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Can You Handle a House Gecko? (w/ Pics)

If you have a House Gecko, maybe its new to you, or you just bumped into it in your house. You may be wondering if you can pick it up. And more importantly, what will it do if you pick it up?

Can you handle a house gecko? Yes, you can handle a house gecko. However, you have to be careful with them. This is because they are quite fragile. In the event that they bite you, the reality is, their bite is not dangerous. If they do bite, it’s unlikely to break your skin.

Now that you know that they are quite harmless, let me explain some necessary hygiene, how long you should wait to handle them if you wish to have them as a pet. I will also explain how not to pick them up, and more. Keep reading.

What is a house gecko?

According to Wikipedia, a House gecko (Scientific name Hemidactylus Frenatus) is a native to the South East of Asia. It actually has a number of aliases such as:

  • Pacific house gecko
  • Asian house gecko
  • wall gecko
  • house lizard
  • moon lizard

It is non-venomous lizard by the way, so no need to worry about handling it.

Gecko Hygiene

Washing hands for House Gecko

It is advisable to wash your hands after coming into contact with them, which is generally common sense with most animals, right?

Why though? Because sometimes they may have diseases or parasites that could be passed on to you.

How old should they be before you handle them?

If you have a domesticated house Gecko which you are hoping to look after. It is advisable to be patient and wait till at least your Gecko is one year old before you attempt to handle him.

Why?

Because if they are exposed to a new environment, handling them too early can unsettle them. If you try and handle them too early, this can make them anxious and become fearful of their surroundings.

Once they are mature and become an adult they are more susceptible to humans handling them.

In addition to this, they will get used to you being around them and feel comfortable in their new environment.

How About handling them outside of their enclosure?

If you have a house gecko inside of an enclosure because you are caring for it. You may be wondering how long you should you wait until you take it out of the enclosure, right?

Well, you need to be patient. As discussed earlier, it is better to wait at least a year before attempting this.

In reality, you will need to wait a little bit longer than this. Because you need to start off with handling it within the enclosure, then graduate it to handling outside, are you with me?

Be Careful, they run fast

When you feel comfortable to take it to the next stage and take him out of the enclosure, be very careful. Why? Because they run fast and can escape into a hard to reach the areas.

Also while you are handling them outside of the enclosure, and they attempt to run away from you, you can get tempted to grab them.

This is dangerous because you risk the chance of injuring. Or,  even cause their tail to break off if you grab this. Don’t worry the tail will grow back, but in all honesty, it will never be the same as it was before.

Never Handle them this way.

When you decide that it is a good time to handle your House gecko. It’s important that you never grab them from their underbelly. This may feel natural to you but you run the risk of them getting spooked and “running for the hills”.

Instead, you should be holding them from the top of their body. Making sure to hold them securely. Then place them into the palm of your hands and making sure that they do not escape.

When you do this, hold them in the palm of your hand and take care not to grab their tail. As discussed earlier, you run the risk of breaking their tail.

Wash your hands

Also, make sure that you wash your hands before and after holding them. This is because you can introduce illness and sickness to your lizard. You may not notice, but you too may have harmful bacteria in your hands that can be passed onto your lizard.

Can you make a house gecko a pet?

If you wondering if you can make a wild House Gecko a pet, the answer is you can. But understand this, because they are wild they will take longer to get used to the domestic lifestyle.

To consider doing this, ideally, you need a 20-gallon tall tank enclosure (Click here for my best Lizard Enclosures) for them to feel comfortable.

Mixing

You can have more than one House Gecko in an enclosure. But, be careful with males.

Why?

Because Male house geckos, like most lizards, are very territorial. It’s almost inevitable that mixing more than one male together will end with fighting.

Females, on the other hand, are fine for mixing. Because they have a different temperament.

Substrate.

The substrate should be capable of holding moisture. Ideally, you need something such as coconut fiber substrate (Click here for a great one here, on Amazon) or something like that.

Sand and Reptile carpeting is not ideal for House Geckos. Why? Because these substrates do not create a humid environment, which is required for these lizards.

Lighting.

These lizards are nocturnal, therefore, lighting in the night is not really required. However, you will still need UVA/UVB lighting for the daytime. This is important.

Why do some people hate House Geckos?

The reason is, they are regarded as pests in some parts of the world. In some countries, for example, Southeastern Asia, they have many house geckos. They unfortunately infiltrate their houses to look for insects to eat. Therefore, some people regard them as pests.

Obviously there are people that care for them as pets, but there are just as many people, on the opposite side of the fence, who see them as a problem.

In addition to this, they are known to make weird noises in the night which spook the average person (Why do House Lizards make noise? Click here to see why).

Related Questions:

In this section, I will answer some related questions to House Geckos. If you have some extra questions you need to be answered, feel free to drop a comment below.

Q: Do house geckos shed their skin?

Yes, you can expect house geckos shed their skin. In fact, every six to eight weeks, in patches. The confusing thing about this shedding stage is it can seem to be quite uncomfortable and unsettling for your lizard.

However, even if this is the case, do not be tempted to try and help it along by peeling the skin off.

Why?

Because this can cause extreme pain and discomfort to your lizard. And, it will not help it. If you ensure your enclosure has the right humidity, temperature and facilities, then their skin will naturally deal with the shed in the expected way.

Q: Do you need to provide supplementation for your house gecko?

Yes, like other lizards, you will need supplementation such as calcium. The best way to apply this calcium supplementation is to dust the insects that they are about to eat. For example mealworms or crickets.

Some people argue that it is advantageous to feed them wild insects because this naturally varies their diet and has nutritional benefits.

This can be confusing because there are opposing arguments that say that wild insects can introduce parasites and diseases so take this into consideration.

Q: Do house geckos eat fruit?

No, house geckos along, with leopard geckos (Click here to see if Leopard Geckos can live off just Mealworms), and fat-tailed geckos are purely insectivores. Meaning there will only consume insects.

However, there are some geckos that will consume fruit, mainly in its purified form. But, on the whole, they mainly are a meat-eating lizard.

Wayne
 

Hi, this is me with my daughter and my Lizard friend. I hope you enjoy my research. Please feel free to check out my "About Me" page to find out more about me.