Left: One Hour Old High Yellow Leopard Gecko

Right: Newborn Madagascar Ground Geckos. You can see the two eggs on the left that the pictus came out of. You can also see two eggs which have died, on the bottom of the picture.

Left: We use a homemade incubator consisting of a large rubbermaid type container with heat tape on the bottom.

Right: A view of the inside shows our deli cups stacked three or four high, and the thermometer we keep inside.

Left: If you look closely at the egg in the left photo, you can see a small transparent spot with a black dot inside. The transparent spot is called a "window," and is a thin area in the shell. The black dot within the window is the eye of a developing baby gecko.

Right: The gecko on the right hatched out of an egg that had cracked during incubation. The embryo was actually developing on the outside of the egg! While we were lucky to have this one make it full term, most eggs with this condition do not successfully hatch.

This is the same baby gecko in both photos. While the majority of hatchling Madagascar Ground Geckos are quite jumpy, this little guy seems to enjoy being handled. The photo on the left appears to show this gecko using his "sticky" toe pads to hang on, however ground geckos do not have "sticky" toe pads. Instead, they use very small claws to grasp onto their surroundings (in this case, a finger) which allows them to hang upside down. If you look VERY closely, you can see these teeny little claws on the tips of the gecko's toes. Pretty neat!

The animal featured in these two photos is an incredible high yellow Israeli Dune Gecko. Captive bred dune geckos are not readily available as they are not a very popular gecko among breeders (at least not in the United States). These nocturnal geckos make great display animals, and provide ample opportunity for night time viewing. They are very delicate geckos, hatching out at a size of about 1" and reaching a total length of only 3 to 4 inches.