How I House and Feed 1000 Baby Geckos

By early fall nearly every egg has hatched, so this is my busiest time for feeding and care. I have about 12 racks of babies, and the routine is built to give each one high quality care without taking so long that I can't get through them.

Prep: dishes, water and food

My baby food and water dishes are contact lens cases: food in one side, water in the other. I wash them in a washing machine kept only for gecko dishes. I fill the water side with a tattoo-style squeeze bottle and dispense food with a basic condiment squeeze bottle, which puts a small amount into those tiny cups.

I mix food in a full-size blender and always use hot water. It blends better, with no chunks of dry powder, and is only warm by the time the geckos get it. I don't measure; I eyeball it. A butter knife scrapes down powder stuck at the top edge before a final blend. The target is a thick milkshake or ketchup consistency.

What I feed

My shelf holds Pangea Banana Apricot, Watermelon and Breeder diet, plus a range of Repashy flavors. My baby food is a mix of Pangea Breeder and Apricot, for the higher protein and fat content. On this day I mixed it with Repashy Pineapple Express. I rotate flavors on purpose: geckos used to many foods start eating faster in a new home, whatever their new owner feeds.

How I house babies

• Tubs: 5.7 L (6 qt) shoe box tubs from any big box store, with holes drilled in the sides so they don't get moldy or stay wet too long.
• Racks: lidless racks a friend designed and built for these exact tubs. I have lost about four tails in eight years to a tail caught at the back edge, and geckos can't stick upside down to the melamine, so feet don't get caught either.
• Hides: a piece of egg crate, plus a 15 to 20 cm (6 to 8 in) section of copper pipe insulation as a tighter, darker hide. They love the tube.
• Something I'm testing: a mealworm dish filled with the coco fiber and play sand mix from my lay boxes. Many adults burrow, so I want to see whether babies use it, and whether it helps clean diet off their feet. I wet the soil at each feeding.

The feeding routine

Top rows come down two tubs at a time; at chest height I slide out a whole row. For each tub:

1. Swap the dirty dishes for clean ones.
2. Fill the water.
3. Mist the tub.
4. Add crickets, about three small crickets per gecko for babies of 5 to 7 g.
5. Add food last, so the mist doesn't water it down, and never drop crickets into the food or they get stuck.

I keep paper towels and spare egg crate on hand to redo a messy tub on the spot.

Why I feed in the morning

Most keepers feed in the evening, when crested geckos wake up. At night babies are wild and on the hunt: feeding takes four times as long and geckos escape. I start around 10 a.m., while they're asleep. Even then they jump, so keep a close eye on every open tub.