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When Diana and I started dating five years ago, I found out that she had a pet lizard. Being a cat person myself, I thought that was weird. Come to find out, she is allergic to everything that has fur. She had a gecko named Junior. He was really a neat gecko, but he did not want to be held EVER! Unfortunately, Junior broke his leg and had to be put to sleep on Mother's Day in 1998. Diana was not a happy camper at all. To make her feel better, I thought finding her a new friend would be a great idea. This time around, we were going to have a really friendly gecko that liked to be held.
I went to a local herp shop and asked to see a gecko that liked to be held and looked cool. They showed me a leopard gecko, but they really didn't interest me. Before I left to continue my search, I asked if they had any others. That was when I met Gracie. When they let me hold her, she looked up at me as if to say, "Hey, you seem like a nice guy. Get me out of here!" We bonded immediately and I brought her home. Diana fell in love with her as fast as I could place Gracie in her hand. She became a part of the family immediately.
After a year of having Gracie, we decided that it was time to find her a mate. The search for George began. For you older folks, we got the names George and Gracie from the George Burns Show. I looked everywhere on the net and at local stores. No one had a male striped fat tail. I got a hold of a guy in California, who will remain nameless, who said, "No problem! I can get one right away." Yeah, right! Anyway, I paid him by credit card and I thought George was on his way. Wrong! I opened the package and a small, dehydrated, worm infested, starved, FEMALE appeared. I didn't think she was going to make it. The guy who sent her to me had no remorse. He said that he shipped me exactly what I wanted and if I wanted my money back, I would have to ship the gecko back to him. Now, I understand the rationale behind shipping the gecko back to the supplier for a full refund. It protects the suppliers from consumers who say, "Oh it arrived dead. Give me my money back." Regardless the herp is now alive and well. However, had I shipped her back, she would have died. My conscience wouldn't allow that. I took her to the vet and got a prescription of Panacur and we got her back on track to good health. We named her Tiny because she was so small. So the search for George continued. I finally found him at Seaside Reptiles. Glenn was really kind to send me a picture of George before I bought him. He was a true professional.
Well, I was ready to breed. George and Gracie were a great match, however I wanted more geckos. This time I wanted some Captive Bred Geckos. Albey Scholl from Albey's Too Cool Reptiles contacted me about a fat tail breeding question I had posted on Kingsnake.com Gecko Forum. He said if I were interested in buying some from him, he had some baby fat tails available. Well, $150.00 later I had Amy, Goldie, and Penny (who I sold to a friend). All three were fantastic. Goldie was the neatest. She maintained a beautiful green color unlike most fat tails. She now looks like a gecko in army fatigues.
Well, in my searching for captive bred fat tails, I found a guy in New York that had a baby jungle phase striped fat tail. She was a little more expensive than normal fat tails, but I really wanted the cool blood line. Unfortunately, her patterns never broke up. She looks like a normal peach phased gecko. I called the guy and he said that happens sometimes, but I did get a gecko with the blood line. I guess we will see, since she is now gravid. I hope I didn't get ripped off again.
So now I had six geckos. In 1999 the ladies laid over 16 eggs laid. Unfortunately, I lost 10 to lack of knowing how to incubate them properly. Albey gave me some tips, that I outline on my Breeding Section of this site, that helped me bring four of the six remaining eggs to term. My first hatchling "Baby" was underdeveloped. She past away two days after hatching. I am still pretty upset about it. There was nothing I could do, but keep her warm and hydrated. On February 14th, 15th, & 16th of 2000, our three babies, Cupid, Happy, and Striker, hatched and they are still going strong.
Wow, we now have a large family of African Fat Tail Geckos. With so many females, we plan to begin selling their offspring some time is July 2000. E-Mail me if you are interested in one.
Well, there you have it. I hope that you enjoyed reading our story about our little ones. Check out the other sections for more information and links.
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