Gecko: Teratolepis fasciata.
The Viper Gecko is a small, terrestrial gecko from Pakistan. Adults rarely reach 4 inches in length. Their basic color is a dark brown with lighter shades arranged in a loose barred pattern over the back and along the sides. Their tails are fattened similar to a leopard gecko’s which provides them with their alternative common name the “Carrot Tail Viper Gecko” in this case however “carrot” refers to the shape whereas in the Leopard Gecko the term “carrot”refers to the color.
These interesting geckos are very easy to maintain in a small terrarium and thrive in groups. A single pair can be housed in a standard 5.5 gallon tank but in my opinion a standard 10 gallon would be better. This 10 gallon could hold a male and up to 3 females comfortably. I have heard reports that males will live together in a large enough cage if enough hiding places are provided but I have never tried this myself. Personally I would not try to keep 2 males in anything smaller than a 15 gallon tank which would hold a group of 2 males and up to 5 females quite comfortably. unfortunately, as babies these geckos are difficult to sex so determining the Male/Female ration of young specimens can be difficult.
I use a base of washed play sand about 1-2 inches deep with a variety of pieces of cork bark scattered about as cover. Any lightweight hides are acceptable but I try to avoid heavier ones so they don’t crush the geckos if they decide to dig under them. I like to provide a humid hiding area for these guys as well so I use glad disposable sandwich container with a hole cut in the side and a few holes punched in the lid. I fill this with a mixture of damp sand and peat moss but you could also use pure sand or peat moss or even expanded coconut fiber. If you don’t like the looks of a plastic container in your terrarium it is easy to hide this with pieces of bark. A more naturalistic alternative to the container is some sort of natural hide placed on one side of the tank under which you keep the sand slightly damp with periodic misting.
Temperatures should range from near 100 degrees F on the hot side to about 85 on the cool side. A night to about 75 degrees is acceptable. The hot side temps can be achieved by using an under tank heating pad, a heat lamp or a ceramic heat emitter. If you choose to cycle your geckos for breeding you can reduce the temperatures to to 7o-75 during the day (pretty much normal room temperature) down to the mid 60’s at night. Day/night light cycles should range from and even 12 hours on 12 hours off up to 14 hours on 10 hours off during the summer to as low as 9 hours on 15 hours off in the winter.
The primary captive diet of these geckos in captivity consists of 1/8 to 3/8 inch crickets but they will enjoy a wide variety of feeder insects and if possible a variety should be offered. In addition to crickets you can feed wax worms sparingly (they are very high in fat) meal worms occasionally (they can be hard to digest in large quantities) and small roaches. It seems that someone is alway coming up with new ways to culture new feeder insects so I would anticipate the variety to only increase. Feeder insects should be fed with a high quality food to pass on some of the nutrients to the geckos. Adults can be fed every 2 -3 days and prey items should be dusted with a high quality calcium supplement at every feeding. Once a week or so you can use a multivitamin supplement as well. Keep in mind that if you decide to breed these geckos the babies are about 3/4 of an inch long so you will need a source of very small feeder insects.
I mist one corner of the tank lightly every night or so so they can drink from the dropplets of water and this will also keep the humid hide sufficiently damp. I also keep a shallow dish available with fresh drinking water. I’ve heard reports of people using misting only or the water dish only and having great success with these animals. They really are quite hardy.
These geckos will breed readily and if properly cycled they can be very prolific. Care must be taken, and proper calcium supplementaion must be provided to make sure the females to not “breed themselves to death” It may be a good idea to provide a break every few months or so by reducing the daytime temps to about 85 degree in the whole tank. This will reduce the number eggs a female will lay and give her time to replenish her stores.
If you are looking for an inexpensive, easy to maintain gecko that will tolerate a moderate amount of handling then you should definately consider a viper gecko.
Thanks for reading
Steve