Best Beginer Species??????

[chevyrumble55]

Hey, I've asked everyone I can to get some questions answered, but with no avail. Basically here's my question:

Which species is the hardiest? Which species tollerates the most handling? Which gets the biggest? Which are the easiest to breed?

Any feedback would be great!

-Kevin

[GoniKush]

http://forum.cavegeckoforums.com/images/styles/visualdepth/buttons/collapse_tcat.gif (http://forum.cavegeckoforums.com/index.php#top)
In my opinion, I'd say your good to go with any in the Lichtenfelderi or Luii groups, it seems like the Japanese or Kuroiwaes require a little more attention and are some what delicate and pricy.

The Hainan island and even the Lichtenfelderi seem to be more robust as opposed to say, ones in the Luii group. As far as being hardy, I'd say all are fairly hardy, in fact I just had a G.Araneus arrive in good condition after being caught in a shipping delay with DHL (arrived one day late). Not sure of the biggest ones, but my Hainanensis are fatties !

I'm sure handling would be similar to any geckos of the like, get them used to it. My gonis LOVE to hang out on the hand.

I currently have not bred any Goni as of yet, but I sure plan to:), from what I know, the average amount of clutches a female lays per season are fairly small. The females are said to lay the eggs, and keep covered for the next 12 hours until the shell hardens. ( I can't wait to witness this :)).

I hope I helped you out a little.

-Juan

[chevyrumble55]

dude, you're awesome! I was leaning towards hainanensis anyways, so now I just need to find some CB sexed juvies.

[Reptirus]

I would have to say that Luii, Hainanensis, or Lichtenfelderi are the easiest to find CB. I cant stress enough how important I feel it is for you to go with CB as your first Caves because WC are usually loaded with parasites and dehydrated. They are sometimes hard to get to feed also when they are WC. I hope threw this forum we can build a large enough network to make CB Caves readily available to anyone interested in one. I hope that Juans post, and also mine have helped you out choosing your first Cave Gecko. If you need some help locating the species you are looking for, Juan is pretty good with finding Caves for sale, and I also know a few places to check around for ya.

[chevyrumble55]

Well, as of now I have 30+ geckos and not a single one was WC, so I have no intentions of getting any now. I'm planning on finding some sexable juvies of pretty much whatever I can find at this point, but after doing some google image searches last night I'm towards luii again.

[Reptirus]

Im glad to hear that you have desided to stay away from WCs, and I dont think Luii are a bad choice at all :-) Sandhill exotics is the only place that ive seen lately to have them avail, maybe Juan can help us out with other breeders who currently have them avail? :)

[evilxyardxgnome]

Interesting, I would like to start off with a somewhat beginner species too. I will have to research on the Lichtenfelderi or Luii groups.

[Reptirus]

Remember, Captive Bred is the key!

[Protean]

for japanese cave, hey are not so terrible to care for. I personally say they are as easy to work with as Luii, Hainanensis, or Lichtenfelderi. the main thing is that they are just difficult to come by because of limited animals. You will not be able to get WC japanese goniurosaurus though. they are banned from export as they are critically endangered in their home lands.

[Reptirus]

I totally agree. Most Japs are probably easier to care for, because most CB Luii, Hain, and Lichten are only like F1 or F2 at the best if they arnt WC, but most Jap Gonis have been CB for a few generations now. I have a few Japs and they are all awesome. Only reason I suggested Luii or Hain CB is because Im sure a beginner probably doesnt want to spend a couple hundred on their first Goni, figured they would want to start in the 50-100 range