How to choose the right hide for a micro gecko

When I started raising micro geckos, I did what everyone does: I went to fairs or shops and looked for hides suitable for the rearing setups for the species I was raising.

The problem? They were all enormous! Completely out of scale for an animal just a few centimeters long, especially for baby geckos.

Over time, I realized something very simple: we humans tend to choose hides based on how beautiful they look. Geckos, on the other hand, choose the ones where they feel most protected, and the ideal burrow, very often, is one that's almost cramped.

The first attempts

Over the years, I've tried a bit of everything: small plastic bowls, recycled cheese containers, lids, jars—basically, anything that could be turned into a shelter. They worked well enough, but none of the solutions really convinced me.

Some were too big, some too low, and some were inconvenient to clean.

The most banal discovery

Almost by chance, I stumbled upon Blim's "Cinqueterre" saucers. They're just standard gardening saucers!

I mainly use the 9- and 11-centimeter ones. They're low enough to create a cozy hiding spot but tall enough to allow the micro geckos to move around comfortably. Furthermore, the small diameter allows you to fit several of them in a single enclosure, providing as many hiding places as possible.

Transforming them into a shelter is not complicated: with a small electric soldering iron, I create a small side door, and the hide is ready. I also add small holes on top in case the saucer needs to serve as a hot hide, so that excess heat can escape and no one gets accidentally burned. They can even be used as a humid hide! A whole saucer, left underneath, holds moist sphagnum moss, while another saucer with a small door is placed on top. Moisture and moss remain trapped in the cozy dome, and the geckos can enter to rehydrate and molt, then come out at will. On the hottest days of the year, I always found entire groups of microgeckos in these.

Why do I like them so much

Over time, they've become my most common shelter for micro geckos in grow-out boxes, for several reasons. They're inexpensive, easy to find, clean in seconds, and most importantly, geckos seem to love them! I've managed to raise an entire generation of H. binoei thanks to these saucers.

I often use them along with a few pieces of cork, twigs, and some fake plants, which add further exploration and environmental enrichment.

You don't need to spend a lot

One of the things breeding reptiles has taught me is that price rarely determines the quality of a grow-out setup.

Many of the solutions I use today were born from observing the animals, not catalogs.

If a shelter costing a few euros allows a microgecko to feel safe, explore, and rest peacefully, then it has already done its job perfectly, and, at least in my house, these small plant pots continue to outperform many hides designed specifically for reptiles.