Reptile Care Guides
These guides document how we care for the animals we work with at 402 Exotics. They are built around practical husbandry, animal observation, repeatable systems, and the reasoning behind the choices we make.
There is rarely only one successful way to keep a reptile. Use these guides as a transparent look at our methods, then evaluate the animal in front of you. When something changes, observe the trend, identify the actual problem, and change the smallest practical variable first.
ARBOREAL GECKOS
New Caledonian Geckos
Care resources for some of the New Caledonian geckos maintained and bred at 402 Exotics.
Care Guide
Crested Gecko
Correlophus ciliatus
Housing, lighting, hydration, feeding, acclimation, handling, enclosure design, and long-term care.
Read guide
Care Guide
Gargoyle Gecko
Rhacodactylus auriculatus
Practical husbandry and breeding notes covering housing, feeding, hydration, juvenile care, and 402 breeding-group experience.
Read guide
Care Guide
Leachianus Gecko
Rhacodactylus leachianus
Care guidance for New Caledonian giant geckos, including enclosure design, feeding, hydration, lighting, and acclimation.
Read guideLIZARDS & SKINKS
Lizards, Skinks & Monitors
Species-specific husbandry and breeder-practice notes from projects maintained at 402 Exotics.
Care Guide
Conehead Lizard
Laemanctus serratus
Arboreal enclosure design, UVB and basking, hydration, feeding, breeding, egg deposition, incubation, and hatchling care.
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Care Guide
Green Keel-Bellied Lizard
Gastropholis prasina
402 breeder-practice notes on planted arboreal housing, hydration, feeding, breeding, incubation, and raising juveniles.
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Care Guide
Kenyan Zebra Skink
Trachylepis dichroma
Terrestrial enclosure design, UVB and basking, feeding, seasonal breeding, live birth, and juvenile management.
Read guide
Care Guide
Red Ackie Monitor
Varanus acanthurus
A practical look at deep-substrate housing, basking, UVB, furnishings, and the large custom enclosure used at 402 Exotics.
Read guideADDITIONAL HUSBANDRY
Additional Care Resources
Supporting husbandry information and historical program notes that do not fit neatly into the species-guide groups above.
Program Notes
Panther Chameleon
Furcifer pardalis
Historical breeding and rearing notes, nursery systems, hatchlings, and photographs from the 402 chameleon program.
Read guide
Feeder Care
Feeder Cricket Care
Housing, hydration, feeding, gut loading, cleanliness, and practical maintenance of feeder crickets.
Read guideTHE 402 METHOD
Observe. Design. Implement. Iterate.
Good husbandry is not a static checklist. Establish a sound system, observe how the animal uses it, make deliberate corrections when the evidence supports them, and preserve what works.
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