My interest in getting a smooth knob-tailed gecko sparked in early 2019, but I didn't actually start delving into my research about the care of the species until around mid August, Mudkip came home the beginning of November, 2019. In the process of gathering as much information as I could prior to obtaining the actual animal, I realised that there isn't very much information online compared to other species of reptiles out there. 🙃 As you can imagine, this was a bit frustrating as I'm a huge advocate of learning as much about an animal as possible before you jump into getting one. To start off, this blog post will specifically be about Mudkip's enclosure. (I actually did start this post off as a full "basic care guide" but as I started typing about his enclosure, it became clear that it would take forever to go through absolutely everything on care with the amount of detail I'm going through with just the "enclosure" section so I'll be splitting everything up into different posts 🤷♀️)
*Disclaimer: I'm not an expert on the species so please feel free to email me if you have more experience and don't agree with something that I have written. I am always striving to expand my knowledge on Mudkip's species and am happy to edit anything in my blogs, given that you have facts to back your argument. 👌
TLDR; Glass terrarium highly recommended, UVB light is a yes from me, try not to let temperatures fall below 20°C in the cold side of the tank, hot side of the tank maintained between 29-31°C using heat mat below glass, ceramic heating globe on top if necessary in Winter, thermostat is a must for first time reptile owners, sand is not the devil, hides are important, keep it clean. -insert car screeching sound- If you ARE seriously thinking about getting a smooth knob-tailed gecko then please read everything that I have written below. Happy reading! (or not if you're just passing by and exiting now) 👍
Enclosure
I had Mudkip's enclosure completely set up 1 month prior to getting him. This gave me the opportunity to play around with my thermostat and ensure it was working and turning everything on and off (heat mat & UVB light) at the appropriate times. Mudkip is housed in the Reptile One RTF-600H Glass Hinged Doors Terrarium which is 60x45x45cm (W,D,H).
For me, this has been a great starting enclosure - easy to set up (coming from somebody who can't build anything from a flat pack 🤦♀️), easy to clean, well ventilated, plenty of space and the cable outlet dials in the top mesh lid prevents cords from hanging around everywhere. The con of this tank is that it is quite tall for a ground dwelling species so there's a lot of "air space" that isn't being used. I purchased this enclosure from Kellyville Pets (NSW, Australia) for $179 AUD (roughly $116 USD) so it was quite affordable. In the future, I plan on upgrading Mudkip to the Reptile One RTF-900HL Glass Hinged Door Terrarium which is 90x45x30cm (W,D,H) which would give me much more space to play with and less height space that I don't need.
Lighting
Most articles on the species are outdated and wherever you turn, you see the sentence "smooth knob-tailed geckos are nocturnal so do not need UV lighting". The Nephrurus Levis species is nocturnal but have been observed both in the wild and in captivity to sometimes bask in shaded sunlight, especially in the late afternoon while the sun is going down. 🌞 There has also been evidence of metabolic bone disease in the species so personally, I added it to my enclosure just for peace of mind (in conjunction with his food getting dusted with calcium). Mudkip is almost never out during the day so I have no idea of the efficacy of the lighting and if he is actually synthesising any vitamin D3 from it but having it in the enclosure doesn't hurt, even if he's only exposed to it every so often, it's better than getting absolutely nothing. 😅 Getting a UVB light set up for your smooth knob-tailed gecko would be entirely up to you, keep in mind that it is an added cost (cost of changing the light every 6 months as well as cost of electricity). Not all knob-tail keepers have one, but I personally recommend having one.
Mudkip's UVB light is connected to the thermostat which automatically turns it on at 6am and turns it off at 6pm, which gives the enclosure 12 hours a day of exposure to UVB lighting. Because they are nocturnal, they don't need a very strong UVB light. 🌛 I use the Exo Terra Reptile UVB100 Tropical Terrarium Bulb; it is designed to provide UVB levels appropriate for reptiles living in shady environments such as rainforests and other tropical locations and although the Nephrurus Levis species is primarily found in a desert habitat, the same level of UVB works for a nocturnal species which does not bask in full sunlight anyway. On the topic of lights, funny story 💡 - as a first time reptile owner knowing absolutely nothing about setting up a light, I watched multiple videos on UVB lighting on YouTube but they were all about which kind to get, choosing how many watts to get, etc. Because every article I read advised that a nocturnal species does not require lighting, it was surprisingly quite difficult for me to know which one I was supposed to get. I ended up getting guidance from Dr. Shane Simpson from The Unusual Pet Vets when I met him at a talk he hosted about parasites in reptiles. I went to this talk before getting Mudkip and when he asked the room full of reptile owners (who were obviously there to learn about how to treat/prevent parasites in their reptiles) "who in the room does not own a reptile?", I hesitantly raised my hand along with about 2 other people in a room full of 40, cool cool cool. 🙃 When I actually purchased the light, I went home and it very quickly sunk in that I was an idiot and didn't get anything to attach the light to - rookie mistake. Don't be an idiot like me, pop a lamp holder in your shopping cart too. 🤦♀️
Heating
Being cold-blooded, reptiles rely on their external environment to regulate their body temperature and when being housed in captivity, it is important that you ensure their needs are being met. Smooth knob-tailed geckos venture over to the hot side of their tank (typically after a meal) as they need to increase their body temperature to digest food and excrete waste. 💩
As a first time reptile owner, my thermostat has been a godsend. 🙏 I use the Get Your Pet Right Thermo-Hygrostat, and with the help of the lovely reptile department at Kellyville Pets, I was able to set it up myself at home with no issues. Get Your Pet Right also have YouTube videos on how to set everything up which was also extremely helpful. This particular thermostat cost me $159 AUD (roughly $103 USD) but it is 100% worth the money (not spons'd, but happy to be *wink wink*). In all seriousness though, it is such a great little gadget to have; everything can be set up to automatically turn on and off at set times during the day/night and it has an outage memory function so you don't lose all your settings if you have a blackout.
🌚 As mentioned before, it turns Mudkip's UVB light on at 6am every morning and turns it back off at 6pm every night. It also turns his heat mat on and off to keep it between 29-31°C; I have my heat mat placed under the glass in the right front corner of his tank. I chose to put it in that location so when he's in his cave hide while lying on the heat mat, I can pretty much see him right up against the glass. 🥰 The remainder of his tank is pretty much kept at room temperature. Although they are known to be quite resilient and cold weather resistant, I personally don't let my enclosure temperature drop to below 20°C. For Mudkip's heating, I use the Reptile One 7 Watt Heat Mat. 🔥 I place my thermostat temperature probe on top of the sand where his heat mat is which in turn automatically reads and adjusts the strength of the heat mat accordingly. I will add a ceramic overhead heat globe in Winter if I find that the heat mat is not keeping up with the cold. 🧊
Substrate
I use Reptile One Central Australian Desert Sand (red desert sand). On the section where his heat mat is under the glass, I only pour a very thin layer of sand as a deep layer of substrate on top of the heat mat will just make it ineffective. In another corner of the enclosure there is damp sand which is about 7cm deep. I will leave this section short and sweet as I plan on doing a separate blog post just on the use of sand. 😉 Since starting my Instagram account for Mudkip, there have been numerous people that have expressed their concern over my choice of substrate, not understanding that different species of geckos require different substrate. Sand is not the devil. 👿 Impaction is primarily caused by poor husbandry, but I'll write about that another time.
Decor
Hides can fill your enclosure up and be very aesthetically pleasing, but they actually are quite important to have in your setup. Smooth knob-tailed geckos are quite shy and will spend a lot of time in their hides. 😳 I have one cave hide on top of where his heat mat is located, another cave hide on top of where the damp sand is located, and a dinosaur skull hide in another corner of the enclosure. It is also a good idea to have a hide that has damp moss inside or a "humidity hut" as this will aid with shedding when required; I use sphagnum moss. All other decor is entirely up to you. I have a couple of logs with long branches to fill up the unused air space and although it does make the enclosure look very nice, I have found that the crickets and wood roaches like to hide in the holes of the log which isn't ideal, especially for someone who isn't so keen on creepy crawlies. 😫 The plastic grass I have in his enclosure is also purely for decoration and has no purpose other than looking pretty. 🤷♂️
That's it!
I've more or less covered all the steps I went through with setting up Mudkip's enclosure. All the pictures of products on this blog post are of the exact items that I use in my current setup and you can get redirected to the product's company website by clicking on the photo. I hope this provided some insight and/or inspiration on what you decide to do with your enclosure! Or if you're just a friendly Instagram follower supporting my blog and having a read, I hope you enjoyed getting an in depth understanding of his crib. 😄
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