Truth be told, those living room geckos were not the smartest. I mean, them crossing in front of the cats food plates every night at the same time was a bit too much me thinks. Of course there were casualties.
I see people leave food out for cats, and then birds go and eat them. Or maybe the cat lets them so the bird becomes cat food?
Cat food attracts the food they eat, they know those smells 
theyre hunting. But there be tigers in them weeds!
They were headed towards the kitchen. I always thought they went for a drink of water.
Question: if they are stationed in a high corner, are they hunting too?
Water is important as well.
Generally speaking, if they are out in the wide open they’re either looking for food or sex. Food trumps sex.
High corners aren’t for water, as there is no water there. Though many of these gecko species I have observed mostly lick water off surfaces, they don’t go “down to a water source” unless really desperate. Nationwide, overnight, there is condensation/dew, thats how they drink. Lapping it up off surfsces, not so unlike TL picture of day geckos lapping up fruit pulp (our species in taiwan are more or less considered insectivorious). If they are by pet food, it’s almost for sure they recognize this smell as being the smell of something their prey enjoys (eg. Cockroaches, crickets etc). Cat and dog food is a common household attractant used for homemade bait traps laced with a poison, like boric acid.
Depending on the species, their prey also exist arboreally and thats why they hang out at lights and on ceilings. They have learned that light sources attract certain species of prey (moths, termite/ant breeders etc) and so they tend to hang out there as well. They are somewhere in between hunters and ambush hehe. Lazy, but capable of search and destroy.
Just like humans have learnt where and how to track/stalk our prey for consumption so have the geckos. Not so different than our own hunting habits, minus tools 
Basically, they have water literally anywhere. They come to the kitchen because it stinks and they know the bugs will be attracted. If not smell, then light, another bug attractant.
But you know those green gecko looks a lot like those Geico gecko.
I would expect them to be happier and more abundant residing among my balcony plants. Plenty of water and maybe even bugs there. But the cats also like it there…
Possibly. In my mind: clean bare leaves vs human/pet food, the bugs like the smell of the latter more hehe. The geckos have figured it out. Large open flat surfaces have fewer predators, better line of sight for food and more quantity of our food, lights etc that attracts said prey.
I saw those tiny gecko eat an entire dragonfly once. Also the roaches here are at least 2x bigger than the gecko, and they just swallow the whole thing. How does it do that??
If only all our bedrooms are Kitty Hawks.
