Gargoyle Gecko Care Sheet

Background

The Gargoyle Gecko (Rhacodactylus auriculatus) is a species of gecko native to southern New Caledonia. Gargoyle geckos or “gargs” as they are nicknamed, make great pets for new and veteran reptile keepers alike! They come in a variety of colors and can have prominent horns on their head and all sorts of patterns.

Gargoyle geckos can live at room temperature so long as your room is comfortably kept between 68°F and 78°F. If your room will be lower than 70°F for extended periods of time, consider adding a low wattage light or heat source for a few hours a day that they can choose to regulate their body temperature with. Temperatures above 80°F with no relief of cooler temps should be avoided. A temperature gradient is ideal so that the gecko can regulate itself in different areas of the enclosure depending on its needs. In our experience at Liberty Reptile, gargoyle geckos can tend to prefer slightly cooler temperatures than crested geckos but not enough of a noticeable difference to recommend different care.

Gargoyle geckos are known to be primarily nocturnal but may also have crepuscular tendencies which means they are typically most active at dawn and dusk. Every gecko is different, some may be out all night or all day but most fall into these categories. They are generally a handleable species and can become tolerant of handling after working with the individual animal. Gargoyles are sometimes known to be more aggressive than crested geckos but we have had similar experiences behaviorally across the board with cresteds and gargoyles. We have some that will take off across the room and some that will sit on your lap for hours if you let them. Work with a breeder to find an animal that best suits your needs so that you can enjoy your pet how you would like to!

Shedding + Anatomy

Gargoyle geckos shed their skin as they grow! It’s exciting to watch their colors grow and change over time. You may notice your gecko turning a grey or lighter hue right before they shed as the outer layer begins to separate. When provided proper care, gargoyle geckos will shed this outer layer on their own and likely will eat it before you even know they shed! Shedding is natural and should only cause concern if the animal has some of the shedding skin stuck to a part of their body. If this is the case, try to increase the humidity to help loosen the skin. A “sauna” can be made with room temperature water, a few sheets of paper towels and a tupperware container with some ventilation holes. Add the paper towels and water to the container, wait a few minutes and add the gecko to let the humidity in the container help loosen the shed. It should pull away with a q-tip or your finger. Keep an eye on your gecko to avoid the shedding situation getting to an extreme level.

CLAWS!? Yes, gargoyle geckos have claws or nails on all of their toes and can be slightly more noticeable than those on a crested gecko since gargoyle geckos usually gain a bit more weight and use the claws for stability. You might not feel them until they grow to adult size and have some more weight on them. You might find little gecko-foot-shaped dots on your arms from time to time after handling your gecko. This shouldn’t cause a problem and is just your gecko using it’s nails to balance and explore while with you.

Gargoyle Geckos can and do drop their tails for a variety of reasons. Some people say the use of a vacuum could cause it but in our experience most are fine with a simple loud noise or being startled without an issue but it all depends on the individual animal. The most common cause we’ve noticed is when the gecko’s tail is pulled on or caught in something. This makes sense since the tail drop is a defense mechanism and helps them get away from predators. If your gecko’s tail drops- DON’T PANIC! Geckos have evolved to heal from this very quickly and will sometimes eat the tail after it drops so feel free to leave it in there for a short time after you notice it. The tail will continue to wiggle after dropping as the nerve endings are still shutting down but again, don’t panic, this is normal. Gargoyle Geckos will regrow their tails, multiple times as well. We have a male that drops his tail every year that he breeds and regrows it in a few short months. The tail will not look the exact same as before, but it will still function as their original tail does when it regenerates.

To UVB or not to UVB?

That is the question we hear pretty frequently. UVB lighting is crucial for many reptiles as many require it to properly process the calcium in their diet into usable nutrients for overall health and bone integrity. Ultraviolet B light is a type of radiation which assists many species in the natural creation of vitamin D3. Complete Crested Gecko Diets (which are also complete diets for gargoyle geckos as well) as described below include proper D3 vitamin levels for geckos to process their calcium properly. UVB lighting may still be used for gargoyle geckos and many will “bask” or come out into the light in the early evening hours but it is not a requirement, just a recommendation. UVB can be a great way to create a natural day/night cycle for your gecko and won’t hurt your reptile so providing it is a good idea in many enclosures. Keep in mind that exposure to UVB lighting can cause some issues with certain live plants if you decide to take the live-planted route.

Diet

Gargoyle Geckos should eat a staple Complete Crested Gecko Diet (CGD) sometimes referred to as Meal Replacement Powder (MRP). There are many tried and true diets on the market that are complete and will allow for the best growth and health of your gecko including Pangea, Repashy, Black Panther Zoological and a few others (we understand the brands available overseas may vary). This powdered diet is mixed with water and then provided to our geckos in small bowls or bottle caps.

Gargoyle geckos also benefit from the addition of bugs in their diet. Above you’ll see a juvenile gargoyle gecko eating a Dubia roach that was fed with a pair of feeding tongs. While live bugs are not a necessary part of a gargoyle gecko’s diet, they can provide great calcium, healthy fat and enrichment to your gecko. We try to feed bugs a few times a month to our geckos that eat them readily, if not every week.

Some bugs we commonly feed include Black Soldier Fly Larvae (BSFL/calci-worms), small hornworms (not from your garden, if they are green they can make your pet sick), crickets, mealworms, superworms and Dubia roaches. The size of the bug is also important and you should try to make sure the width of the bug is not wider than the space between the gecko’s eyes as a general rule of thumb.

Here at Liberty Reptile we feed our new hatchlings every day, juveniles every other day and adults every 3rd-4th day depending on the time of year. Breeding females tend to be fed every other day. Or as often as they will eat without wasting food. Uneaten food should be removed the following day to avoid fruit fly infestations and possible mold growth. Which brand is the best? That’s for your gecko to decide. We primarily feed Pangea but will cycle in other diets from time to time.

Hydration + Humidity

We spray our geckos with water from a hand mister every day to allow them to drink the water droplets from the walls and plants in their enclosures. Small water bowls should also be provided to ensure good hydration. Use discretion when choosing the size of the water bowl. For us and the humidity of our home where our geckos live spraying once a day allows for good humidity in the enclosure and also allows for a “dry-down” period. This dry-down period is great for keeping mold and bacteria growth down. Excess moisture for long periods of time can also increase the risk of respiratory infection and improper shedding so a good balance of humidity is needed.

Ideally humidity shouldn’t stay below 50% for extended periods of time and once a day humidity should stay at 80-100% for a few hours. We recommend using a digital thermometer and hygrometer like this one by Accurite to keep track of the temperature and humidity inside the enclosure. We use these in several of our enclosures to keep track of the average levels across our gecko room.

Let’s get into where they are from and how we keep them because of this information!

New Caledonia (highlighted in red)

New Caledonia is situated off the eastern coast of Australia and North of Auckland, New Zealand.

“Temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold. Average monthly temperature throughout the year is around 24°C in the shade. It hovers between 20-22°C (68-71°F) during the cooler months (July/August) and 27-28°C (80-82°F) during the hotter months (December/January/February), you’re very unlikely to need cosy fleeces to warm you up during your time in New Caledonia, unless you’re staying up in the mountains.” - via www.newcaledonia.travel/en/climate-weather.

82°F is the absolute maximum room temperature you should allow in the room your gecko is located. Although New Caledonia does experience these temperatures, keep in mind that geckos in nature will have plenty of shaded places to cool down if they need to and when the ambient temperature of the room is a steady 82, there likely isn’t a large temperature gradient in their enclosure.

Gargoyle geckos thrive at room temperature in most parts of the world. Typically, if you are comfortable, they are comfortable and that among many other reasons makes them a great, low maintenance pet.

New Caledonia does have a tropical climate and as such, crested gecko habitats should mimic one. This can be achieved in many ways! We have a few dozen gargoyle geckos and ours are kept in a variety of setups including modified tubs, tanks, and bioactive enclosures. Let’s dive into all 3 of them and figure out what is right for you.

Modified Tub Enclosures

From here on we’ll refer to them as tubs but a tub enclosure is typically a modified storage tub, like one of these for example. The 72 quart Hefty tub is a great example of a tub that can be modified to house a gargoyle gecko. We house many of our grown males in these bins after some simple modifications. First, we take a wood burning tool (this is the one we purchased from Amazon.com) and set it to medium-high heat. We use the tool to burn ventilation holes on all sides of the bin. Each bin will require a different amount of holes to provide proper ventilation and the ability for the bin to dry out over the course of the day to avoid mold growth.

Typically, on the long side of the bin we will make holes with the wood burning tool about 1 inch apart and about 2 rows of them. On the shorter sides we space them slightly wider apart, maybe only making about 5-10 holes per side. The goal is to create a space inside the bin that will hold humidity but will also provide a dry-down period if the enclosure is sprayed once per day. Some keepers will also purchase fiberglass window screen and take a drill bit that cuts circles into the sides of the bin and then secure screen to the open holes but we find the wood burning tool provides plenty of ventilation for our needs. A con with tub setups is that live planted enclosures can be harder to achieve in because lighting can be harder to arrange for plant growth. Bioactive substrate can be achieved in a tub as well as described below.

After the holes are made, you can continue on furnishing the inside of the tub as you would with any other crested gecko enclosure.

Enclosure Decorations

Fake plants (we recommend plastic as fabric plants can be less resistant to mold), hides, ledges, pool noodles cut to the width of the setup and other climbing materials can be utilized to provide an enriching environment. We recommend washing any commercially available decorations with warm water and Dawn dish soap or a commercially available reptile-safe cleaner before use. Keep in mind many available wood decorations for other animals not kept in tropical conditions may be more prone to mold and mildew. Many people will start with a gecko kept with paper towels as substrate initially to monitor bowel movements and keep an eye on what the gecko is doing after first acquiring a gecko. Geckos can do just fine with paper towel substrate indefinitely or live substrate can be utilized as described in sections below.

Live, natural setups can be achieved as noted in the Bioactive sections below.

Tank Set-ups

If you prefer a more aesthetically pleasing option, tank setups are a great way to showcase your animal and also provide proper husbandry. The ideal tank setup for a gargoyle gecko includes a minimum of 15 gallons and has more vertical space available for climbing and exploring- a 20 gallon long turned on its side with a vertical conversion kit is a good option. Vertical tank conversion kits are available on the market but many choose to start with an already vertical setup like those offered by ZooMed or ExoTerra. We recommend an 18”x18”x24” for an adult crested gecko. These terrariums work great because they accommodate both fake furnishings or live planted decorations depending on your goals. You can often find these or similar options on your local Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace pages, so check there but be sure to thoroughly clean anything you purchase secondhand before using it with your own pets.

Some cons to tank setups include their weight. Some people have to move enclosures out of the room they are kept in for cleaning and tank setups can get heavy. They are also more fragile than a set-up that isn’t primarily made of glass. Depending on your situation a tank can make a great home for your gecko!

Bioactive Substrate

You may also be interested in using a bioactive substrate for your gecko which is a great way to keep the enclosure clean, your humidity in check and allow for a place to dig for females (males, too!) Springtails are a great choice and many species will thrive in a gecko enclosure. Springtails live in soil or under decaying wood or bark, thriving in areas with leaf litter, compost and organic mulches. Springtails feed on molds, fungi, algae and decaying plant material which helps keep enclosures clean. You can find them online, in some exotic pet shops and at reptile shows.

Isopods (you may know them as rollie pollies or pillbugs) can be a great addition as well. According to the Illinois Natural History Survey “terrestrial isopods are omnivores and scavengers, feeding mainly on vegetable or animal matter. Their food is usually already dead and decaying in the leaf litter, in crevices, or under rocks, logs, and bark. They feed wherever plant and animal refuse and detritus accumulate and moisture is present.” Check into which species are available to you and decide which to go with for your gecko enclosure! You might find yourself with another strange project once you find how many species of isopods and springtails are available.

A good substrate mix for keeping bioactive substrate is coco-fiber (or coco coir) and/or organic soil. A mixture of both with some reptile-safe leaf litter and/or bark creates a great home for your clean-up crew to survive and thrive!

Live Planted Enclosures

Live-planted enclosures can be some of the most difficult but most rewarding setups available. Planning and maintenance are extremely important to ensure the health of the substrate, plants and any animals inside of the enclosure. Research the creation of bioactive, live-planted setups well before you begin your build. You should allow at least a month for a live-planted setup to settle in before adding a gecko so planning is crucial. Watch YouTube videos to learn the specifics of setting up a live planted crested gecko enclosure. A great channel to check out is SerpaDesign but always consult several sources before beginning a project.

Be sure to purchase gecko-safe plants for your live-planted enclosure. Gecko-safe typically means that contact with the plant won’t cause irritation and that no harmful fertilizers have been used in the care of the plant. A great resource for reptile-safe plants to check out is Josh’s Frogs.

Any organic materials gathered from outside should be double checked for safety by looking over the material for bugs or any foreign-looking substance. Anything that looks “off” shouldn’t be used in a gecko enclosure. Rocks, bark, and branches/sticks can be great climbing additions if gathered from an area untreated by pesticides and away from largely polluted areas like roads. We don’t bake anything we find as some places recommend, rather we will soak them in water and dry them in the sun until completely dried. This process should take care of most issues that could arise from gathered materials.

Quarantine

Always quarantine new animal additions to your home. Whether you have 1 or 100 reptiles, birds, amphibians or invertebrates in your house, you should keep all new additions in a separate room from your current pets for at least 30 days. This way, if the animal were to arrive with an issue like mites, a respiratory infection or maybe a case of worms, you can handle that situation before it becomes a problem for your whole collection.

Proper QT involves keeping the new animals separate from your others, and making sure not to use the same supplies like food/water bowls or decorations from one area to the other before the quarantine period is up. Always be sure to sanitize any supplies that has touched one animal before using it with another to prevent the spread of any type of issue through your collection.

We hope this care sheet was helpful. For any questions about gargoyle gecko care please send us a message on Facebook and we would be happy to help. The link to our Facebook can be found by scrolling to the very bottom of this page.