What have you done for/with your Leo today/recently?

[cstone]

We have a thread like this on most forums that I'm a part of and I thought it would be fun to do it here as well.

Here's the basic idea, this is a thread to share anything from buying or making a new decoration to letting your Gecko play outside. You can share things that are too small to make a separate thread about or things that deserve a full DIY thread (just a small sample of the project in this case please). Pictures are ALWAYS welcome and almost required for any cool DIY projects

Not only can it be fun just to see what everyone has done, but this can also be a great place for people to come to get ideas without having to comb every new thread.

Rules:
1. Try to stay on topic. If you have a quick question about someone else's post feel free but please don't post here with a question about something else.
2. Be nice. If you don't like something someone does or says, move on to the next post. I don't want this to be filled with arguments. Feel free to offer friendly advice, but no poor attitudes.
3. Nothing is too big or too small to post here.
4. HAVE FUN!

Mods:
If this isn't allowed or you don't like some of the rules or have more you would like to add please let me know

I'll start us out...

On Saturday I was shopping for moving supplies on Amazon and "had" to throw a new digital thermometer in the cart to qualify for free Prime shipping. It should be here on Wed. Later, I went to the petstore looking for pure calcium (now I realize I should have gotten that instead of the thermometer...) and couldn't find any but I came home with some waxworms anyways as a treat (Raka was a very happy gecko BTW).

 

[leopard love]

Well I went out and got my gecko a climbing stick branch and went looking for a new heat mat since I thought the one I had wasnt good. Well after no luck at any pet stores everyone was sold out of the medium size I went home to find out that my mat does work good the thermometer probe was not on the hot side my gecko must have moved it hahaha now I need to buy food. But also I bought crickets and they died the next day never happened to me before they last almost 2 week I feed them and everything

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[Herbiebug]

Hello gecko forums. I am new here and new to reptiles as well. After much researchings, I decided to start with a leo. Just picked him up yesterday. He is sub-adult, getting pretty close to full grown.



Today I covered the left side of his tank so he doesn't have light shining into his cool hide all the time.

 

[cstone]

Congrats on your new friend Herbiebug!

I installed Raka's new digital thermometer last night. She was feeling a little feisty at the time and decided to hunt the probe for about half an hour, it was hilarious. She would walk around one side of a rock and stalk her "prey" then lick it when she got near then she would walk away and come back around the other side of the rock. Lol! Timing couldn't have been better for the thermometer as the weather just decided to act like spring yesterday.

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[sausage]

This is my smiley, little fatty Peanut, shes a 6 yr old tangerine carrot tail. out for a walk

 

[trinity]

Love smiley!

 

[Herbiebug]

Good news for today! Leto (that's his name - Dune reference for a desert species gecko seemed appropriate) had his first meal at home today. I had planned to wait until day 4 to offer food to him, but I noticed his moist hide had dried out completely and needed a refresh today. As moist hide is his very favorite hide, and has been his selected safe house during acclimation period, I figured the minor stress of kicking him out of it balanced out the appreciation he would have for a moisture refresh. So I took off the lid of the container and waited to see if he'd get out himself. I didn't want to have to touch him to get him moving as I thought that would run contrary to the very slow and patient plan I have for taming him.

I figured what the hell, i'll drop a single mealworm in front of him and see if he's interested. And boy was he ever! I kept putting them in one by one and he's striking at my chopsticks (I use wood chopsticks instead of tweezers) before I even have the chance to drop the worms. I gave 12 small ones before I called it quits on the feeding. Don't want to make him sick on first feeding. Left the bowl in with 5 more small mealworms. Now that he wants to eat, maybe he will consider eating from the bowl over night.

I am very happy camper now he has eaten.

 

[cstone]

That's awesome news Herbiebug!

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[cstone]

I fed Raka the last of her crickets for the week tonight. We're moving this weekend and I don't want to have to deal with crickets in the midst of a move so she'll get mealworms for now with maybe a couple wax worms as a peace offering.

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[tb144050]

I have been staring at Ruby, who is sleeping in her warm hide, and waiting on her easter eggs!! ....any day now, lady!! hehe

 

[Herbiebug]

Managed a couple things today that I am happy about. I think that i have managed to convey to Leto that mealworms can be eaten out of his bowl. This has been a point of confusion. He would eat them if i picked them up out of the bowl and placed them on the ground next to it, but would have nothing to do with any mealworms contained inside of it. It was a bit of a surprise. I fed half of today's allotment in the usual way, but then went to wash and refill his moist hide. Come back in the room and empty bowl. Awesome. As cute as it is to hand feed him, I would like him to take some initiative on his own feeding in future, so this is good.

Also am attempting a switch from paper towel to sphagnum moss for moist hide. The paper towel dries out so fast. I'm glancing over to the tank now and am not sure if it's a hit yet. Leto loves the moist hide with paper towel but he's not sure about the moss. We'll see.

Oh, and apparently he doesn't like phoenix worms. Spits them out. That's fine. Those things are expensive here anyway.

edit--- moss update. I'm going to try a moss and paper towel combination. Thin moss base layer hopefully to retain moisture better, with paper towel layered on top, hopefully more comfy for Leto.

edit edit--- Ah ha! I knew it. It was the moss texture that was the problem. He just went straight in to the fixed paper towel on top version and curled up for a nap. Stuck his snout out briefly to give me the evil eye as if to say, "you expected me to sleep on that? I'm insulted!" ...sorry Leto. -_____-

edit edit edit--- Well this is interesting. He doesn't like the moss smell either. Paper towel over moss was rejected within a couple minutes. He then spent an hour going back and forth between hot and cool dry hides, looking uncomfortable. Going back to paper towel only for now. As moist hide has been his safe haven since I've had him, I don't want to take any part of that away.

 

[cstone]

Herbiebug, you could try a thicker layer of paper towels to see if that keeps the moisture better. I agree with not wanting to make him uncomfortable with his moist hide. My girl loves hers too and I definitely wouldn't want to do anything that would make her avoid it.

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[indyana]

This week I hatched out a little batch of silkworms for my boys! Of course, it will be a couple more weeks before they're big enough to eat... but silkworms are on the way!

 

[cstone]

I signed a stack of papers about 1.5" tall to buy her a home with a yard

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[Herbiebug]

Today was good. I will say first completely stress free cage spot clean and feeding time. Put food dish out with dusted worms and waited a whole 15 seconds before little polka dot nose pokes out of its hide to see what all the wiggling is about. He then ate from the bowl without any coaxing required. I am happy. I now feel comfortable with doing some crickets every once in a while in future knowing that Leto will most definitely hunt them, as opposed to being stubborn and ignoring them and me needing to go in and retrieve them.

Bought a house, Stone? Congratulations!

 

[cstone]

Thanks Herbiebug. Yep, we signed for closing this evening and now just have to wait for the bank and courthouse to sign off on it tomorrow. Hopefully the move isn't too stressful on Raka, I have a feeling she won't be especially fond of being transported in the little cricket carrier but it's only about 10 miles away.

Congratulations to you as well on the successful cleaning and feeding!

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[cstone]

Well, Raka was definitely not impressed with getting moved around, but she is settling in to the new place quite will. Now to get all our crap unpacked so that I can do the same... Lol

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[Herbiebug]

Tried a little experiment with a canned cricket yesterday. Superworms are super squirmy, i thought to myself, i wonder what would happen if I put a dusted canned cricket directly on top of a couple of them in the dish so that their squirming makes it appear to be moving also... Instant success! Leto nommed upon that cricket with gusto. haha. I have no intention of feeding canned crickets regularly, but this is a nice trick for dietary variety I will use if I haven't had a chance to pick up a meal of live crickets in a while.

 

[cstone]

Raka got to explore our new house for the first time tonight, where she discovered linoleum floors and her reflection. I thought she would be a bit freaked out by the sight of "another" gecko since she hasn't seen any since I brought her home, but she just couldn't figure out why she couldn't go around, under, or over the jerk. Lol!

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[indyana]

Haha, cute.