• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Meet spike - more pics in post #11

A

Alicia P

New member
On June 7th we got a Leopard Gecko. His owners were moving and couldn't keep him anymore. They knew his morph was a Las Vegas albino and seemed to know how to tell me to take care of him (which I already knew b/c I researched before commiting) but he was in a tank with 4 inches of dirty calcium sand and is supposed to be 3 yrs old in Aug but he only weighed in at 71 grams. He's been getting as many mealworms or dubia roaches as he wants at a time and I also gave him a dose of dewormer. He is very fond of his calcium dish, which probably means he was lacking, but he walks well so hopefully there's no long term damage. He also had quite a bit of shed stuck to his toes and 2 were already missing. He's had a couple soaks and the worst is off, there's still a bit near a couple of his toe nails. He has a humid hide filled with sphagnum moss so my fingers are crossed his next shed goes smoothly.

If there's anything else I could be doing for this handsome guy let me know :)

A few pics (which hopefully aren't huge, I'm mobile and can't resize atm)

20130616_193413.jpg


20130625_131226.jpg


20130625_131317.jpg
 
Last edited:
Doh, what a cute little face. You've got quite a looker there. I'm glad he was taken off that horrible Calci-sand and put in a well set up viv. I think you'll be a great owner for Spike :D and you definitely have done your homework!

How's he handle?
 
He's a little flighty when you first pick him up but he settles right down. I was worried how he was going to react when I put him in the sink with a little water to let his toes soak but he was awesome about it.
 
If the shed continues to be stubborn, and if you're ever worried about dehydration, try looking up a good ratio for a pedialyte soak. Keepers do this with leopard geckos, among other geckos to allow them to re hydrate by absorbing the liquid through their vent. Make sure to do the plain flavor if you do, and dilute it properly.

I'm so glad you've decided to take on this lovely creature. I love hearing happy endings to herps that were kept under improper husbandry.
 
Thank you for the pedialyte tip! If he doesn't start a shed cycle soonly I was planning on doing another soak.
 
Can you possibly get some clearer shots of Spike? He looks like a tremper albino vs a rainwater albino. 71 grams isn't too bad either. A mere 10 years ago 71 grams was considered a massive leopard gecko, with females back then averaging 45-60 grams and males around 50-70. With giant genes and hine line hypo/ carrot tail genes, many leos now are capable of averaging 70-90grams, more for super giants. Couple this with many feeding exclusively mealworms (super high in fat) and many leos are obese little pigs these days where 71grams seems tiny.
 
HerpsOfNM said:
Can you possibly get some clearer shots of Spike? He looks like a tremper albino vs a rainwater albino. 71 grams isn't too bad either. A mere 10 years ago 71 grams was considered a massive leopard gecko, with females back then averaging 45-60 grams and males around 50-70. With giant genes and hine line hypo/ carrot tail genes, many leos now are capable of averaging 70-90grams, more for super giants. Couple this with many feeding exclusively mealworms (super high in fat) and many leos are obese little pigs these days where 71grams seems tiny.
Click to expand...
I will make an attemp at better photos tomorrow. It's good to know he's at a decent weight. His tail is plump'ish but I think he could use a few grams of extra padding. If I fail at capturing his color I'll at least post a better body shot ;)
 
Not sure how better these are, but they are at least smaller lol

This one looks a bit pinkish on my screen.


This one looks the most true to color on my screen


And this one is just cute, he decided under the black fabric was better than on it :D
 
He's on the darker side of what I'm use to for a Rainwater (las vegas) albino. It's possible there's some Mack snow there causing the darker appearance. Eyes are generally a great way to tell the 3 strains (Tremper, Rainwater, and Bell) of albino leopard geckos apart, particularly as hatchlings. Older animals can be tougher to distinguish, at least between Rainwater and Tremper strains when the 2 happen to look similar in skin coloration. Rainwater pupils are so dark that they appear black; Tremper and Bell strains have pink iris with red pupils with Tremper strains developing a silver iris with a red or dark red pupil.

I'm on my ipad at the moment and am pulling the lazy card on walking the 20 ft to the pc to load up images, plus my wife and i are bored with what's on directv so we've popped in a movie. Lol

He's definitely got good weight, maybe stand putting on a few more grams looking at his pelvis (looks a tad thin there, but far from bad); it could also be the angle. The tail is pretty filled out, some just don't get a massively wide tail. Back to his pelvic region, great fat deposit there would show as kind of like a loaf of bread with a crease down center. Think of it like the small of our back, good adipose fat will form on either sides of the spine.
 
Thank you!! His pupil is definitely dark and his iris is sort of silvery? depending on light. I weighed him this afternoon and he weighs 76 grams now. I went back through my messages and the girl I got him from said they were feeding him 6 crickets a day. I've been letting him eat as much as he wants in a 30 min period.
 
Sounds about right for Rainwater eyes. I was recently given a Tremper albino after not having one in my collection for 10+ years (LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG story, but a line I refuse to work with and drama I just need to let go). I'll see how possible cooperative she'll be about letting me get a macro shot of her eye tomorrow. I already have Rainwater shots, I just have to see if I have them loaded up on my Comcast webspace or if I need to upload them off an external HD.

6 crickets is a little weak for an adult gecko. I do that for animals coming out of brumation (yes, I brumate my leos...this shocks some), similar concept as with snakes, wean them up to larger prey over time after coming out. I've got large males and a few large females that'll take 14-20 crickets a sitting, every other day.

I also personally feed almost exclusively crickets. My wife isn't crazy about be going to feeder roach species, yet, and I use mealies and supers as treats and for getting extra fat stores on geckos for breeding. I find the crickets allow me to keep the geckos looking more lean, or better described as more physically fit looking. As I hinted earlier, so many breeders/keepers feed exclusively mealies and the result is fat little piggies of geckos. They look like the gecko version of the morbidly obese dog/cat on those weight posters you see in vet offices.
 
My male RW albino's eye...
RWAlbEye.jpg


My female's eye...
RWAlbEye-resize50.jpg


My RW male, great grandgecko to "Max" the original RW albino.
KH-01-1M.jpg


My portly RW hybino, possibly the great great grandgecko to my original RW male...
PSJE-XX-1M.jpg
 
Spikes eyes look like that just less red veining, and his coloring is very similar to the first male you posted. My photo skills need work lol. He's been being fed every other day here and I've been rotating him between mealies and dubias. Sun he got mealies, Tue he got dubias, today he got mealies. Hopefully he won't get to chubby on that schedule. Roaches I can do - jumpy, noisy, stinky crickets gross me out lol
 
that should be fine for feeding. Roaches are an amazing food source, lots of protein and just as digestible as crickets IIRC. I do seem to recall Allen Repashy mentioning something about too much protein for insectivores, but it might have been a gutloading thing vs actual prey items.

I like the noisy crickets :D But that's a childhood thing from when I lived back in SC and would sleep with my window cracked at night. If music didn't put me to sleep, then listening to the chorus of crickets would. Stink...I use bran flake on the bottom of my bins and clean them weekly; they still have a distinct odor, but so do my mealie bins.

Photo skills...

http://curiositaellya.blogspot.com/2012/06/photography-study-lighting-and.html

But I'm also using 2 wireless flashes. If I'm getting photos of something that doesn't like flashes then I'll use the clamp lamps shown in the above link with 100w equivalent CFLs at 6500k temp (GE Daylight CFLs). I have to let the CFLs warm up about 30 minutes to get to full brightness, I also have to use a tripod, set camera on timer and hope my scalely subject doesn't move.
 
hit submit instead of preview....

my softbox isn't quite like that, but close. I used a solid white bed sheet that I cut then hem stitched to fit taut over the pvc.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top