HISTORY
Robust Forest Geckos (Bavayia robusta) come from the island of New Caledonia. There are 12 different species of bavayia, but not all are available in the pet trade. Bavayia robusta are ones of the most common out of all of them and are also the largest bavayia available.
SIZE & LIFESPAN
Bavayia robusta have been know to live in captivity for 10-15 years. If you properly care for them, and give them the correct diet, this is a gecko that you'll have as a pet for more than a decade. Bavayia are a small gecko that measure around 4-5" in total length. Bavayia robusta have thicker tails that they use to store fat reserves.
HEAT & LIGHTING
Because Bavayia are nocturnal, UVB lighting is not needed. That being said, Bavayia can benefit from UVB lighting and most of mine can be seen basking under the UVB light during the day. It can stimulate their appetite and also help mimic their natural environment in the wild. We provide all our New Caledonia species with UVB and recommend doing so if you can. If you decide to provide your gecko with UVB lighting, be sure to use a T5 bulb with 6% UVB. We recommend either the Arcadia Shadedweller or the Arcadia 6% bulb. Both bulbs work great and need replaced yearly to provide proper UVB. When using UVB, you also want to make sure to provide adequate coverage in the enclosure so that your gecko can get away from the UVB when it needs to. In the winter, we give our geckos 8-10hrs of UVB light. In the summertime, we leave the UVB light on for 12-14hrs. Unless your house gets extremely cold, room temperature should be fine for these geckos. We keep our cage between 75-78 degrees during the day with a night-time drop down to 72 degrees. Bavayia are not tolerant towards high heat, so make sure that the tank never exceeds the low 80's. If your house is too cold, the use of a 25 watt ceramic heat emitter will help raise your tank's temperature. Be sure that your heat lamp or mat is connected to a thermostat so that your enclosure never gets too hot. Be sure to always have a digital thermometer in your enclosure so that you can closely monitor the temperature in the tank.
DIET
Bavayia thrive on a fruit mix referred to as CGD or Crested Gecko Diet. CGD should be changed out every other day so that no molding occurs. CGD is a complete diet, so you do not need to add calcium or vitamins to it. When mixing the powder with water, you want to make it the consistency of ranch dressing. In conjunction with CGD, we feed 3/8" crickets. Be sure to dust all your insects with a high-quality Calcium D3 supplement. You should only give the gecko as many bugs as they can devour in 15 minutes (About 5-7 roughly). The appropriate sized insects should be no larger than the space between the geckos eyes. Typically babies can take 1/8" insects, while adults prefer 1/4" insects. Be sure your gecko is eating its CGD. If your gecko stops eating its diet, then withhold bugs until it starts to eat the CGD again. These guys are extremely arboreal so we always provide them with an elevated food ledge. As for the amount of food a gecko can eat, a baby gecko can eat a pea sized amount of food. We usually use silicone bottle caps to feed babies. A bottle cap filled up about halfway is an appropriate amount of food for a baby-juvenile. An adult can eat a full bottle cap of food every 3-4 days.
HOUSING
A hatchling should be kept in a smaller container. We use 8x8x12" enclosures to house our hatchlings. At around 4-5 grams, you can move them to their adult enclosure which should be a 12x12x18" enclosure or larger. The best size enclosure for a single Bavayia is 12x12x18", but if you want to put them in a larger enclosure, you can. We house all our adult trios in 18x18x24" PVC enclosures because it helps keep in humidity. Different enclosures work for different climates. If you live in a dry climate, a tub or PVC enclosure will lock in humidity. If you live in a humid climate, a glass exo terra will provided needed ventilation to insure mold does not start to grow. Being an arboreal species, they will thrive in tall tanks with vertical climbing spaces.
BEDDING
We use paper towels with newly acquired Bavayia. Since it's sometimes hard to tell if your gecko is eating at first, the paper towels make it easy to see the poop in the tank. Once the gecko has finished its 90 day quarantine, you can put it on the substrate of your choosing. You can use peat moss, paper towels, a soil mix or bioactive soil. We typically use a mix of reptisoil, sphagnum moss and reptichip in our enclosures. In our baby and juvenile enclosures, we use 1-2" layer of damp bedding. In an adult enclosure, we use a 3-5" layer of damp bedding to keep the humidity up. The substrate should be moist, but there should be no standing water. If the top layer of bedding is drying out, be sure to mist it more to lock in the humidity. You can go bioactive with this species. With a bioactive tank, you want to make sure you have a good drainage layer so that you do not get standing water in your enclosure.
DECOR
Bavayia live in the lower part of the trees in New Caledonia and will appreciate elevated hides and space to climb inside their enclosure. We recommend using either a hanging coconut, mossy hide and/or cork rounds. We like to get fake leafy vines and hang them throughout the cage with the assistance of suction cups. Be sure to rinse off all plastic plants before you put them in the tank. You can also place live plants such as Snake Plants and Pothos plants. Be sure to rinse off the plant's leaves and re-pot any plants so that there is no way for your gecko to come in contact with pesticides or fertilizer. Personally we like to do a mix of both. Our enclosures typically consist of vine woven around the enclosure, a bamboo bridge, a hide (either a coconut hide or cork round), a live snake plant, and some silk plants draped around the enclosure. You want to have plenty of horizontal perches zig zagging across the enclosure so that the gecko has plenty of areas to perch.
HUMIDITY
Because Bavayia are a tropical species, they require higher levels of humidity. We recommend keeping their humidity between 60-80%. Having a digital hygrometer in the cage will help measure the humidity levels in your tank. Depending on your enclosure type, you may need to mist more frequently. Glass enclosures tend to lose humidity quickly, so need misted 1-2 times a day. Whereas, tubs and PVC enclosures keep humidity better so need misted every 1-2 days. You want to mist enough so that your gecko can drink water from leaves or decor in your tank. If humidity requirements are not met, the gecko will have issues shedding as well as the risk of becoming dehydrated. If you cannot mist daily, we recommend purchasing a MistKing so that the tank will automatically be misted daily. The cage should have a dry out period during the day, so if you notice the tank is still wet by the next morning, you should hold off on misting until the walls and decor dry out completely.
HANDLING/TEMPERAMENT
Bavayia can be a bit jumpy, especially when younger. We reccomend waiting to handle Bavayia until they're around 8-12 months old. Babies are squirmy and will drop their tail easily. Their tail does grow back, however it's best to let them grow a bit before handling. Once they're larger, we recommend taking your gecko out 1-2 times a week for 5-10 minutes in order to get your gecko used to you. The "hand-to-hand" method is the easiest way to handle a Babayia. This is done by placing your hands next to each other & slowly moving your hands to let your gecko crawl over them.
WATER
All geckos should be provided with a small, shallow water dish. We always recommend putting a small bio ball in the water dish so that any crickets that find their way into the water bowl are able to get out. Be sure the water dish is shallow enough so that the gecko can stand in it without submerging their head. If the water is too deep, there is a potential of the gecko drowning. When using water, be sure to either use spring water or tap water with de-chlorinator added to it. DO NOT use distilled water. Distilled water removes trace minerals from the water which are an essential to keeping your gecko healthy.
CLEANING
We recommend spot cleaning the cage at least once a week and doing a full bedding change and tank cleaning every 6-8 weeks. Every week look for poo, dead insects, shed, and food smears on the ground or glass and remove it from the enclosure. When cleaning the entire cage out, first remove all bedding and wipe down all surfaces with hot soapy water. Put the decor into a bucket with warm water & a capful of vinegar. Let it soak for 15 minutes & then rinse off the items & place them in bucket of hot water. Once the decor has soaked for 15 minutes, rinse them off again & then they are ready to go back into the tank once cleaning is complete. Then you want to be sure to disinfect the tank with either vinegar or a commercial reptile cleaning product. Once you have disinfected the tank, thoroughly rinse your tank out with hot water until it is free of any cleaning products. Let everything air dry before putting it back into the enclosure. When cleaning to enclosure put the reptile in either a deli cup or another small contained space. Do not put the reptile back into the enclosure until cleaning is complete.
SUPPLY LIST:
☐ 8x8x12" enclosure (for hatchlings)
☐ 12x12x18" or 18x18x24" enclosure (for adults)
☐ Bag of Crested Gecko Diet
☐ Elevated Ledge for feeding
☐ Plastic or silicone cups for CGD
☐ Mister Bottle or Spray Bottle
☐ Vines or bridges for climbing
☐ Plastic plants or Live plants
☐ Moist Hanging Hide
☐ Bedding - soil mix, paper towels or bioactive mix
☐ UVB tube light (optional)
☐ Thermometer/Hygrometer
☐ Heat Lamp with Thermostat (depending on your temperatures)
☐ Shallow Water Dish
