Bringing Up Babies

The very first New Caledonian giant geckos that I ever saw were also the smallest.

I had just started a job at a zoo's Reptile House, and the geckos had joined the family the same time I had.  The difference, of course, was that I was hired and they were hatched.  Being the world's biggest gecko, they were, not surprisingly, the world's biggest baby gecko.  The hatchlings were already about the size of the full-grown crested geckos that I was familiar with.  And it fell to me to give them their bottles, so to speak.

OK, it wasn't a bottle, but it was baby food.  Gerber's, if I recall correctly, which a special fondness for the peach and pear flavors.  Each days, I'd get a spoonful of the stuff, mix in some shredded cricket, stir in some calcium powder for strong bone growth, and then grab a gecko and plop down.  Sometimes I'd have to dunk a little snoot a few times first to get them interested (I'm told that's how it works for human babies to? I guess? No?), but eventually they'd start licking.

(Sorry, it's a horrble blurry photos.  This predates phone cameras)

Years later, I've had an incredible amount of new experiences as a keeper, some thrilling in the super-exciting-I-can't-believe-I-get-paid-for-this way, and some thrilling more along the lines of the we're'-all-going-to-die way.  Still, I can't think of any experience that was as soothingly therapeutic as plopping back and feeding baby geckos their baby food.