Care

 

Young pair of Agamura persica (front: male, rear: female)

Adult Agamura persica (male)

Agamura persica enclosure

Calcium dish

Juvenile Agamura persica (Broken right, rear leg)

Enclosure

You can house a single animal or pair of A. persica in a 24” glass aquarium. Housing them in a larger enclosure is always acceptable; try to avoid smaller enclosures. A. persica makes good use of 3D space but if you need to make a choice, opt for a longer enclosure rather than a taller one.

A wire lid is a good choice to cover the tank. This allows more light and ventilation than screen tops but screens are also acceptable. If the furnishings do not reach the top of the enclosure, a lid may not be required at all, although a lid is helpful at keeping things out of the enclosure as well as keeping the geckos in. These geckos can and do jump.

A. persica likes to have a flat rock in the sand on the hot side of the enclosure, preferably right under the basking lamp. They will spend many hours sleeping on it and if you have a large group of geckos it wouldn’t be uncommon to find the whole group gathered there – and on each other. Stack lengths of driftwood and/or slate to make shelves over the enclosure. A. persica likes the caves created by the stacked material. You will notice a considerable difference in behaviour of your geckos if you supply them with liberal amounts of rock and cover for hiding.

Bedding

I keep adult geckos on fine grade quartz sand because it is less likely to cause impaction than regular play sand. Young geckos should always be housed on paper towel.

Temperature

Use a 50 to 60 watt halogen lamp over the hot side of the enclosure. The surface temperature on the hot side of the enclosure can reach 100°F and even as high as 120°F. Depending on the room temperature, the lamp can be turned off at night allowing the enclosure to reach room temperature. The cool side of the enclosure should stay at low to mid 70 at night and high 70 to low 80 at day.

Behaviour

A. persica spends most of the time fully exposed and occasionally walks around the terrarium during the day. But despite the occasional daytime stroll, A. persica is nocturnal. Some sources claim this gecko as diurnal but that is not the case. You will find most of the activity occurs when the lights go out.

Feeding/Watering

A. persica can be kept on a diet of meal worms, crickets, silk worms, and the occasional wax worm. I feed adult geckos three times a week. Dust all prey items with calcium every feeding and vitamins once every week. You may also try the traditional 1:3 vitamins/calcium recipe used for other gecko species. I prefer Rep-Cal’s Calcium with vitamin D and Rep-Cal’s Herptivite as my choice of supplements but there are arguably better (and worse) choices. There has been some debate whether geckos can be overfed calcium. If this worries you, you can cut calcium supplementation to once a week for males and non-breeding females.

Calcium is very important for your geckos, especially breeding female geckos. Place a dish with high quality calcium in the enclosure. This will ensure your geckos will have enough calcium for bones and eggs without them resorting to eating sand in search of calcium. I like to use glazed terra cotta plant dishes because of their "natural" appearance.

Mist your A. persica enclosure once a week to supply water for your geckos. Always keep a water dish in the enclosure, as well. It acts as a safety measure in case your geckos want to use it and it provides a little humidity to the enclosure as the water evaporates.

Care of Hatchlings

Care for baby and juvenile spider geckos is very similar to adult care. They can be housed very successfully under the same conditions. However you can reduce a lot of risk by considering a few issues.

1. It is very wise to keep young geckos without substrate until they have reached adult size (12 to 18 months). Sand impactions can be deadly to these young geckos.

2. Feed the geckos daily with pinhead crickets dusted with the 1:3 vitamin:calcium recipe. Always dust the crickets with calcium at every feeding. Metabolic bone disease (MBD) can be very dangerous for young spider geckos because of their long bones. These geckos are very tough but once their calcium levels drop, their bones become quite brittle. The legs are usually the first to break.

3. Lightly mist the young geckos every day. Keeping a dish of standing water in the enclosure could result in drowned geckos. I have also never seen a baby gecko drink from a dish.

4. A smaller enclosure with few obstructions will make it easier for young geckos to find food. Use very few "decorations" in the enclosure. I use bathroom rolls which are easy to replace.

You will find that growth is relatively slow for the first 8 to 12 weeks but once the geckos reach this age their growth is almost explosive.