AN INTRODUCTION TO GARGOYLE GECKOS
Rhacodactylus auriculatus
Text & Images by Anthony Caponetto
This page isn't meant to be a complete guide, but an introduction for crested gecko breeders and the like, who are maybe familiar, but not as well-versed as they are with crested geckos. For those breeders, this page will serve to help outline some of the primary differences between Gargoyles and Crested Geckos, so that they can better decide if this is a species they might want to incorporate into their collection.
While gargoyles have historically lacked the fame and popularity that crested geckos have attained, a LOT of crested gecko breeders, like myself, tend to have a gargoyle gecko or two (or 10) in their collection. I think this is because of how similar care is, as well as how easily you can add gargoyles to a crested gecko collection (same housing, food, temperature requirements, etc.).
Gargoyles have come a long way in earning a following of their own in recent years, which is no doubt due to how far selective breeding efforts have come, which we'll dig into below.
Natural Range
Like the crested gecko, the gargoyle gecko - Rhacodactylus auriculatus, is another gecko endemic (or native exclusively to) the island nation of New Caledonia.
Selective Breeding Potential
While it could, at one time, be said that gargoyles lack the variety of crested geckos, this species has really proved a lot of us wrong in recent years. The pattern and color morphs have turned out far better and more extreme than I ever anticipated - there are numerous base colors, a number of pattern morphs and now the red and orange markings are getting WILD. I've been working on all my gargoyle projects for anywhere from 16-20 years now, so I've watched it all happen and it's still hard to believe how far they've come in the past 5-10 years, specifically.
As the reptile hobby continues to go more mainstream and more discerning reptile breeders look for new or alternative species to develop projects with, I think we're going to see the gargoyle gecko step out of its famous cousin's shadow and get some of the limelight over the next several years.
Personality
Gargoyles are actually more chill in terms of human handling and interaction than most geckos. While some crested geckos will be jumping and climbing all over the place for the first few minutes, most gargoyles seem content to just hang out. The catch is, they tend to be pretty rough with one another, especially as youngsters - bullying for food/resources is said to be common, as is tail loss. You'll never find a dropped tail in a cage with multiple gargoyles because someone will eat that tail.
Housing
For reasons you just read, we've always housed them separately until we set them up in a breeding group. Unlike crested geckos, which can be safely kept in groups with other similarly sized geckos at any age, if necessary, we find it best to house gargoyles individually from the day they hatch.
Temperature
In my experience, Gargoyles do well at the same temperatures as crested geckos, but they can handle slightly warmer temperatures, provided humidity levels are adequate.
Breeding & Introduction
Once they're a couple years old, we'll set them up in a breeding trio, or a male and two females. It's important to listen to them interact for the first few hours to make sure no fights break out. This isn't something we do with crested geckos, but gargoyles have long teeth and can injure one another in the rare instance a gecko decides it doesn't like another gecko. If they make it through the first few hours without a fight breaking out, chances are they'll be OK.
PS - It's the females you need to watch. The males rarely do more than a little bite on the neck while trying to mate with the females. Just don't freak out prematurely and break up normal breeding behavior (male grabbing female by the nape of the neck). Gargoyles are very vocal, so you'll usually hear some squeaking and grumbling, but don't physically intervene unless someone is clamping down and shaking the other one, as if they're trying to hurt him/her.
I like to put them in a freshly cleaned cage that none of them are familiar with. The idea is to make it new territory for all three, and let them meet one another on neutral territory. Aside from working a shift as a bouncer the first time you set them up, everything else is about like crested geckos.
Eggs & Incubation
Gargoyle geckos will lay slightly fewer clutches per year on average than we get from our crested geckos. 12-14 eggs per female would be a good season, but slightly less isn't really abnormal. Gargoyle gecko eggs typically take a bit longer to hatch than crested geckos.
- Temperature Dependent Sex Determination
I haven't sorted this out super thoroughly, but a constant 72 or slightly cooler seems to yield almost 100% female geckos. The higher the temperature, the more males you'll get. I haven't tested this to see at what temperature you get a male heavy ratio, but I've talked to other breeders who incubated closer to 80 and had trouble getting females. We now incubate gargoyles in the warehouse, where it's slightly warmer than our crested gecko egg room, in order to get some males. Fluctuating temps from 70-76 degrees seems to get a slightly female heavy ratio, which is just about ideal for us. At 70-76 degrees, you're still looking at a lengthy incubation of up to 90 days. I've had some take 120 days to hatch.
Adult Size
Back when I started, gargoyles over 60-70 grams were pretty unusual. Our most recent generations will usually top out a little over 100 grams, but that can take years. While they can breed at 30-40 grams, pretty much like a crested gecko, we tend to wait until they're 45-50 grams.
ABOUT OUR GARGOYLE GECKOS
While we don't produce as many gargoyle geckos as we do cresteds, our lineages have been in development just as many decades (all two of them - lol) and have been bred to get large, just like our crested geckos. Because I've followed the same principles of constant outcrossing while also breeding for a specific appearance - in other words, across multiple lineages, genetic diversity has made our gargoyle lines some of the strongest in the hobby.
Most of our modern generation gargoyles top out at anywhere from 90-100+ grams by 5 years of age (though most will breed before two years old) and they look just as flashy as they are large. I don't know what was huge 20 years ago, but 50 grams was about all we came to expect from a strong line.
While Gargoyles have historically lacked the fame and popularity that crested geckos have attained, gargoyle gecko pattern and color morphs have turned out far better and more extreme than I ever anticipated. As the reptile hobby continues to go more mainstream and more hard core reptile breeders look for new or alternative species to develop new projects with, I think we're going to see the gargoyle gecok step out of its famous cousin's shadow and get some of the limelight over the next several years.
