New Leo Geckos!!!

[K. Rene]

So we have had out first little leopard gecko (Gemma) for almost 6 months now and we love her to death. We decided having a few more wouldn't hurt so I found these girls on craigslist for 60 with their set up. They were in a 20 long on tile (not really sure if that was best) with hides, water dish (that had spilled), dish with calcium, dish with really small meal worms (we feed Gemma giant meal worms) and a sketchy UTH set up. The tank hadn't been cleaned in a while so it kinda stunk.

When I got home I put them in a container with a damp wash cloth to kinda clean them off while I sat up the tank and cleaned stuff. I put them in a clean 10 gal with vita-sand, cleaned their hides and water dish. I have a 15 gal I just need to get a screen lid for I will put them in later. Both appear healthy, alert, bright open eyes, no stuck sheds, nice fat tails, nostrils look good, all digits accounted for etc. but I have them all the way in the kitchen away from the other reptiles in "quarantine" for a while.

Both are females about 1.5 yrs old. The owners were re-homing them because they weren't getting much attention, due to the new human baby in the house (I told my BF we will pay someone to care for our critters when we have a newborn because I'm not giving up any of them!) So I think they will be much happier in our care. I believe one is a Murphy's Patternless and the other, spotty one, a Hypo Tangerine? can anyone confirm? No official names yet, but I wanted to name Gemma, Geisha so I think the spotty one will have that name and maybe Zodi for the patternless... Thanks for reading, here are a few pics

 

[reptile65]

Nice leos! I would recommend getting rid of the sand ASAP. You'll be better off with paper towels or ceramic tile, IMO.

 

[K. Rene]

Nice leos! I would recommend getting rid of the sand ASAP. You'll be better off with paper towels or ceramic tile, IMO.

Thank you. As per your recommendation, the breeder we got Gemma from uses sand and since that's what they are in/on in the wild it's the substrate we choose to use, it had worked just fine for our other leo and is easy to spot clean. I do appreciate your opinion though, if we all did everything the same the world would be pretty lame :/

 

[Jdog3131]

Very nice leo's.I love the last picture.

if we all did everything the same the world would be pretty lame

So true

 

[VickyChaiTea]

A leopard gecko does not live on sand dunes, or loose sand like that in the enclosure. They live in areas that include packed dirt, gravel, and some sand. Scrubland, if you will. It's perfectly fine to keep them on as long as they are NOT fed on it. If ingested, it can realistically block their intestines (seen it myself, not pretty) and kill them. Sometimes they pass the sand, sometimes they don't and it builds up. Pretty much a ticking time bomb.

Tile is fine, along with reptile carpet or paper towels. Just something to remain dry and take out the risk of impaction.

Also, for their diet, variety is really important. Offer crickets or feeder cockroaches as a staple, and mealworms/superworms/waxworms/whatever else as variety. Mealies are high in fat and not much else, and can result in shorter lived leos.

I looooove loes and they're little smiling faces. <3 Yours look great.

 

[ceduke]

They're beautiful Kelsie! I'm glad you decided to get them!

I do concur with tossing the sand, as a vet tech, I got a lot of impacted animals whose owners said "but I've always used sand!!" as their pet wasted away.

 

[K. Rene]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I think I will put in a piece of ceramic tile to feed them on so they wont ingest any sand when feeding.

 

[Outcast]

Those are pretty. If you look in my albums here you will see my girl. I had originally thought that she was a he. She looks a lot like the one in the second picture.

 

[ceduke]

I keep coming back to these pics Kelsie...makes me want one...

 

[4riscorn]

Love the last pic..so cute!

 

[K. Rene]

I keep coming back to these pics Kelsie...makes me want one...

Awe you should get one, or two they really are sweet. I think Gemma might be the prettiest though (don't tell the others)

Love the last pic..so cute!

Thanks Gini, Allen just took a pic tonight of Geisha (the spotty one) 'sleeping' in an odd position, they are so funny. Will post the pic tomorrow

 

[K. Rene]

As promised here is the pic of Geisha in some sort of leopard gecko yoga position. Not really sure if that's the most comfortable position... but whatev it's really cute

Also for the patternless one I was kind of wanting to stick with G names so what do you all think of naming her Gensing?

 

[RosieReal]

geckos are so awsome...i've wanted cresties for a long time, but leo's are cute too! Everytime it comes down to getting one of these critters, i end up with another snake...but still. I love seeing everyone elses! Congrats on the new additions. They're beauties!

 

[Floof]

I'm actually kind of impressed the previous owners had their gumption together enough to choose tile (non-particle, no impaction risk) over sand (the "obvious" choice to 99% of owners that don't research--no offense to you). I personally hate, hate, hate sand for anything, for the same reasons mentioned above.

As for "Oh, they live in sand in the wild, so it's ok," you hear the same thing with bearded dragons (my primary background in four-legged herps), yet you are constantly seeing beardies (and leopard geckos, too, mind you--this phenomenon isn't even remotely limited to dragons) impacted with sand. It can lead to death if it's not caught in time. Heck, it can lead to death even if it is caught early. It's high-risk; you can do it for years with no problem, sure, but "when things go wrong they REALLY go wrong"; and there's not a great deal of benefit to the animal--just the owner (looks and maintenance)... Not unlike cohabbing snakes in those aspects, really.

If you choose to use sand, fine, just be very, very careful, watch for any signs of impaction, and be ready to jump on it as soon as there's a possibility--especially with the ones used to living on a substrate they can't eat (tile). I choose not to use sand for any of my animals, in any form, because I really don't want to deal with the risk (nor can I afford extra vet bills if my haphazard choice backfires--same reasons I don't cohab or feed live to my snakes), but that's my decision. If you feel the risk is worth it to you, have at... Just be warned.

If looks is why you use it, look into slate tile. It has the same nice-looking, "natural" effect as sand, but without the risks (and, debatably, more "natural" to the animal than sand, anyway--in reference to VickyChaiTea's post). I used slate tile for awhile for my beardies, and plan to switch my newest beardie rescue (a juvenile) to it pretty quick here, and loved it. Only problem was cleaning up the poop, since it's BIG, and they like to tromp through it and spread it everywhere if you don't get to it immediately... Little snots, LOL. That's not something you have to really deal with in leos (or juvenile beardies, which is why I'll be using it for him), though, since their poo's are small and dry up nice and fast.

Oh geeze. I meant to throw in one quick comment on the sand issue and wound up writing a mini novel. LOL. I'll shut up now. Your new ladies are gorgeous, and I agree, incredibly healthy-looking!! What a lucky find!

And, lol @ Rosie! I have the same problem. The last couple times I thought, OK, I'm getting a Crestie this time! I wound up coming home with a snake instead. (Which is for the better with how this fall is going--I keep turning off the AC and turning on the heater at night, since our t-stat will only let us have one on/ready to go at a time, and then forgetting to turn the AC back on in the morning, so it gets 80-85 in the house while I'm at work... Uhhh, fried Crestie, anyone???)

 

[ShenziSixaxis]

Haha, nice pictures. Love the yoga one.


So if sand is supposedly the worst substrate ever for leos, then what loose substrate could you use? I've seen set ups (mainly in a book) with rock, gravel, etc like what they live on in the wild, but that's probably pretty heavy.

 

[SquamishSerpents]

haha i definitely love the yoga pose, leos are the cutest!

i use reptile carpet for my leos because there is zero risk of impaction, and when it gets dirty you just throw it in the washing machine!

personally i would never use a loose substrate for leos, too much effort to clean and too high-risk.

*edit* maaaaybe i would consider aquarium gravel, if it was fine enough that crickets/worms couldn't burrow, but coarse enough that there wouldn't be any risk of them ingesting it. still though, it would be way too much work to clean

 

[Floof]

Haha, nice pictures. Love the yoga one.


So if sand is supposedly the worst substrate ever for leos, then what loose substrate could you use? I've seen set ups (mainly in a book) with rock, gravel, etc like what they live on in the wild, but that's probably pretty heavy.

I wouldn't call sand the "worst substrate ever" for leos. Or for anything. You could house them on things like aquarium gravel or crushed walnut shell or corn cob... All even worse impaction risks, being rougher-edged and bigger particles, plus rough (I imagine uncomfortable, if a reptile can feel "uncomfortable" in ways other than temp/humidity) and, in the case of gravel, hard to dig into. So sand is certainly not the "worst" substrate. Just not a good one.

Personally, I wouldn't use any loose/particle substrate with something like a leopard gecko or a bearded dragon with the tendency to "eat" the substrate when they catch their crickets/mealies/roaches or just when exploring their surroundings (since both tend to "taste" their surroundings with big, fat tongues that are very good at picking up particles of whatever they "taste" resulting in, of course, substrate ingestion). I can't really think of any substrate that would be really digestible to these animals... Even the "vita" and "calci"-sand products aren't truly digestible. Maybe a little moreso than standard silica sand, but not enough to prevent impaction. The only way you can guarantee that your animal can't eat and get impacted from their bedding is if you use something that they can't fit in their mouths in the first place: Tile, carpeting, non-stick shelf-liner, that sort of thing.

 

[SquamishSerpents]

just wanted to add that when i worked in a pet store, Repti-Sand (can't remember the brand) was a very popular substrate...that stuff is like freaking clumping kitty litter! would not even want that in MY digestive tract, thank you very much!

 

[Floof]

just wanted to add that when i worked in a pet store, Repti-Sand (can't remember the brand) was a very popular substrate...that stuff is like freaking clumping kitty litter! would not even want that in MY digestive tract, thank you very much!

LOL. Good point. I was thinking the same thing when I mentioned corn cob bedding... We have cats up for adoption where I work, and the rescue usually uses a corn cob litter. That stuff clumps like CRAZY. Major selling point for it as a kitty litter, but I can't imagine using that as an actual bedding! I guess the larger particle corn cob beddings wouldn't clump nearly as well as the much smaller particle litters, but it still kind of gets you thinking when you see how well that particular material can clump. Yikes.

It is a shame how popular the sands are, all things considered--especially when you think about how uneducated most pet store customers are about their animals, having absolutely no idea what to watch out for with signs of impaction. Fortunately, I work at a pretty decent pet store with rather knowledgeable employees, so most of us usually stop to talk to anyone buying the reptile sands, and when it comes to selling any reptiles that are often kept on sand, we go through the pros and cons, explain why we don't use sand, and just recommend reptile carpet. The combination of these factors makes it a less popular substrate at least in this area, though we still do get people who are just stubborn about it or insist on trying it anyway or what-have-you...

 

[Jessicat]

Awww, those guys are just the cutest! Congrats on the new additions. They look happy in their new home.