Leopard Geckos

Okay, so I've been thinking about expanding to several other snake species as well as adding more florida kings, and the other day for whatever reason I ended up looking at some leo pics.

I confess I've been interested in them before, but it was just a momentary thing and I never persued it. I think that perhaps this time I might---but we'll see.

Being too lazy to search other forums and wanting information spood fed to me, I demand to know some of the basics. I've read some things---higher temp than corns, need a 'humid box', eat crickets/mealworms/waxworms/etc, and some of the basic breeding information as far as cohabing them, but I'm curious as to what others do. I know there's a few of you on here that keep them, so tell me a little bit about em.

The only thing I'll add is that you have to check their toes carefully after each shed. Left-over skin can cause problems, acting as a focus for infections, or constricting blood supply so they lose toes.

They're cute...I almost got infected with Gargoyle Gecko at the Orlando show, but I escaped.

Nanci

Joejr14 said:

Being too lazy to search other forums and wanting information spood fed to me, I demand to know some of the basics.

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This is absolutely PRICELESS and MUST be saved for future reference!

Susan said:

This is absolutely PRICELESS and MUST be saved for future reference!

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Hey now, I SPECIFICALLY put that in there for Dean!!


In all seriousness, I've read a lot of caresheets and have picked up a lot of the basics. I'm just looking for some personal opinions rather than that of a caresheet.

Joejr14 said:

Hey now, I SPECIFICALLY put that in there for Dean!!

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Hah! Open wide-- here comes the airpwane! Rrrrrrroooooooooowwwwww! :grin01:

Joejr14 said:

Hey now, I SPECIFICALLY put that in there for Dean!!


In all seriousness, I've read a lot of caresheets and have picked up a lot of the basics. I'm just looking for some personal opinions rather than that of a caresheet.

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Well, I know this is a snake forum and I know I'm new here, but I'll let you hear my opinion.

Leo's are amazing little guys. You'll absolutely love yours. Aside from "maybe" a Chameleon, they're my favorite lizard to watch eat. I compare them to panthers of the lizard world.

As for Husbandry, here are a few things that I personally do to keep mine healthy.

Three Hides - 1 cool, 1 mid-temp gradient, 1 warm. Make sure that you keep the hide on the cool side moist at all times. Fill it with an absorbant substrate like moss or you can do what I do -- fill it with a bunch of paper towels. Cheap and no chance of impaction. Make sure you re-wet it once a day.

Plastic Bottle Cap of Calcium w/D3 - I dust my mealies, supers, and crickets before-hand, but having a standing cap full of the minerals of your choice helps ensure that they're getting the proper vitamins. They DO lick it up so keep one filled up in their viv.

Feeding - I keep various greens that I feed my Beardie in their viv all day, plus I throw a goodly heap of mealies in a bowl for them to eat. My Leos (and Leos in general) don't eat more than their fill, so it gives them access to food through various parts of the day.

Retained Sheds - As a snake owner, I'm sure you're no stranger to retained sheds. Geckos suffer from it too, and in my opinion are probably the worst off for a retained shed - losing toes, eyes, tails, etc. Keep that cool hide MOIST! As long as you wet it down every day, you'll be golden.

Good Health Indicator - Leos are supposed to have FAT tails. That's where they store their extra food, so if you're buying an adult make sure his tail is at least the size of his neck or larger. If it's smaller, you've probably got a Leo with eating problems, mites, etc.

Other than that, just handle them often like your other reptiles. They really are fun little lizards and they're VERY addictive. With all their color morphs, I'm sure they're about as addictive as Corns. :dgrin:

- Matt

What that guy said about the husbandry. :grin01:

I'm also going to be getting a group of Leos from a co-worker this year. I had some a while ago, but I re-located them when the snake population of my apartment starting swelling.

Matthew said:

Plastic Bottle Cap of Calcium w/D3 - I dust my mealies, supers, and crickets before-hand, but having a standing cap full of the minerals of your choice helps ensure that they're getting the proper vitamins. They DO lick it up so keep one filled up in their viv.

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With Matthew's advice, I do disagree with this section. I disagree because of what my leo just recently went through and per my vet, as leos will lick everything & anything as that's part of their nature, they really only need a good calcium dose -- pure calcium, not with D3 as they are noctural creatures & do not need the D3 because their body won't be processing it because they don't generally have access to natural light during the daytime -- once a week. Perhaps more if they're younger & readying for reproduction, but adults only need it once a week. I had a container with pure calcium in her tank for her most of the time & she developed a blocked parotid gland which caused pharyngitis in her...here's the link to what my Flaca went through because of the easy-access calcium:
Paranoid posting: swollen head in leopard geckos (This is linked to The Source forum, because I received more responses there & I included more updates...I did post the same here, but received a few responses & I didn't make as many updates...)

Sorry, I didn't mean to submit that response right away...whoops.

By no means am I implying that Matthew is giving bad or inaccurate advice, I just happen to do a few things differently. With all of the research that I did do on my leos and with talking with my vet, I was told that I do the "boring, basic, safe" stuff, but I was also told by him, "it's boring, but boring is good". I don't give my leos greens like I do for my beardie & I have 2 hides -- one that is moist papertowels (in a clean, plastic take-out food container ), which is also warm (over the UTH) to create the humidity that they need. Their cool hide is simply a rock on the cool side.

One of my leos is great with shedding -- the other has problems with her toes, so sometimes I have to soak her feet and use a Q-Tip to gently roll the skin off. (I adopted my two girls & they had all kinds of problems when I got them, including emaciation...)

They have paper towel substrate and they are fed a combination of mealworms, some crickets (though my girls are LAZY!) and occasional phoenix worms to give them a little extra calcium. I keep fresh water in their tanks & my two girls live separately.

I think the neatest thing about leos is that they'll pick one corner of their tank to poo & always/only do it there. If the water dish is in the way, water dish bedarned. Rosa would poop in it until I finally moved it (a day later, when I found the poop!, of course!)...and then she kept right on in that same corner.

My girls are good girls...they're sweet, gentle & have the loveliest eyes. I love watching them eat...

Good luck with yours! :cheers:

Cegninedorf said:

By no means am I implying that Matthew is giving bad or inaccurate advice, I just happen to do a few things differently.

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Yep, and I take no slight at someone doing something differently than me, or disagreeing with my advice. He did ask for our opinions and I'm glad to see he's getting more than one (although that can be a problem in-of-itself).

NICE catch on the D3, though. Damn, I didn't even notice I missed the "o". That was supposed to be *w/o D3! My bad on that one!

I'm honestly going to have to read up a little more on blocked glands - I've kept calcium in their tanks for a couple years with no ill effects.

I'm assuming that varies from Leo to Leo, as my Herp vet advised me to keep plenty of it in their viv in order to help prevent MBD. Might have possibly been an isolated incident?

In any case, I'm sorry to hear about your loss!

- Matt

PS: I LOVE their eyes too. Baddest ass eyes ever, imo.

Matthew said:

Yep, and I take no slight at someone doing something differently than me, or disagreeing with my advice. He did ask for our opinions and I'm glad to see he's getting more than one (although that can be a problem in-of-itself).

NICE catch on the D3, though. Damn, I didn't even notice I missed the "o". That was supposed to be *w/o D3! My bad on that one!

I'm honestly going to have to read up a little more on blocked glands - I've kept calcium in their tanks for a couple years with no ill effects.

I'm assuming that varies from Leo to Leo, as my Herp vet advised me to keep plenty of it in their viv in order to help prevent MBD. Might have possibly been an isolated incident?

In any case, I'm sorry to hear about your loss!

- Matt

PS: I LOVE their eyes too. Baddest ass eyes ever, imo.

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Oh, no, I'm sorry that I gave the impression that Flaca -- my blocked-up gal -- died...she's still kicking it. She's quite the lil'bad-butt herself...

I did worry about MBD, as well...that's why I was making sure that my girls did get enough calcium, especially as the previous owner indicated that she gave them a dusting on their once-a-week dozen-or-so crickets (yup, for my 2 girls, who were in the same tank...), and it was calcium WITH D3....
So, as my vet said, I overdid it with the calcium...enough that her parotid blocked. Apparently, in talking with other leo owners, it doesn't happen that often, but per my vet's nonchalance, it happens more often than I think owners realize.

I know what you mean about too many opinions...it was frustrating when I first started out with researching...the ones that bothered me the most were the know-it-alls who tried to make me feel guilty because 15 other websites and a few manuals agreed with the info I was going by! Oh, well...it was good to talk with my vet, get his approval on my husbandry, and I think with how my girls look and have responded to me, that all is going well...

By the way, this is Flaca (foreground -- look at her nasty toes! she's about 4 years old here...) & Rosa (about 2 years old) originally...


And my pretty girl, Flaca, now, still with a slight swelling on her head (above her right eye...), but looks much healthier now:


And, Rosa, whose tail is dwarfed in size in comparison to Ms Flaca's...


Thanks! And Joe, you'll love having & watching these lil'guys...just like the snakes, once you get the set-up going, it's not so difficult thereafter...they definitely are fun to have.

:wavey:

Feeding - I keep various greens that I feed my Beardie in their viv all day, plus I throw a goodly heap of mealies in a bowl for them to eat. My Leos (and Leos in general) don't eat more than their fill, so it gives them access to food through various parts of the day.

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Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?! Leopard Geckos aren't herbivorous. They're insectivorous. Are you sure you're talking about Eublepharis Macularius?
:shrugs:

Leos are pretty easy. We have our set up in a sweater box rack system. I keep about four females together in one tub....the males are housed separately. I use show box Tupperware with _________(fill in type of moss) in order for them to have a humid hide. I keep Calcium in the cage in a jar lid and feed mealworms daily. The females have grown up together, usually when I get new girls I house them separately until I have a few hours to watch them together to make sure they aren't going to fight. Pretty simple stuff.....much easier than my dragons and they come in much better colors.

The giants that I got a few months ago are also very personable.....the female actually seems to enjoy being held occasionally. Hope this helps.

blckkat said:

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?! Leopard Geckos aren't herbivorous. They're insectivorous. Are you sure you're talking about Eublepharis Macularius?
:shrugs:

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I felt the same way upon reading the given advice, but I didn't want to ruffle any feathers, so my response was a subtle...

Cegninedorf said:

I don't give my leos greens like I do for my beardie

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...just kinda tucked into my response. But I did wonder about that, as well.

westexherps said:

The females have grown up together, usually when I get new girls I house them separately until I have a few hours to watch them together to make sure they aren't going to fight. Pretty simple stuff.....much easier than my dragons and they come in much better colors.

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Westex, can I ask you a question that has to do with your females? Are they not eating as much of late? My girls are miffing food...I'm still very new to owning leos (I got both of my girls in July...) and this is my first winter-spring with them. They just don't want to seem to eat. This is normal, right? About how long does this last? Thanks!

Geckos are great.. here is one of my leos. This guy is of course one of my albinos. I just find that many of the high end morphs are just to pricey and just a bit over priced. But I will tell you they have personality. This guy will come out of his hide when its lunch time. He is a passive gecko and does like to be held. Some our others not so much. I say get some

I dunno about this gecko thing. I got one after hearing a lot of great things about Leos but so far I'm not too sure I like this dude. He doesn't seem to do much other than hide out and he is a biter. He's got cool eyes and is fun to watch when he hunts crickets, but other than that, I'm not sure what the appeal is. :shrugs:
Am I missing something?

SnakeNbake said:

I dunno about this gecko thing. I got one after hearing a lot of great things about Leos but so far I'm not too sure I like this dude. He doesn't seem to do much other than hide out and he is a biter. He's got cool eyes and is fun to watch when he hunts crickets, but other than that, I'm not sure what the appeal is. :shrugs:
Am I missing something?

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LOL some say the same thing about snakes. :grin01:

For temperatures, 78-80ºF ambient and 88-90ºF warm side seem to work well.

Agreed, Trickster :grin01:
I get the feeling he just needs more time to adjust and eventually he'll settle down and stop trying to kill me.

Then again, I said that about Sir Killsalot. Oy.