How to breed geckos? A detailed explanation of the key technical points
The quality of management in artificial rearing of geckos directly affects production results. With good management, growth and development are good and reproductive capacity is high; conversely, growth and development are slow, reproductive capacity declines, and economic returns are poor. Therefore, the following aspects of management should be done well:
1. Do a good job of cleaning and sanitation at the gecko farm. A disinfection pool should be set up at the entrance and exit of the farm, with quicklime placed inside or burlap and straw curtains laid down, and 3% sodium hydroxide water or 3% creolin aqueous solution sprinkled on the burlap and straw curtains. All personnel entering and leaving the farm must walk over it to disinfect the soles of their shoes, so as to avoid bringing external pathogens into the farm. The cleaning and sanitation inside the farm should be done frequently, keeping the activity grounds and the area around the burrows clean and hygienic. In summer, it should be cleaned 2 to 3 times a week, and dead insects and leftover artificial feed should be removed promptly to prevent them from rotting and deteriorating in the farm and polluting the environment. The area around the farm should also be cleaned frequently to keep it clean and prevent pathogenic microorganisms from being blown into the farm by the wind. Disinfect regularly. For the ground and walls inside and outside the farm, disinfect once a week when temperatures are relatively high in spring, summer, and autumn. The disinfectants used are 1% to 4% sodium hydroxide for disinfecting environmental ground; bleaching powder for disinfecting garbage and other piled materials, using 10 liters of 10% bleaching powder solution per 1 cubic meter. Keep drinking water and swimming water clean and hygienic. Drinking water and swimming water should be changed frequently and always kept fresh.
2. Keep the farm quiet. Try to avoid outside visitors touring the farm. When management personnel enter the farm to work, their movements should be gentle, and they should not cause loud noises, so as to keep the farm as quiet as possible. Around the farm, avoid setting off firecrackers or making other loud noises or vibrations, and try not to disturb the gecko colony. This will prevent stress responses from occurring and is beneficial to the growth, development, and reproduction of the geckos.
3. Prevent natural enemies from entering the farm. When raising geckos, prevent rats, snakes, ants, and other natural enemies from entering the farm. If rats and snakes enter the farm, they will eat the geckos. If ants enter the farm, they can disrupt the geckos' lives and affect normal growth, development, and reproduction.
1) Preventing rats and snakes. Rats not only eat geckos, but also bite them to death and dig holes in the gecko activity area, causing the inside and outside of the farm to connect and allowing the geckos to escape. The harm from rats and snakes is mainly prevented by precautions. The methods of prevention are: the treatment of the farm's wall foundation must be strict, the foundation should be dug deeper, and the base of the wall should be sealed tightly with cement mortar to prevent rats from digging holes and entering. The contact points of the wire mesh in the net room must be treated tightly, leaving no gaps, and should be checked frequently. Once a gap is found, it should be dealt with promptly. Outside the gecko farm, rat traps and electronic rat repellents should be used regularly for prevention. If there are no rat holes around the farm and rearing room, the net room is tightly sealed, and the screen doors and screen windows are tight, snakes cannot enter.
2) Controlling ants. Although ants are small individually, they are social, colony-forming insects. They get in everywhere and can easily enter the gecko farm and rearing house. Geckos sometimes also eat ants, but when the number of ants is large, they can rely on the strength of the colony to harm gecko juveniles and even adults, making them unable to live in peace. Once they attack 1 gecko, they swarm and bite it, bite it to death, and after biting it to death, eat it. There are several methods for controlling ants:
1) Build ant-prevention water trenches. Around the farm or rearing house, build a water trench 15 cm deep and 20 cm wide, with water in it year-round, so ants cannot enter.
2) Chemical killing. Mix 1 part chlordane powder with 4 parts clay into a mud slurry and apply it in a ring around the base of the outer wall, 20 cm high, which can also prevent ants from entering.
3) Bait killing. Once ants are found in the farm, place some fresh animal bones where there are many ants to attract the ants onto the bones, then pick the bones back up and scald the ants to death with boiling water.
4) Drenching nests. When ant nests are found in the farm, the method of pouring medicinal liquid into the nests can be used to kill the ants.
4. Cold protection and heat protection. Geckos are distributed in the tropics and subtropics. They have poor cold tolerance and also cannot withstand severe heat. Generally, they can survive at 8 to 12 degrees C, but in a state of hibernation; at 13 to 17 degrees C they begin to come out of their burrows and become active; at 17 to 21 degrees C they begin to eat; the most suitable temperature is 22 to 30 degrees C. When the temperature rises above 32 degrees C, geckos also feel clearly uncomfortable, begin to lose appetite, eat less, or even stop eating, and growth and development stop. Temperatures below 8 degrees C are a threat to geckos, but because individuals differ in strength, their cold tolerance also differs. Strong adult individuals will not freeze to death even when the ambient temperature reaches 5 degrees C; weak adult individuals and juveniles can freeze to death at 5 degrees C or even around 10 degrees C. In particular, young geckos cannot endure temperatures below 13 degrees C. Therefore, in the south, during early spring and winter when temperatures change greatly, attention should be paid to closing the doors and windows of the overwintering room and doing a good job of cold protection and warmth preservation. When raising them artificially in warm temperate regions, heating must be provided so that the temperature of the adult gecko overwintering room is maintained at around 12 degrees C, and the temperature of the rearing room for weak individuals and juveniles reaches 13 to 14 degrees C. When heating indoors for overwintering, if a coal stove is used, a chimney must be installed on the stove so that coal smoke is discharged outdoors, and on sunny days when the outdoor temperature is relatively high, windows can be opened for ventilation to keep the indoor air fresh. In midsummer, if the weather is rainy, the temperature in the rearing room may be below 30 degrees C. If it is dry and rainless, the outdoor temperature can reach 38 degrees C, and the indoor temperature will exceed 32 degrees C. At this time, weak adults and juveniles also find it hard to endure. At this time, doors and windows should be opened for ventilation and air exchange, and at the same time water should be sprinkled on the indoor floor, and wet cloth or wet curtains should be hung indoors to lower the indoor temperature. At the same time, sufficient drinking water should be provided to the geckos, and water can also be sprinkled on the geckos' bodies to cool them down. Under hot temperature conditions, geckos like a humid environment. At this time, the indoor relative humidity should be controlled at 70% to 90%, and sufficient clean water should also be added to the swimming pool for them to move about in the water.
5. Graded management. Adult geckos are strong in constitution, have strong resistance to adverse environmental factors, and can prey on larger insects; juvenile geckos have poor resistance to adverse environmental factors and cannot prey on larger insects. Therefore, graded management should be implemented for the gecko colony. That is, healthy adult individuals can be selected and placed in one room, weak adults in one room, young juveniles in one room, and medium-sized individuals in one room. In this way, feed insects can be given according to grade and managed separately. For strong adult geckos, larger feed insects can be given, and the room temperature during hibernation should be maintained at 8 to 12 degrees C; for weak adult geckos or juvenile geckos, the feed insects given can be smaller or insects with weaker crawling ability, making them easier to catch. During hibernation, the temperature of the rearing room must not be lower than 13 degrees C, otherwise they will die because they cannot withstand low temperatures.