Help a Mamma to be out?

onomatopoeia

New Member
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1
Location
Morgantown, West Virginia
Hey all! I'm brand new to this forum and still exploring so please bear with me while I try to find my way around! I've been a long time fur mom, and for the last 5 months, I've been a mom to a beautiful albino strawberry cornsnake. Getting Bellatrix Lesnake opened a floodgate of reptilian love I didn't know I had. This has brought me to almost 2 months of research on leopard geckos, which I plan on getting in less than a month. (I am SO EXCITED!)

My question for those who have had geckos for awhile now: Can you house two geckos in the same habitat? I keep getting mixed reviews on this. You see, a friend of mine kept 3 geckos in the same cage for FIFTEEN YEARS with no problem but everywhere I read says NO NO NO. What are your thoughts? If geckos start out at a young age together (like at a pet store), does that make a difference?

Thank you in advance for everything!

- Ono
 

acpart

Geck-cessories
Staff member
Messages
15,119
Location
Somerville, MA
welcome to GF and to the reptile world. This is a very interesting topic that has a full range of reactions, from, as you say "NO NO NO" to "socializing them early leads to successful co-habitation". I hope to do an article about this in Gecko Time as soon as I can get my two target gecko keepers to write it for me.
I am one who keeps leopard geckos in small groups. I even keep my males and females together (i.e. one male and 1-2 females) throughout the breeding season. Here is my advice on keeping leopard geckos in small groups:
--be sure you have all females in the group (unless you're planning to breed. I think there are situations where males can be kept together, but it's extremely risky and I'd say don't do it)
--use a large enough enclosure so that each gecko has a choice of hides (this doesn't necessarily mean 2 hides per gecko, but definitely more than 1 hide per gecko)
--Keep a close eye on them on an ongoing basis. In addition to outright aggression, look for more subtle signs of bullying such as one gecko losing weight, looking scratched up, or one gecko constantly sitting on another one no matter where she goes
--have back-up enclosures available in case you have to separate suddenly.

Aliza
 

Neon Aurora

New Member
Messages
1,376
Location
New Mexico
IMO, it works out sometimes and not others. I don't think there is any harm in trying, personally, as long as you have the means to separate right away if there is a problem at any point. Of course all geckos involved should be healthy, the same size, female, and using the correct quarantine period before putting them together. I was keeping two rescue geckos (both adults, good weight, female, healthy) together for about 1.5 years. Just last week they started fighting with some pretty good injuries on one of them so I separated them and don't plan on trying to house these two together again. I have no other experience with it other than these two females because I just prefer to keep them separate, though.

I'm also not big on keeping young geckos together. They grow at really variable rates and things can go not very well if one gets bigger than the other.

I agree with everything Aliza said.
 

DrCarrotTail

Moderator
Messages
3,590
Location
Ridgewood, NJ
I get a lot of questions at expos about this. I say yes you definitely can house two together but they prefer to live alone. Sometimes they hate each other on site or things can change suddenly when one female gets it into her head that she's done with roommates so you should always have a backup enclosure ready just in case. Best of luck!
 

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