This gorgeous gecko is Tiny, a NEW CALEDONIAN GIANT GECKO!   This is one of four species in my collection from the islands of New Caledonia off the east coast of Australia and this particular species is actually the largest living gecko species on earth! 

New Caledonian giant geckos live on many of the different islands within the group which make up New Caledonia and there is lots of variation in terms of size, colour and pattern within the populations on different islands.  Tiny is not actually from one of the populations which gets the largest in terms of adult size, but he or she will still be considerably heavier than any of my other geckos when fully grown in a few years, potentially reaching somewhere around 250g! 

As you can see here Tiny has a beautiful pattern and colouration, in fact at times there is a lovely pale peach colour to parts of the body colour as seen below. The skin of giant geckos is a great deal more wrinkly than that of any of my other geckos, making them look very cute!

Whilst they will eat insects and other small animals like the other New Caledonian geckos in my collection, fruit plays a very important part in the diet of the giant gecko in the wild.  In captivity they will readily eat pureed soft fruits such as mango, banana, papaya etc. and there are also specialist powdered gecko diets available, created by experts in the nutritional needs of these geckos, which can be mixed with water and fed as a complete diet. Tiny is very fond of this special diet, especially the banana and strawberry flavoured varieties!

Tiny was bred in Kent in the UK and hatched on April 24th 2011, the day after my own birthday!  When I received Tiny just over two weeks later s/he weighed just under 6g!  Tiny looked somewhat more tiny then than s/he does now as you can see below, especially when pictured sitting on my thumb!

Here s/he is having just hatched!  This photo was kindly sent to me by Nick & Amanda Lumb of Lilly Exotics, the breeders of this gecko.  Nick and Amanda breed and sell many species of lizards as well as being official UK distributors of one of the most popular brands of powdered gecko diet as discussed above!  Check out their website here: www.lillyexotics.co.uk

Here s/he is looking a little bit different now, a bit like a dinosaur in fact!!