Hello. New to this site and new to owning a Gecko

Hello. My name is Brian. My daughter is Greta, and she is 9 yrs old. She is so into animals of all kinds. I gave in to letting her have a Gecko. I'm glad I did! She's really cool! Of course, I do most of the feeding and such with her. We believe her to be a female because the tail is not very big. But we could be wrong. We did quite a bit of research before getting one. We set up the glass 20 gallon cage first and let it warm up before bringing the Gecko home. We decorated it with some items, and have two houses in it. I'm currently feeding her crickets. I have loading food for the crickets which they are eating, and calcium dusting powder for them. I do have a question though. My cage is only around 70 degrees. I have a heating pad under the left end of the cage, and a heating lamp above. She mostly stays in the tree decoration which is open under it. She's active if I remove the tree, but after putting it back, she goes right in it and stays there. I did observe her eating some crickets when the tree was removed, and she drank some water. I have not seen her do that since she hides under the tree. She seems healthy though. What I don't know is whether I should worry about the temperature or not in the cage. With additional heat added, she seems to go under the tree and stay out of any light. I originally had a bright white heating light, then switched to a red heating lamp. Then I added the under tank heating pad. I almost feel like by her behavior that she's getting too much heat. She is more active if I remove some of it. I think I'll leave that heating pad there though, as I've read they need it for digesting their food. She has many places she can go to get out of the light or heating pad, but never goes to the right side of the cage. I spray some mist on things in the morning to get some humidity in there, and have the half-moon split wood cover with moss under it. I keep the moss moist each morning. But the Gecko has never gone in it so far. I have some pictures I can post. What you all think? Do I have it all set up ok? Is the Gecko warm enough? Thanks for any help.

Welcome to GF and congrats on your cute gecko. I'm assuming you measured the 70 degree temp in the air. You need to get a digital thermometer with a probe and measure the temp on the ground on the hot side. If it's above the low 90's you'll need a thermostat or a rheostat (lamp dimmer). Do the new temp measurement and let us know.

I'm also one of the editors of Gecko Time (Gecko Blog: Breeder interviews, photo contests, gecko care | GeckoTime.com) and am working on an article where kids can write about their geckos. I'll have some specific questions soon. If your daughter is interested, email me at [email protected]

Aliza

Hello and welcome to the board!

Your gecko is still small, so it may be that she likes to go to the spot where she feels most secure. Looking at the three hides, the tree definitely seems like it would be the most snug and dark.

As Aliza mentioned, the goal is to get the temperature of the tank bottom to around 90 F on one side of the tank and let the other side be the cool side of the tank (in the 70s). That way, your gecko will be able to choose how warm she wants to be.

Welcome aboard!

Hello. Thanks for the replies. I got an Infrared thermometer and checked the area where the heat mat is located. It ranges from around 94 degrees to 102. I'll check it again and more thoroughly. It's not consistent or even heating where the pad is, which I figure is due to the heating wires located in the pad. I moved the tree to the cooler area just off from the heating pad. The gecko (Gloria) moved to the tree again, staying in there during the day. I also removed the above red lamp. I checked Gloria tonight when dark in the room, using a soft light to see what she's doing. She was out from the tree moving around where the heating pad is located. I think she likes this arrangement better. I will get a variable rheostat for the heating pad to lower the heat some to around 90 degrees. I don't think she needs the above heating lamp at all, she appears to be more active with out it. I will get the heating pad area lower, and experiment with putting the red lamp in again and check her activity. Strange thing I noticed was the area where the heating pad is, I felt it with my hand and it's warm but not hot like the temp says it is. I think the thermometer is pretty accurate though. I'll trust it's measurements for now.

Sounds like a good plan! For the red lamp, you may just want to turn it on when you want to view her or have it on a timer so it only runs for a few hours at the beginning of the night and goes off around the time you go to bed. This will give her some hours of total darkness too.

Hello. I made some changes to the Gecko's home tonight. Added some more stuff, put tile on floor, and attached a light dimmer control to the heating pad. Temperature is much better now. She should be happy with this setup..

Looks very cool! She should like that there are more places to hide.

Made changes

Hello all.

I made some changes recently. I added a larger UTH to the tank. It wasn't getting up to temp before, staying around 80-85 degrees. Not bad, but not what I want. Too small a UTH. I went with a 8"x12" size one now. The Gecko hasn't eaten in a while, but last night I put a wax worm and some meal worms in a small container by her door to the tree dark hide. I don't see any of them today, so I'm assuming she ate them! She hasn't come out for water that I have observed, so tonight I put a very small cap from a bottle filled with water under her hide. She stays under that tree hide all the time that I've seen. I had a suggestion from another post that I cover the tank so she doesn't see the outside. That might be a good idea, maybe she's freaked out to where she doesn't leave the hide. So I hung paper over the tank and will see how that works. It sure can be a testing period with them. I know now to have the tank at the temperature you want before getting one. It's more difficult than I realized to maintain the right temp in there. Thanks for all the help and replies.

Brian

Great to hear that everything is going well. Once you get the temps set, just remember to check them periodically as the weather changes, especially if you're using a dimmer rather than a thermostat. The environmental temperature can change the temperature inside the tank.

I wouldn't worry too much if your new gecko is hiding a lot. It can take them a while to feel comfortable enough to explore; some are braver than others. Just be patient and take it slow with handling, and I'm sure she'll grow into a wonderful adult.