Substrate
What is best for your Gecko and What do I use myself?
aaah substrate - the eternal reptile debate!
You are going to read a lot about substrates if you do any research on the net - but for reference purposes here is my two pennies worth
[1] Eco Earth
Ebay US for eco earth Ebay UK for eco earthEco earth is basically coconut fibres shredded up and you will receive it as a desiccated hard block. It works amazingly similarly to the way Wiley Coyote would make things from ACME. Add water and watch it grow! I find this stuff excellent for setting up a miniature biosphere in my Terrarium's.
You can use it one of two ways:
place a suitably thick layer of it onto the base of the Terrarium and moisten it well so that it appears dark brown and obviously wet. this has the benefit of evaporating it water content during the day and helping to keep the humidity levels of the Terrarium constant and/or elevated.
It will dry out and will need wetting sometimes daily in the hotter months - to help keep the water locked into the Eco earth for a bit longer I add the following.
acquire a substance called Hydroton.
Ebay US for Hydroton Ebay UK for Hydrotonthese are little porous clay balls that are used in gardening - If you're going to use these then they have to go in first - I spread a fairly thick 1-2 inch layer of them onto the base of the Terrarium and spray them with water so they get saturated -
Then - I put a layer of plastic mesh above them to act as a barrier. The mesh can be found on amazon or Ebay - It must have holes large enough for a good amont of water to pass through but not large enough for say a hydroton ball to make it through - look for something more of a large sized strainer.
being a mesh it will allow moisture to evaporate through it. Above that then I place a thin layer of sphagnum moss - this holds a massive amount of water when wet and also acts as a further barrier.
Ebay US for Sphagnum Moss Ebay UK for Sphagnum Moss I then place a nice thick 2-3 inch layer of Eco earth on top and wet it all down.
the result will look like this:
Now this may seem like a lot of effort - but these products are really not that expensive. The Hydroton holds a massive amount of water - the plastic mesh then acts as a permeable barrier letting that water evaporate - next comes the sphagnum moss which will absorb that moisture and also let it pass through to the Eco earth above. The Eco earth stays wetter for far longer than if it was just the only substrate.
Now over time that Eco earth will become naturally populated with bacteria that will feed on the waste produced by your geckos. There are even small species of insects - called springtail's - that can be purchased to establish a colony in the substrate who actively feed off the waste your geckos produce and reduce it to harmless by products - effectively cleaning up after your gecko for you!
Once set up, this substrate can last for years! Yes years! All you need to do is every 6 or so months scrape off about 1/4 to 1/2 inch of the top most layer of Eco earth - throw it away and sprinkle on a new fresh layer and then let the existing bacteria and insects re-populate it in time.
When doing this it is crucially important to never use a disinfectant to clean anything inside the Terrarium or you will destroy all that natural bacteria and insects !
Just clean down the vivarium insides with clean water and a sponge or scraper and remove the decor - clean in the sink - rinse thoroughly and replace- that's it.
Simplicity itself.
It never gets that smelly even when really dirty - and if well and regularly maintained will smell slightly brackish like being near a stream or river bank.
It also has the benefit of looking more natural and pleasing to our eyes as well as being a natural Gecko waste disposal system. - of course - your geckos don't actually care or require it! - they don't spend much time on the ground.....
HOWEVER
They will absolutely love this set up when it comes to laying eggs! - If you have females with a male - they will mate and she will lay eggs and she will lap up the opportunity to lay her eggs in this substrate - and then comes the second reason we have the plastic mesh as a barrier between the moss and Eco earth and the Hydroton balls.
Females will dig down a fair old way to lay their eggs and of you didn't have the moss and the plastic mesh as a barrier then the eggs would get lost amongst all the other objects that are round and egg like!
Finding and removing the eggs to either dispose of them or incubate them; is now easy because of the little bit of preparation we made in the very beginning with setting up the Terrarium.
Kitchen towel and/or paper
The old steadfast favourite is kitchen towels - and they are great. They do have the ability however to suck up the moisture from the air like a sponge - so keep an eye on your humidity levels if you intend to use kitchen towels as your sole substrate medium. I prefer not to use it as the sole substrate as it does have any aesthetic appeal to me - not that the geckos would mind!
I do however use kitchen towels exclusively in my breeder Vivariums which are medium and large exo terra faunariums. Every two days I take out the old towels and replace - cleaning is simple this way!
Bear in mind there is nowhere for a female to lay her eggs this way and you may need to provide some sort of hide filled with Eco earth to let her do this!