Keep Your Leopard Gecko Safe And Happy
85Comforts To Provide; Dangers To Avoid
My wife, Pam, and I have only owned 2 leopard geckos, but we have learned a LOT about what to do for them...as well as what NOT to do. In general terms, we recommend a truly outstanding leopard gecko website for study. It would take far more than a single Hub Page to cover the excellent material they have there. We won't try.
What we will do is share some specific insights we've picked up along the way. Important insights, one of which can prevent fatal injury to your pet. THAT is crucial; nothing produces guilt like accidental harm to a small creature that trusts you for affection, food, shelter, and basic security. We want to avoid that at all costs.
Pam acquired our first gecko, Buddy, when she was living in Hereford, Arizona. A teenager owned the little thing, and it was nearly starved to death. The kid just didn't pay attention to the needs of the animal. Fortunately, when Pam's adult son, Zach, rescued the scrawny reptile and brought it to his Mom, the previous owner didn't mind at all. In fact, he was simply relieved that people would no longer have reason to get on him about his severe negligence.
Animals have always been drawn to me, but even more to my wife. She is a Little Mother Of The Universe, and she took VERY good care of Buddy. He had a glass cage with a heated cave rock, good sand for substrate, [which we now realize--the sand part--is NOT a good plan; see Comments below] and all the crickets he could eat. Buddy (who turned out to be a girl) appreciated it. She would climb on Pam's hand and rest there, secure in the knowledge that THIS was a safe place. Before long, she began to fill out and grow. Her tail went from skinny to fat. Over the months, she developed into a big, healthy adult leopard gecko, beautifully colored and patterned through her frequent molts.
Two moves later, we were settled in the town of Parachute, Colorado. Our home is modest, but big enough for us. Buddy, on the other hand, had outgrown her cage for sure. We went shopping and got a bigger, beautiful cage with front-opening doors and a nice, tall storage-and-stand pedestal. She got a grand new home with beautiful, specialty sand, an extra climbing-and-cave rock...and a special hard-foam backdrop that was patterned to resemble natural rock.
Buddy went happy-nuts. She climbed and climbed and climbed. HOWEVER, she also fell and fell and fell. Only later did we figure out two things:
1. She had grown so large and heavy that her little sticky-pad-feet could not hold her indefinitely. If she had been a quarter of her massive size, she would probably never have had a problem. But she was what she was, and she fell.
2. At least one of the falls resulted in a terrible injury. We did NOT realize it at the time, even though we saw it happen: The side of her abdomen impacted the rounded but very hard edge of her ceramic water dish. She began to bleed internally, slowly but steadily.
As a result, within a couple of days she had stopped eating. Geckos do NOT always need to eat daily, but as the days began to add up, we began to worry. Then we saw her abdomen was becoming distended. It was evening. We did what we could: Gave her a warm-water bath, which she loved. After that, she moved agilely around her cage, in and out of her bath water dish, head high, as if to say, "Look, Mommy, nothing wrong with me!"
But there was. In the end, we had take her to our veterinarian to have her euthanized. It was one of the harder things we've had to do. So, as the saying goes, "I done said all that to say all this":
Never give your gecko a place to climb high unless any fall will be short, with a soft place to land.
We should not still feel guilty. How could we have known? Wild geckos climb high all the time, with total safety. But "guilt" does not depend on "should", as we're sure all of you know.
Enter Missy, a baby leopard gecko our favorite pet store operator had saved especially for us when she heard Buddy was in trouble. Missy is now about 8 months old, seems to be fully grown, even bigger and more beautiful than when we took her photos a few months back. She lives in that big, roomy cage Buddy used to have, but very much WITHOUT that fake climbing rock foam that turned out to be so deadly. Instead, we replaced that with a landscape print, taped on the outside of the glass of course, which looks climbable but of course is not.
From Art To Zoology, The Leopard Gecko Is Way Cool
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Now, about food: The geckos need a good calcium supplement, available water, a good substrate (we switched to paper towels after reading that the edible sand sometimes becomes impacted). For food, they CAN eat certain meal worms and such, but all they really need is a steady diet of live crickets. They will not touch road kill, so to speak. If the cricket does not move, it will not be eaten. The predatory instinct needs to be triggered. So when Missy was tiny, we fed her only tiny crickets. Now she can and does munch down fully grown six-leggeds and does very well.
For the longest time, we bought commercial cricket food from Fluker's, and they ARE good...but such expense turns out to be totally unnecessary. We now use halves of citrus fruits,either oranges or (when I purchased them by accident) ruby red grapefruit--which the little buggies also love. When I'm moving a few crickets from our cricket-farm cage to Missy's cage, I ask the crickets, "Who wants to be lunch?" Amazingly, quite often a number of them will scurry right out to see what the experience of being crunched in gecko jaws is like.
Not that she eats them beyond her capacity. If she is full, she is NOT a glutton. We've read that it can be possible to overfeed a gecko, but thankfully that has not thus far been the case with ours. So, often she goes a number of days with crickets running loose around her cage, chirping cheerfully, the whole bit.
Then, just a few days ago, I came home to discover that the pieces of egg carton which serve as cricket-hiders in Missy's cage...had been moved. The two bigger ones were actually propped up against her heated cave-rock. I asked Pam about it. She told me she WATCHED Missy decide to redecorate and take action. The little lizard moved those chunks of cardboard over to her rock by herself! Nudge, push, until she had them where she wanted them.
Quite amazing. Enough, and more than enough, to make it worth the effort of keeping your leopard gecko safe, warm, well fed...and off those dangerous climbing surfaces.
Thanks for reading,
Ghost32
In A Cage Or On The Prowl, A Leopard Gecko Is A Delight To Behold
Update Christmas Eve, Dec. 4, 2011: CAUTION
CAUTION: Just got a comment from Kim regarding her gecko, Scamper. The little fellow got himself stuck in an exit hole that came as part of his hide rock. Fortunately, Chris and his associate (Sarah) of PetSmart were able to help free Scamper and there's a very Merry Christmas in Scamper Town this year.
But as Kim recommended: Especially if you have a growing leopard gecko, please be sure he or she is not at risk of outgrowing any of the hides and holes in the habitat. Frankly, I didn't even know they made "bad toys" like that; I've never seen one. Our Missy's cave rock is a pass-through, solid overhead and no threat to it.
Kim threw away the offending rock.
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All right! He's arrived!
Missy is right at nine inches, tip to tip. She'll be 5 years old in May--or somewhere around there.
I started crickets! He LOVES them and yeah he has a big carrot tail...it's pretty cool! Also how big is missy?
Gecko owner: That's really good to hear--"certified carrot tail" is EXCELLENT. Plus the relationship between you and Sun, of course.
Missy's doing fine,too. Did some very enthusiastic cricket hunting and munching the last time I cleaned her cage and brought her a fresh batch. :)
I ment now sorry lol
Update on sun
Is know eating mealworms and crickets every day
He is a MASTER shedder lol if only he was a master a couple months ago.....
Loves to snuggle up to my hand and like to be hand fed sometimes
Certified carrot tail know
Fat fat fat tail lol
Super fast
Thanks ghost sun is doing so well because you helped me! Hope missy is doing well!
No problem ghost!
Leo I hope you sort everything out! :)
That's not butting in--that's helping out! Thanks for the definitely helpful info.
Not to butt-in but ACTUALY I know a lot about meal-worms (I breed them) and try every day and offer till he won't eat anymore TRUST ME mealworms don't have much meat on them so it's doesn't last long in the geckos stomache.....lol
I'm not a mealworm expert, so can't say for sure. However, my wife and I DO believe in treating our gecko the way WE would like to be treated, which is to let her (Missy) decide when she wants to eat and how much.
Which is to say: "Every three days" is probably enough for physical health, but if that were me, I'd think it kind of sucked. Since we run crickets only, of course, it's simple: No crickets left, time to add more.
The one sure way to know if your little one is getting fed enough is to look closely at the tail. If it's "kind of skinny"...that's not good. If it's clearly a "fat tail"...that IS good. A well fed gecko stores fat in the tail, upon which its body can feed in the lean times.
I was given my gecko from someone who no longer wanted him and they told me to feed him every 3 days about. I originally started with crickets but he didn't seem to go after and eat them much. Now, I feed my gecko about 16 mealworms every 3 days, is that sufficient?
That's great, Will. Congratulations to Peewee.
Hey guys Peewee's eyes are both open now back to normal i'd say. Things still going great.
Of course we know
You do know that leopard geckos don't ave sticky pad feet like other geckos right?
Will: You might need to re-wet Peewee with that Q-tip every so often for a while. It's possible his skin dries back out a bit, and that's why he's closing the eye again. Nothing sure about that, just a thought.
But I'm relieved the Q-tip did the job; GOOD WORK!
Gecko owner: Thanks for the input on this one (Will's Peewee). You never know which clue will be the one that does the trick.
Guys, thanks so much. I saved peewee after 5 minutes of wetting the skin with a Q-tip i couldn't be more greatful of you guys. pewee's eye opened up fully right away but its now closed. Maybe it will just take a little while to get back to normal?
thanks guys i'll try it right away and gecko owner, peewee's poo looks fine.
Oh yes and suns tank is 79-87 degrees and also if peewee's poo lookes bad it could be parasites
Will the exact same thing JUST happened to sun and because sun HATES bathes I just moisted his moist hide and I have a commercial hide and sun got it off on his own! So do not stress to much of peewee stays in his moist hut a lot like sun. It was a problem for about........3 days and of this dosent work just use ghosts idea lol
Sorry, there are numerous typos in that last comment, and I'm just too exhausted to redo it entirely (too late to edit it).
Hope it can help Peewee.
Will: I'm hoping someone else can add some ideas here, but the only thing that's "feeling like it might work at the moment" is this:
1. If Peewee will let you do it without freaking, you might try a Q-tip soaked in lukewarm (not hot) water.
2 I'd gently "brush" the Q-tip from just behind (above?) the eye (not on it) over the affected area at first. Not sure just how many strokes; you'll have to be the judge of how much is comforting to Peewee and when to stop for the moment.
3. If you're going to "brush" the area more than a couple of times, you'll want to frequently rehydrate the Q-tip...or maybe even change Q-tips entirely.
4. If your schedule allows and you can find the time, repeated this procedure several times a day would be helpful.
5. Additionally, I'm going to recommend a procudure I use frequently for a variety of situations. I don't talk about it often, simply because it's a spiritual tecnique, and some people kind of freak at the very idea. But you've asked for help, and at this point, I can't leave this out.
The technique: Simply visualize the problem (unshed skin, unsightly eye) and say to yourself (silent is okay if someone else is in the room),
"I bless this situation in the name of the Sugmad (pronounced Soog-mod)."
You can say this (aloud or silend) as many times as you want. I actually sing it. Sugmad is an ancient name for God, means the same thing.
Additionally, you can ask (silently or aloud) for help from Prajapati (prounounced Praw-juh-potty). Prajapati is a spiritua Master who works to help animals.
No guarantee, but these techniques may help (I've seen it happen many times) and can't hurt.
Besides blessing the situation in the nsame of the Su
GHOST! HELP ME! I've stricken a terrible problem with Peewee! yesterday Pewee shed again. but he has some leftover skin that stretches from the top of his head to his right eye. yesterday he would open the right eye. today, it's open but it looks so shriveled and dehydrated i dont know what to do! i feel so bad. i tried to pull it off but i felt that i was hurting him. he can only catch food when hes looking at it on the left side of his head. I tried to spray him with water to shed it off but its not progressing at all. Please. Anyone. Help me save my Peewee!
Awsome unfortuantly 3$ worth of crickets it gone in 3 days (for small)
At least you have a choice of cricket size. Our preferred pet store (there is one other in town) only stocks one "combination size"--basically medium, but with some pretty small ones in the mix.
Works for Missy, though, so no complaints.
hahaha I am looking in to getting another gecko but when you don't have a job it's hard to feed one mouth I'm sooooo exited for when I can upgrade to medium because he eats twelve small.......darn
Gecko owner: Sounds like Sun needed to let you know, "Hey! I LIKE being an only child, thank you very much!"
Will: Haven't tried swordfish. Don't like salmon.
Now a nice plate piled high with fried chicken livers...YUM!
ghost, have you ever had swordfish steak? its delicious! Swordfish and salmon are my favorite foods.
Yah my wish of putting another Leo in with sun died when he started growing like he had a week to live hahahahah I have a 25 gallon tank but sun jut keeps getting bigger
Awesome--and it doesn't matter a lot about Sun's gender as long as no other gecko is added to the cage, eh?
Update on sun
Getting bigger and bigger and bigger well you get the Point
bright bright colors
Cricket lover ACTUALY about to feed sun crickets
Still don't know the gender lol
I don't think there's any danger of him overeating. There's always an exception (they say), but I've yet to see a "truly obese" leopard gecko. Our local Canyon Towhees (oversized sparrows), now, that's another story.
Hahahaha hey ghost sun won't over eat right? He eats about 7 small crickets (not pinheads)? And unfortuantly large crickets and medium crickets are to big for his (or her) mouth plus a few mealworms
Spinach? Ew-w-w!
Just gobbled down a pair of Grandma's oatmeal raisin cookies myself. With lots of salt sprinkled on top.
Nope. Not kidding.:)
Hahaha sorry if this is short sun giving me his look "please give me crickets" because he LOOOVES crickets ,darn,well my family are health maniacs so I have it much worse I have to eat spinach lol
True that. Although there is one exception: LOVE a good shark steak--they don't have bones. And a top-end albacore tuna steak's not bad, either, if you've got the right restaurant. But in neither case does the end product seem "fishy".
Wow sounds like you don't like fish lol
Heh! Never thought about your age in relation to the "Mom-food" issue. The impact sticks with you; I can say that much. I can still recall with vivid clarity a confrontation between me and my Dad when I was 6 over having sardines for supper. Many years later, it dawned on me that they probably didn't have anything else to put on the table that time, but at the time, what did I know? I only know that when I at first refused at 6:00 p.m. to eat those things, the old man told me I wasn't getting up from the table until I had in fact done so.
I finally caved in around 8:30 p.m....but for the most part, won't eat fish to this day.
Hahaha trust me I know the feeling because I'm not that old and well since I don't pay bills yet I just like to think of what sun enjoys :)
LOL! Sorry, not laughing at you--your post just reminded me of the Moms (my own included, way back in the day) who made sure we had the "opportunity" growing up to sample things like spinach and cauliflower and broccoli.
Obviously, it's working well for you guys. You've basically got the gecko equivalent of a French gourmet, right there! :)
Most leopard geckos are not picky but it's possible and I try to give sun many foods aka most of the things he can eat
Ah! Got it.
Didn't know some leos would stop eating their staple diet. Fortunately, that doesn't seem to have crossed Missy's mind--at least not yet.
@ghost sorry I ment he looked as big as the missy in the picture above lol @hub readers I little bit of advice is to let your Leo have a diet of more then 1 thing for example I give mealworms 1 day then crickets the next because some Leo's will stop eating their staple diet
Gecko owner: Uh...Gecko Owner, I'm puzzled. Sorry about what???
Will: You're welcome.
thanks gecko owner and ghost.
@ghost oh wow sorry!
@will great job! That's so great to hear
That's really great, Will. Love to hear those success stories.
Hi ghost, sorry it's been such a long time. peewee is doing amazing still and im very proud to say that ive weened him onto eating crickets! He eats mealworms as well. every night i feed him 2-4 crickets and 4-10 mealworms. and i couldnt be more happy on the leopard gecko i picked and how healthy and big hes getting. im so happy. i love him (or her) that still hasent been processed yet. Hehe. :)
Well, if that's nose-to-tip-of-tail, Sun is about 2/3 the length of our Missy (so far). Just checked, and she's right at 9 inches long.
About 6 inches
How big is Sun now?
I think sun is much older then I thought he was because I have only had him for a month and he is know shedding once a month and eating every other day know its the fun part of being suns owner seeing what gender he (sorry or she) is
Wow. Sat on her? OW!
But YAY! For the eating of baby crickets by hand! You're making good sense, going easy on the feeding. We've noticed that Missy (and Buddy before her) tend to stop when they're full. At least, her tail gets "so fat" and that's it; obesity is never a question. But yes, too much "rich food" all at once...you've got it right.
If she's blind in one eye, that would certainly impair her hunting ability and might even mean she'd need to be handfed "forever"...or maybe not. But we have observed that Missy is strictly a "sight hunter"; she pays absolutely no attention to any cricket that doesn't happen into her field of vision.
Thank you so much for all your advice! She seems to be doing a little better today. I talked to someone else who has one, and he said to try and feed her by hand. I held a baby cricket up to her lil mouth and she ate it! (4 in fact today!!) She hasn't eaten much in awhile, so I don't want to over do it. I'll try a few more tomorrow. I have a feeling she might be blind in one eye :( The poor little thing has had a hard life. One of the little girls even sat on her accidentally when she was a baby!!!! I soooo hope I can pull her through this.
Its just recommended to have 1 hide on the warm side a hide on the cooler side and a moist hide in the middle and I have had to replace them a few times each so anyway when you get a Leo get a nice big hide BUT not to big because sometimes when leopard geckos hide they like to be a little snug~
Gecko Owner: That's interesting indeed. We've never had but the one hide--for two successive geckos!
Sad New Leopard Gecko Owner: A vet might help, BUT a good herp vet isn't easy to find--or cheap, either.
Well...I don't believe I've ever "gone off the rails" on this Hub before, but there is one chance. That is, Pam and I would do it this way in your situation. If it sounds too ridiculous, forget I said it, okay?
1. You want to make sure there's a little water dish in there for her, whether she's eating or not.
2. Sing to her, talk to her, tell her how much you love her and that you know she can get well. (Look around for embarrassing witnesses first!)
3. Here's "Biggie #1": There's a spiritual master called Prajapati (pronounced "PRAW-JUH-POTTY") who works with animals. You could ask Prajapati to help your little gecko. I've done that in some pretty amazing circumstances, with good results.
4. There's a word in the English language--and every other language, too--though it's often "hidden" inside longer words. The word is "HU" (pronounced "hew" or like the name Hugh). It's an ancient name for Spirit. In English we see it in words like "human" (spirit-man)and "humor" (more spirit), for example. Chanting the Hu can help an animal be calm and "do the right thing".
One time in midsummer, I was in a hardware store in a small South Dakota town when a sparrow flew in and couldn't find the way back out. It was wildly fluttering about, coming up against the picture window glass, just generally having a panic-ridden time of it. The only other person in the store, a young clerk, was trying to "herd" it back out--with zero success.
"Let me try," I offered. He stepped back. I chanted the Hu softly: "Hu-u-u-u-u-u. Hu-u-u-u-u-u...." Approached the bird as it fluttered against the window glass. It calmed down. Let me bring the palm of one hand up under it, cup over with the other. Took it outside...AND IT DIDN'T WANT TO LEAVE. Finally explained to it that it had to go, tossed it gently into the air, and it took off.
5. Biggie #3: There's a blessing you can say. The wording I use is, "I bless this situation in the name of the Sugmad." (Sugmad being an ancient name for God.) If you're a Christian and uncomfortable with any "non-Christian" term for God, you could no doubt substitute. But the point is that you're blessing the situation--and letting the Creator decide what's supposed to happen, NOT trying to tell God what to do.
6. Back to "normal" advice: You mentioned that she won't eat but didn't say what sort of food(s) you've tried. If you've not already, I'd try finding (at a pet store) some of the tiniest crickets available at first.
I can't say any of this will or will not help her stay alive. But I've seen these methods work on a number of occasions when nothing else would do.
NOTE: The paper towels are FINE as a substrate. That's what we use, and have for years.
NOTE #2: She needs a place to "go hide". It doesn't have to be fancy--a little upside-down carboard box with pass-through doors cut in either end would work temporarily.
I am a nanny and a couple years ago the family I work for decided to get their daughters geckos. I begged them not to, as they are not animal people to begin with, and I haven't the slightest idea how to care for a gecko. As I figured, they didn't do well. The first one died about a year ago, and the other seems to be on her way out. I told the family that I was going to take her home, because I cannot watch her suffer like this anymore. (They rarely fed her, she always had dirty water, and super dirty sand) It was so depressing.
So... now I have her home with me. I have only paper towel as her substrate, because I'm not sure what else to use. She won't eat. She looks very malnourished for an adult gecko. She is very small and her arms are so tiny :(
Is there anything I can do to nurse her back to health?
Well... I don't actually know if it's a "her".... but the girls named her Rosie :)
Sun is about to shed AGIAN lol I wonder how big he will be.....also advise to all you readers when you get your leopard gecko get hides that he will fit in for the rest of his life *sigh* I have through about SIX hides for sun (my leo) just my 2 cents
Sounds like you've both got healthy eaters there!
Will same sun eats about 10 large mealworms I think sun is going to be a big boy lol
peewee ate 10 mealworms this morning! still doing great! hoping to get that new hide today.
Gecko owner and Will: Sounds like both of you are doing really well; keep up the good work! :)
hey ghost still going great i think his toe problem has gone away. hes doing great eating at least one mealworm a day im trying to get that up a little a few days ago he ate 6 mealworms in the morning. saturday im getting some more supplies and food and stuff.
:) I'm giving sun warm feet baths And the skin is coming of his (or hers) feet and I was looking up signs of healthy leopard geckos and sun passed all their "tests" I'm also very happy because sun loves being held actually when I go to set him (or her) back in the tank sun starts cuddling and try's to stay on but eventually sun comes off :)!
LOL, Ghost has a ghost writer.
What leopardgeckogirl said.
There is a possibility that they won't ever get along, and there is a possibility that they will be fine once they get a time out. Give them a couple weeks apart and then you can put them together and observe how they react. If they fight again I say keep they apart.
Thank you!,
I found a bite mark on the side of one yesterday so they have been seperated , Should they be seperated always now? or in time once they calm down is it ok to put them together?
Thanks again.
Could be "hormone time" (as in, one or both are reading for mating, but with no male to settle things, rowdiness ensues).
If the chasing is going on constantly, yes, by all means separate them. The one who's getting chased will obviously appreciate the separation, for sure.
I've had two female leopard gecko's in the same terrarium since they were both 2 months old and both from the same batch, its been almost a year now and they're both aroundd 8-9 inches long, recently they have been running every where and one has been chasing the other, curious to why and if its time to seperate them or will it pass?
Much thanks.
Gecko owner: If they hang in groups in the wild, you can bet there's only one dominant male in the bunch. Maybe a lot of them could be the big boss's daughters.
The only way I know of to determine a gecko's sex is to observe the underside near the base of the tail--but the two little bumps that mean a male are not visible when they're babies. Seems like they have to be 6 months of age (or so) for that. (Please don't quote me on that, though--if leopardgeckogirl stops by, she would probably know.)
BUT be careful how you "look". The pet store owner turned baby Missy over too look when she was getting her out to go wth us--and Missy did NOT appreciate that! I firmly believe it took her YEARS to learn to trust Pam and me totally BECAUSE of that one forced flip.
DanielV: Yes, I do know what you can do: BY ALL MEANS KEEP THEM IN SEPARATE TANKS. They don't need playmates like you or I might.
However, Missy does enjoy having SAFE NEIGHBORS. She'll sometimes stand up at the glass and go nose to nose with our Gato cat, KNOWING she's safe and more than willing to be friendly with the monster feline.
Based on that, you might put the two cages right next to each other so the geckos could SEE each other through the glass...as long as both of them have nice, invisible "hides" they can go to if they don't feel like socializing.
As for "what the problem is", it sounds like your "old" gecko is jealous of her turf and did NOT appreciate having a roommate dumped on her!
I just recently added a new female gecko in with my other female gecko. They are about the same size and weight. When I put in the new female gecko our old one went around and starte butting her tail! We immediately took her out. Do you know what the problem is or what we can do? ( they are in separate tanks now)
Update on sun
He is so big! And I want another leo because in the wild they are in groups and since I bought from a pet store I don't know what gender. Any other way to know? Sun is probably 2-3 months old and actually,he is about the size of missy in your picture up above (maybe a little bigger)
Gecko owner: Very glad to hear that. :)
Will: Please just remember: You may not be able to tell if they like each other till it's too late. I've read of situations where the smaller male was already dead or dying, yet the humans in the home never saw the attack(s). And the size of the cage will NOT help; a bully does not care how much space is involved.
leopardgeackogirl, thanks for the tips i will try bathing pewee and do what you recommended. and as for the 2 geckos if they dont like each other i will go out and get a second or upgrade their tank to a bigger one. im goin to upgrade
to a 20 long when they are adults any ways. :)
Sorry moist*
Wow I have a moist hide and I most it a bunch and he is getting much better and I tried that site and it helped to!
Not at all. Seems to me you just multiplied the value of this site exponentially. :)
I agree :) Glad to see you don't feel that I'm overstepping my bounds.
SPECIAL NOTE TO LEOPARDGECKOGIRL: I'm really enjoying your input here. Where the information you and I provide differs, readers get a nice, broad perspective from which to craft their own decisions. And of course where we agree completely (which appears to be the majority of the time), those same readers get "double confirmation".
Good work; I hope to see your posts accumulating on this page for some time to come. :)
Will: Glad to hear Peewee's doing better. Just be sure when you get your second gecko that you don't end up with two males.
Beccabluebear: We've never ever provided a moist hide, and Missy has no problem with that. We do keep a "bathtub" (low, shallow bathing dish) of water in there at all times, and she'll "wander" into it every once in a while, but that's about it.
For substrate, we go the "el cheapo" route and simply use paper towels. They have thicker, fancier ones at the auto parts stores (used for oil wipes) if the plain white Walmart types look too tacky to you. Or, according to recent posts by other readers, Repti-bark is another option.
Some people use the red lights; we don't use any. She gets along with the room light just like the rest of us--which is an ordinary incandescent (we refuse to have flourescent bulbs in our home) at night when I'm working and daylight from two windows during the day.
Oh! Beccabluebear, I completely missed your question about light lol. To be honest, neither. Recent scientific studies have proven that leopard geckos actually CAN see red and blue lights. It was thought for years that they couldn't. The BEST thing to get is a simple ceramic heat emitter. It provides GREAT heat without disturbing the nocturnal gecko with light and they last up to 5 years which is much cheaper than buying new bulbs all the time.
Beccabluebear, welcome to the addicting world of leopard geckos!! In response to your question, paper or Reptile Carpet is the best thing to use. Sand can cause excruciatingly painful impactions and kills thousands of leopard geckos every year. Yeah some people use it with no problem, but why even risk it??!! And yes, a moist hide is a great thing to have and is essential for a successful shed. I leave a moist hide in mine 24/7 and thats Zilla's hide of choice :) Think of it like you peeling from a sunburn and you are dying for aloe because your skin is itchy and driving you crazy. Thats what a moist hide is for a leopard gecko. Hope I helped you out! :)
Will, my gecko has that problem with his toes. What I do is put really warm (not hot) water in a container and let him walk around in it for a little bit and then I GENTLY!!! take a q-tip and rub the old skin off around his toes. And also, I'm not sure if you know, but males housed together will fight to the death. They are VERY territorial. And if you put a male and female together you better be prepared for lots of eggs. One mating can result in up to 18 eggs. And you CAN NOT put babies in with adults, they will eat them! And since males mature quickly and start fighting very young you have to separate them within 2 months. That's a total of up to 2 adults and 18 babies that will ALL need separate containers. Females can be housed together IF they can be positively identified as female and that can take months. You also have to watch for bullying. I say stick with your one buddy :) Things can quickly get out of control with a male and female and you would hate to lose Peewee in a fight.
I'm getting a leopard gecko soon and i'm wondering what to put down at the bottom of the tank! i'm afraid to use sand, but every website says to use sand! what would you use? Also does a loepard gecko need a MOIST hideaway too! And what kind of light should i use, dark light thats red or blue?
ghost, what geckoowner said i have that problem he shed a few days ago and the skin in his toes did not come off. it does look better now. and in a few months i will be getting a second leopard gecko to live with peewee and upgrade toa 20 gallon when they are adults.
No, you just went above my pay grade on that one. We've never experienced the problem.
So I went Googling. Looks like Leopard Gecko Guy is on it. Here's the link:
Hey ghost any advise on shedding suns feet are having a hard time shedding and I don't want one of his toes to fall off
In response to Maekwill, I believe by "jumbo" you are referring to a giant leopard gecko. First of all, you should know that these are not "little guys". Giants get up to a foot long. They will reach full length by the end of their first year. They need a MUCH bigger home than a 10 gallon. I would suggest a 25 gallon minimum.
I most certainly DO NOT MIND! :) Glad to have you aboard, in fact.
NOTE TO ALL READERS: LEOPARDGECKOGIRL WILL HAPPILY ANSWER QUESTIONS!
(Don't want folks missing your post.:)
There seem to be a lot of people with questions on here. I have owned very healthy leopard geckos (I only have one beautiful Tremper Albino pastel right now) and I consider myself quite the little authority on them. I will happily answer questions if Ghost doesn't mind :)
Cool.
HAha it's really cute, but he only started doing that after he got a bigger tank....very suspicious lolol but yeah it turns out he is actully a she so we might get another gecko and if that ones a girl we will put her in with my other gecko
LOL for the Army tank hide! That would be hilarious. Sounds like something the Geico gecko might do, when he's done country line dancing.
Haha yeah just. Little malfunction. But u was trying to say that if you look on petco.com there is a hide called the herp hotel and I strongly recommend it, my gecko has always been basking on top of it or hiding in it. Another great hide from petco is the army tank hide. It has two hides and a little hole for them to climb out of as if they were in the army
Sounds good, Will. In Missy's case, we also have a "cricket hide"--egg carton carboard, usually--because we toss so many in an once and expect a number of them to survive for days and sometimes weeks. But the gecko hide is definitely slick-surfaced inside.
hey ghost, last night i threw in about 7 crickets into peewee's cage he is deffinitely starting to take interest because he gets that expression where you see him breathing fast and staring at the food. i did not see him eat any but when i checked his poop after i got home from school i saw someting in it that looked either like a wing or a leg. i really want to ween him onto crickets because there have more nutritional value ill fedd a variety though. the problem was that the hide he spends the majority of his time in is a half coconut shell but when the crickets went into his cave he tried to go a fter them but they climed around the inside of the shell so next time i go to a petstore im gonna get a hide in which the crickets cant climb.
That's good to know. Sounds like a great product; thanks for the update.
Gecko owner 7 weeks ago
That's great!