Giant Day Gecko
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- Common Group: GECKOS
- Common Name: Giant Day Gecko
- Scientific Name: Phelsuma madagascariensis - subspecies include P. madagascarensis grandis, P. madagascarensis madagascarensis, P. madagascarensis kochi, P. madagascarensis boehmei
- Distribution: Madagascar
- Size: 7" - 9"
Natural habitat
These large, beautiful geckos are found primarily on Madagascar, as their latin name would suggest. They are primarily tree dwellers in the wild, although are quite versatile in their preferred arboreal home. Giant Day Geckos can be found on houses, sign posts, and street lights in Madagascar just as easily as they can be found on the trees! While quite large for a day gecko, they are still prey animals and are often consumed by larger animals such as birds of prey or larger lizards. Because of this, they prefer secure hiding spots that are well hidden from prying eyes.
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Caging
Young Giant Day Geckos can be housed successfully in tanks as small as 10 gallons, or in a 12 x 12 x 18 glass terrarium. Larger geckos will require much more space, and can thrive in vision cages or in penn plax custom cages. All glass options include several sizes of glass terrariums, such as the exoterra 36" x 18" x 18" front opening terrarium or the ZooMed 18" x 18" x 24" front opening terrarium.
Heating and Lighting
Giant Day Geckos are sun-loving lizards, spending much of their day basking while looking for food. In addition to needing heat to properly digest food, in order to achieve their most brilliant colors, they require lots of bright, white light to bask under. The importance of good lighting to day geckos is often underestimated, and in order to have the brightest colored and happiest geckos, quality lighting is vital!
One method of heating a small cage, say a 10 gallon terrarium, is to use a fluorescent UVB bulb combined with a halogen basking light. This will provide necessary UVB and heat without overheating the cage.
For larger geckos in larger cages, a more ideal method of heating and lighting the cage is the use of a mercury vapor bulb. A 2.0 UVB bulb can be used in addition to the mercury vapor bulb to illuminate the parts of the cage not under the basking area.
The goal in both setups is to allow the geckos to bask within 6 inches of their UVB light, and achieve basking temperatures in the mid to high 90s. The cool side of the cage should remain below 80 degrees at all times. Because these geckos prefer specific temperature ranges, use of a quality thermometer is highly recommended. Night time temperatures can drop significantly, although temperatures below 70 are not usually recommended.
Cage Furnishings
Because high humidity is often needed for Giant Day Geckos, a substrate that will absorb moisture and then allow it to evaporate into the air is needed. Ideal substrates include orchid bark, cypress mulch, coarse coconut chips, or moss.
Decor should provide numerous hiding places as well as at least one or two places directly under the heat lights where the geckos can bask. Giant Day Geckos seem to much prefer hollow bamboo tubes or cork roundsto hide and rest in, although they will also utilize cork flats, grapewood, or even habba huts turned sideways! In addition to wood decor, live plants are also excellent additions to the cage. Live plants will aid in boosting humidity and provide plenty of naturalistic hiding spots for the geckos. Fake plants, such as vines, tropical plants, bird's nest fern plants, or large broad leafed plants all can be added to the cage. In addition to traditional ground based plant decor, new magnetic products offer lots of options for additional foliage on the sides of the cage. Magnetic caves, ledges, vine clusters, and vine bridges.
Humidity
Giant Day Geckos prefer tropical to semi tropical cage conditions, and require high relative humidity to thrive. This can be accomplished through daily misting, either with a hand spray bottle, pressure spray bottle, or automatic misting system. Use of a reptile fogger also will increase cage humidity, as well as provide a neat, rolling fog effect within the cage.
When misting the cage, twice or three times daily should be enough. Allow the cage to dry out between mistings, although ideally the cage should not become bone dry before being misted again.
Water requirements
A bowl of fresh, clean water should be provided daily. Giant Day Geckos will primarily drink water droplets from nearby leaves and the walls of their cage, but if thirsty enough they will venture down to a bowl of water.
Nutritional requirements
Day geckos are omnivorous, meaning they eat both insects and vegetable matter. Preferred insects include crickets, mealworms, smaller hissing cockroaches, dubia roaches, false death head roaches, lobster roaches, as well as several other types of feeder roaches. All insects should be dusted in a high quality reptile calcium powder containing D3 on a daily basis, and a quality reptile multivitamin. Ideally, all insect prey should be gutloaded prior to being fed off. This means feeding the insects a diet specially formulated to fill their stomachs with as much nutritional value as possible. Commercially available gutloads such as Total Bites make it easy to pack your feeder insects full of nutrition.
In addition to eating insects, wild day geckos are also nectar and pollen eating geckos. This need can be filled in captivity with baby food, which should be supplemented if offered, or with a more ideal gecko meal replacement powder, such as the one made by Repashy. Although marketed for Crested Geckos, the balanced diet is also excellent for day geckos. In addition to Gecko MRP, Giant Day Geckos can be offered a variety of real fruit, especially the tropical fruits. When you can't find fresh fruit, canned fruit such as mango, papaya, or red banana can be a welcome treat and will also add variety to the diet.
Handling
Adult Giant Day Geckos can become quite personable and outgoing, often eating from their keeper's hand. Babies tend to be more shy, and geckos of all ages should be interacted with exclusively in the cage. Giant Day Geckos, like other day geckos, have extremely sensitive skin that can tear when grabbed roughly or if held while the animal is stressed. Because of this, it is recommended to keep actual handling to a minimum.
