The fat-tailed gecko's scientific name is Hemitheconyx caudicinctus. They are found in the warm, dry habitats of West Africa. Their classroom habitat is the room kept at a warm temperature of 72-76 degrees F. We also use a peanut butter lid to put their food in. Their food in the classroom is meal worms. There is also a turtle shell in the cage for the fat-tailed gecko to go into. Their food in the wild is mealworms, worms, butterfly larva, centipedes, and crickets. Snakes and birds are their predators.
It takes 45 days to determine if they are pregnant or not. They can live up to the age of 10-20 years. They may live in groups of two. They lay eggs and bury them under the sand. The eggs hatch in about two to three months. They can mate from January to September.
When they eat they look at it, start bobbing at it, and then they go for it. They really don't run, they move cautiously. When you pick them up they will swing their tails for balance. The one we have weighs 29.1 gram. Sometimes he smells funny, but for the most part he smells ok. The temperature should be between 27 and 35 degrees Celsius.
Some interesting info is, they use their tails as their heads to trick predators. When you pull their tail really hard it, will fall off and it will grow back. Males can get up to 10 inches long and the female can get up to 8 inches long. They really don't do much during the day because they are nocturnal.
