Gekkonidazed Geckos
We are questioned about our name quite often and it seems to present a pronunciation problem for people. It is actually a scientific pun stemming from the Latin word Gekkonidae, which is the biological family that includes all species of geckos. I learned to pronounce Gekkonidae with a long "a" ending like "day". I later found out that -dae in Latin is actually pronounced like "dee".
Regardless of the correct pronunciation, the root Gekkoni still pairs up with "dazed" quite nicely, and is fitting because I (along with countless other people) are completely fascinated and mesmerized (and dazed) by the marvelous group of lizards called geckos...and so Gekkonidazed came to be. :)
Regardless of the correct pronunciation, the root Gekkoni still pairs up with "dazed" quite nicely, and is fitting because I (along with countless other people) are completely fascinated and mesmerized (and dazed) by the marvelous group of lizards called geckos...and so Gekkonidazed came to be. :)
Our Story (written by Kyle)
Photo courtesy of LAC
I have spent most of my life intrigued and infatuated with reptiles and amphibians. I distinctly remember my first "field herping" find and the moment I fell in love with geckos.
My parents were building a new house when I was a little under 4 years old, and I found my first American toad near the house's foundation. I built a little hut out of dried dirt chunks and put the toad inside. I looked for it the next day, but it had inevitably escaped. I later found out that we had a pond a short distance from the house and I spent a lot of time there growing up. My brother and I kept a lot of native herps in our basement in glass tanks.
Field herping became a major hobby of mine through my life, and I've taken many trips throughout the United States and the rainforests of Peru and Costa Rica. One summer job in Montana involved a lot of amphibian monitoring and another job had me working with the endangered Brazos water snake (Nerodia harteri) in Texas. I've developed a habit of rolling almost every rock and log I see in hopes of finding something new.
When I was still a young child my family used to visit my grandparent's every Sunday night and we would eat popcorn and watch Wild Discovery. I caught a glimpse of a gecko in one episode...one of the leaftail species from Australia (possibly Saultaurius wyberba) and was instantly hooked. I never thought that I would have the collection I do now, or the knowledge I have gained over the years.
I didn't get the chance to finally get geckos of my own until I was a Sophomore in college (I graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point with dual majors in Wildlife Management and Biology.), where I started with a 2.3 group of Chondrodactylus turneri. (truly Pachydactylus bibroni) I hid them in my dorm room closet for a majority of the year without many people knowing about it at all. I was constantly checking classified ads for good deals on different stuff. I really started to get into geckos even further, and Krystal followed and became just as curious and happy to have them.
Once Krystal and I graduated college though, our hobby exploded and we started getting more and more geckos, and expanding into other species. We got our first pair of crested geckos from Garrick DeMeyer (crestedgecko.com) since we lived only a short distance from his facility. A pair of geckos turned into over 20 in a short time, and eventually expanded into what we are today. The New Caledonian and Uroplatus leaf-tailed geckos truly have our hearts, but we have worked with a number of different species throughout the years and hope to continue having new experiences with them and others.
Krystal isn't as deep into the field herping aspect of things, but she enjoys the geckos and reptile shows as much as I do. She liked to catch frogs as a kid, but that was really the extent of her reptile/amphibian experience. Having the geckos was completely new for her, but she loved it from the very beginning. I could see that she was interested when I got the first ones. We are both like kids in candy stores at any shows, and love to chat online as much as possible. It's a great hobby and common interest to share.
We can't wait to see where this hobby takes us in the future. We've made lots of great friends, met some really neat people, and generally have had a great time raising geckos.
Kyle & Krystal Salzmann
My parents were building a new house when I was a little under 4 years old, and I found my first American toad near the house's foundation. I built a little hut out of dried dirt chunks and put the toad inside. I looked for it the next day, but it had inevitably escaped. I later found out that we had a pond a short distance from the house and I spent a lot of time there growing up. My brother and I kept a lot of native herps in our basement in glass tanks.
Field herping became a major hobby of mine through my life, and I've taken many trips throughout the United States and the rainforests of Peru and Costa Rica. One summer job in Montana involved a lot of amphibian monitoring and another job had me working with the endangered Brazos water snake (Nerodia harteri) in Texas. I've developed a habit of rolling almost every rock and log I see in hopes of finding something new.
When I was still a young child my family used to visit my grandparent's every Sunday night and we would eat popcorn and watch Wild Discovery. I caught a glimpse of a gecko in one episode...one of the leaftail species from Australia (possibly Saultaurius wyberba) and was instantly hooked. I never thought that I would have the collection I do now, or the knowledge I have gained over the years.
I didn't get the chance to finally get geckos of my own until I was a Sophomore in college (I graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point with dual majors in Wildlife Management and Biology.), where I started with a 2.3 group of Chondrodactylus turneri. (truly Pachydactylus bibroni) I hid them in my dorm room closet for a majority of the year without many people knowing about it at all. I was constantly checking classified ads for good deals on different stuff. I really started to get into geckos even further, and Krystal followed and became just as curious and happy to have them.
Once Krystal and I graduated college though, our hobby exploded and we started getting more and more geckos, and expanding into other species. We got our first pair of crested geckos from Garrick DeMeyer (crestedgecko.com) since we lived only a short distance from his facility. A pair of geckos turned into over 20 in a short time, and eventually expanded into what we are today. The New Caledonian and Uroplatus leaf-tailed geckos truly have our hearts, but we have worked with a number of different species throughout the years and hope to continue having new experiences with them and others.
Krystal isn't as deep into the field herping aspect of things, but she enjoys the geckos and reptile shows as much as I do. She liked to catch frogs as a kid, but that was really the extent of her reptile/amphibian experience. Having the geckos was completely new for her, but she loved it from the very beginning. I could see that she was interested when I got the first ones. We are both like kids in candy stores at any shows, and love to chat online as much as possible. It's a great hobby and common interest to share.
We can't wait to see where this hobby takes us in the future. We've made lots of great friends, met some really neat people, and generally have had a great time raising geckos.
Kyle & Krystal Salzmann