There are several species of banded geckos available. The two species I've kept are the Western Banded Gecko (Coleonyx variegatus) and the Central American Gecko (Coleonyx mitratus). I enjoy keeping banded geckos as they are hardy, do not require much space, and will breed readily in captivity. However, they are animals best enjoyed for viewing and not really a great show and tell animal for handling.
For housing, I keep pairs of adults in 16"x13"6" plastic boxes. This is the smallest size I would recommend and a little larger would be ideal. The hatchlings can be housed in something roughly the size of a shoebox but I recommend it being as secure as possible to prevent escapes. The western banded geckos hatch out a little smaller and seem even more equipped to escape. I do not use a substrate for the adults, preferring just to use newspaper. Newspaper makes waste removal thorough and frequent, allows the transfer of heat, and is inexpensive. For the hatchlings, I do not use any substrate at all, just bare plastic -- more on this later. A dry hide is available on the warm side and a moist hide is available on the cool side where they will shed and lay eggs. A small waterbowl with fresh water is available at all times to the adults. Hatchlings are given water in a small gator aid cap or milk cap. The geckos are kept in a room with an ambient temperature of 75-80F and a small strip of heat tape provides a hot spot of 84-85F.
Feeding the geckos is relatively easy as they will take a wide variety of insects. I feed the adults mealworms, black soldier fly larvae, crickets, and red runner roaches. The hatchlings I feed crickets, red runner roaches, red flour beetle larvae, bean beetles, and Hydei fruit flies. To increase the nutritional value of the crickets, mealworms, and red runner roaches, I feed them a wide variety of fresh produce and non-medicated chick feed without diatomaceous earth. I also often separate some of them and feed them on Repashy Superload for 24-48 hours prior to feeding them. I regularly dust insects with either Repashy Calcium Plus or Reptivite. The hatchlings I have found it is best to keep without a substrate and to just regularly sweep up the dropping and clean the cage. You may also try removing the lizard and using a shop vac to suck up debris, too. The reason I prefer not to have newspaper in with hatchlings is insects such as red runners will take shelter under it and become much more difficult for the geckos to capture.
Breeding should take place without any special care if the geckos are kept together as pairs and well taken care of. I do take the Western banded geckos off feed for 2 weeks to clear their digestive tracts and then place them in a slightly cooled state the upper 50s-60F for 2-4 weeks. No brumation is provided for the Central American Banded Geckos. Small boxes with an inch or so of moistened but not soaked cocofiber serve as the egg laying box. The eggs are carefully removed with a spoon and placed in small boxes using suspended incubation technique and kept in the upper 70s to 80F until hatching occurs. The Central American Banded gecko eggs are larger than the Western Banded gecko eggs. In the slideshow below, I have a Central American and Western Banded gecko hatchling shown for comparison of colors in the first two photographs.
For housing, I keep pairs of adults in 16"x13"6" plastic boxes. This is the smallest size I would recommend and a little larger would be ideal. The hatchlings can be housed in something roughly the size of a shoebox but I recommend it being as secure as possible to prevent escapes. The western banded geckos hatch out a little smaller and seem even more equipped to escape. I do not use a substrate for the adults, preferring just to use newspaper. Newspaper makes waste removal thorough and frequent, allows the transfer of heat, and is inexpensive. For the hatchlings, I do not use any substrate at all, just bare plastic -- more on this later. A dry hide is available on the warm side and a moist hide is available on the cool side where they will shed and lay eggs. A small waterbowl with fresh water is available at all times to the adults. Hatchlings are given water in a small gator aid cap or milk cap. The geckos are kept in a room with an ambient temperature of 75-80F and a small strip of heat tape provides a hot spot of 84-85F.
Feeding the geckos is relatively easy as they will take a wide variety of insects. I feed the adults mealworms, black soldier fly larvae, crickets, and red runner roaches. The hatchlings I feed crickets, red runner roaches, red flour beetle larvae, bean beetles, and Hydei fruit flies. To increase the nutritional value of the crickets, mealworms, and red runner roaches, I feed them a wide variety of fresh produce and non-medicated chick feed without diatomaceous earth. I also often separate some of them and feed them on Repashy Superload for 24-48 hours prior to feeding them. I regularly dust insects with either Repashy Calcium Plus or Reptivite. The hatchlings I have found it is best to keep without a substrate and to just regularly sweep up the dropping and clean the cage. You may also try removing the lizard and using a shop vac to suck up debris, too. The reason I prefer not to have newspaper in with hatchlings is insects such as red runners will take shelter under it and become much more difficult for the geckos to capture.
Breeding should take place without any special care if the geckos are kept together as pairs and well taken care of. I do take the Western banded geckos off feed for 2 weeks to clear their digestive tracts and then place them in a slightly cooled state the upper 50s-60F for 2-4 weeks. No brumation is provided for the Central American Banded Geckos. Small boxes with an inch or so of moistened but not soaked cocofiber serve as the egg laying box. The eggs are carefully removed with a spoon and placed in small boxes using suspended incubation technique and kept in the upper 70s to 80F until hatching occurs. The Central American Banded gecko eggs are larger than the Western Banded gecko eggs. In the slideshow below, I have a Central American and Western Banded gecko hatchling shown for comparison of colors in the first two photographs.