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Home > Care > Phelsuma seippi care sheet
 
Day geckos from Madagascar are only allowed to be exported in limited numbers. Seipp's day gecko for example should not leave the country at all. Luckily for the hobby there are a few specimens exported in the past and this rain forest dwelling gecko is being bred in small numbers. Seipp's day gecko is distributed on the northern part of Madagascar and the offshore Island of Nosy Be. There this species lives in native forest; they live as well in the forest as along the edges. This habitat makes it clear, that this species feels at home in a well planted vivarium. The plants offer the geckos hiding spaces, climbing facilities and gives a pleasant climate for the animals. Because Seipp's day geckos, just like most other species, prefer large leaved plants, you should consider this when you chose the plants. In a vivarium, where all plants have small leaves, they will mostly sit on the windows.
In the tank the animals want to have there own space, where they can bask. This can be provided with a small basking light that shines on a smooth branch. The lights need to be full spectrum as the UV rays provide the animals with Vitamin D3 which is used by the gecko to synthesize calcium. It will also give nice colouration to the geckos.

Seipp's day gecko loves moderately high temperatures. A day temperature of around 28 °C is recommended and later in the afternoon the temperature may get a bit higher.
Air temperatures of 35 °C and higher should be avoided. The basking isn´t really a problem, but the animals should have the choice to escape from these temperatures, to cooler parts of the enclosure. The animals eat the usual day gecko food, such as small insects and sweet mixtures (See Feeding section). Crickets should be fed with care: only small sizes which the gecko can easily overpower and consume, and not more than they can eat in a short period. Crickets, that aren’t eaten by the geckos can grow up in the tank into adults, which could possibly attack the geckos, leading to injuries and stress.
These geckos are shy and are easily frightened, they can even be so scared that they change their eating habits.
Adult male P.seippi
Adult male P.seippi
 
Sub-Adult male, note the nice colouration.
Sub-Adult male, note the nice colouration.
These day geckos can be kept as a pair or a small group of one male to several females. Females are a bit smaller and less bright coloured than the males. Males have well developed femoral pores. Two females will tolerate each other, but there will always be hierarchy between the females. There will always be one female that gets the best spots in the tank and lays the most eggs.
What is unusual for day geckos is that Phelsuma seippi females lay their eggs on the ground, sometimes hidden under leaves or even slightly buried. On the other side, this makes it easier to handle the eggs than the eggs off species that glue their eggs. It will take around 7 weeks until the eggs will hatch. (see Incubation for info)
The juveniles are smaller replicas of their parents and should be cared for in the same way taking into account that they are smaller (requiring smaller enclosures, food items etc).
 
Source: onder het Palmblad, volume 01/02 issue3 by Peter Mudde (translated by PhelsumaWeb)