The numbers
Thermal gradient
Day: a real gradient, 31–33°C warm against 21–24°C cool, so the animal chooses. Night: 16–20°C.
Why
Same scale on every sheet here, so two species compare by eye.
The sheet stateswarm 31-33 °C (88-92 °F) / cool 21-24 °C (70-75 °F) / night Down to ~16-20 °C ok
Humidity
The sheet states30-40% + humid hide 70-80%
UVB
The sheet statesLow-level recommended (thrives)
Identity
Adult size
The size the sheet states for a grown animal.
Why
Two drawings, because they answer two questions. The silhouette is at true scale against a 1.75 m person: it says how big this animal actually is, which no number does for someone who has never seen one. The bar under it is logarithmic and shared by every sheet here, so a 2 cm isopod and a 4 m python both stay readable on the same axis and two species can be compared at a glance.
Morphs
21 morphs, with how each one is inherited. 4 of them carry a documented welfare cost, and those are listed first. A morph list that hides this sells a pattern and says nothing about what it costs the animal.
How common this animal is
Relative Google search interest for the species as a pet, 2020. The scale is relative within the study: 100 is the most searched reptile it measured, not a count of animals. Reptiles only, and only the species the study measured. An absent value means the study did not measure that species, not that nobody keeps it.
Valdez JW (2021), Using Google Trends to Determine Current, Past, and Future Trends in the Reptile Pet Trade, Animals 11(3):676
NOT a measure of how many are kept. These filings count animals shipped for any purpose, including the food trade and laboratory supply, and they are United States records only. The three largest volumes in the source belong to a food frog, a bait species and the standard laboratory amphibian.
US Fish and Wildlife Service LEMIS declared wildlife import and export records, as compiled in the received dataset
Enclosure and conditions
Enclosure
Drawn from the stated numbers. Only what the sheet states is drawn inside.
Why
The rectangle carries the exact width-to-height ratio of the figures above it, and the ruler under it places that width on the 0–250 cm scale every sheet here shares, so two species still compare at a glance. Nothing is added that the sheet does not name: a lamp drawn on a sheet that never mentions one would be invented equipment. What the sheet leaves out is listed rather than left blank, because an empty tank reads as « none needed ».
The sheet states90 × 45 × 45 cm (36×18×18 in)
What your climate adds
This sheet states a range to hold. Your local climate decides how much work holding it is. Pick the nearest city: nothing is sent anywhere, the choice stays in this browser.
Diet
Feeding rhythm
Twenty-eight days, one row. Each band is a meal window. This sheet states a figure for each age, so each age has its row.
Why
The windows widen as they go because the interval is a range: four meals after a 10–14 day cycle land anywhere between day 40 and day 56. A young animal's row is drawn only where the sheet gives one: working it out by dividing the adult interval would be inventing a ration.
The sheet statesInsects: crickets, dubia, BSF larvae · Every 2–3 days
Behaviour and handling
Reproduction
Life course
Read from the lifespan and maturity the sheet states, for animals in care and not in the wild.
Why
The minimum commitment is the low end of that lifespan, and the reproductive window is what is left after maturity: both are subtractions on stated figures, not figures of their own. The sheet also reports a record of about 25 years; that is a reported maximum, not the range to plan for.
Common health problems
When to see a vet
Good to know
- Store fat in their thick tails as an energy reserve.
- Have movable eyelids (rare among geckos) and lick their eyes clean.
- One of the first domesticated reptiles: hundreds of morphs exist.
- One of the first domesticated reptiles — hundreds of morphs exist.
Common questions
Do they need UVB?
They thrive with low UVB; can manage on dietary D3.
Why did the tail fall off?
Defense: it regrows (fatter, different look).
Is sand safe?
Avoid loose sand for youngsters (impaction risk).
What it needs
Every line above is deduced from a value this sheet states, and names which one. Nothing here is a general recommendation.
- Terrarium 90×45×45
- Heat mat + thermostat
- Low UVB
- 3 hides (incl. humid)
- Tile/clay substrate
- Calcium + D3 + multivit
- Feeder insects
- Thermo/hygrometer
Sources
Others in this group
What this sheet states
Every field this product runs on is stated here. That is not a claim that the values are right: it says what the sheet states, not whether it is true. Whether a human has read it is the badge at the top of this page.
UVB is measured but does not count: it is absent from 421 of 678 sheets, and on most of them that is not a gap, since a nocturnal snake's sheet has no reason to state a UV index. Counting it would call the library incomplete without cause.