addicted to these little guys!

[12many]

Anyways, i've had my leo for about 1 month. Got her/him (don't know the sex yet or her age lol) on 1/30/11. I love this little guy/girl and i want another one. FYI, this my first gecko. I have a 10 gal tank with 3 hides (cool, warm, moist), a UTH and a 150 W lamp with dimmer set on low. I use paper towel for the substrate but i'm going to switch it to reptile carpet. Also, a water dish and a calc. dish.

This question is for those well experienced leopard gecko keeper. Should i get another leopard gecko? What are the down sides of getting many geckos? When you breed your geckos, do you sell the offspring(s)?

Is it normal for her tail to not get fat in a month? When i got her, i only noticed a SMALL weight gain on her tail. Are the legs/arms/body suppose to be skinny and the tail is the only one suppose to get fat?

 

[Psychotic4mb3r]

Leopard geckos are best alone. If you really want more then one in a cage, it will have to be male and female or female and female. males fight.. But theres a chance of fighting with male/female or female/female as well. You just gotta watch them. If you do plan to breed, please do lots and lots of research first!

 

[Pokersnake]

Is it normal for her tail to not get fat in a month? When i got her, i only noticed a SMALL weight gain on her tail. Are the legs/arms/body suppose to be skinny and the tail is the only one suppose to get fat?

It is normal for geckos to gain/lose weight slowly. Their metabolism is very different from mammals (like we can gain or lose 5 pounds in a day), it is much slower. If you have noticed some growth, then good. If you start noticing that it isn't growing or if it starts losing weight, you could have some medical issues on your hands.

I would recommend, if you are worried, or as just a general procedure, to take a fecal sample to your vet and have them run tests for parasites and cryptosporidium (a really nasty disease, but it doesn't look like it's showing signs of that). Call the vet first to ask if they are capable of running these tests and they will tell you what you need to do.

 

[acpart]

It's very tempting to get another, and many of us do --over and over and over again. Here are some things to think about:
--the more geckos you have, the less "personal" it is and the less time you have to interact with them. That may or may not be OK for you, but it's worth thinking about.
--There's something exciting about pursuing and purchasing a new gecko and for some people there's a let down after that which can only be erased by starting the process of buying another gecko. You can see where that leads
--it is possible to have a number of geckos and not breed. Breeding takes more money and resources, not to mention time and energy. (I recently got really excited about the possibility of going off for 2 weeks this summer to take a ceramics class but then realized that I'll be in the middle of baby season and I really can't go anywhere for 2 weeks)

If you really think you want another gecko, I'd recommend the following:
--find out the sex of your current gecko. If it's a male, you will have to keep a new gecko in a separate enclosure
--if you have a female, get yourself a 20 gallon set-up. Get the new gecko (make sure it's female) and put it in the new set-up by itself for at least a month. If the 2 geckos are roughly the same size, clean the larger enclosure thoroughly, rearrange the furniture and put the 2 geckos in together. Watch them to make sure they're getting along.
--you always have to be prepared to keep the geckos separate if they don't get along, so you may as well have 2 set-ups from the beginning.

Aliza

 

[LZRDGRL]

I second that. Wait what yours turns out to be. If yours is a female, get another female, and after having put her in quarantine for 2 months, you can put them together in a bigger cage if they are of equal size and don't bully each other. Make sure each got her own hides. If yours is a male, I would set up a second cage if you want another one. Two males can't be housed together. One male and one female doesn't work very well together. It would be like being stuck in an elevator with a sex maniac He will keep bothering her, and she'll bear lots of ugly bite marks and maybe even scars, and lose weight from breeding (could even die). You need a harem of 4-6 or so for one male (or just put them together for the breeding night, and then separate them again).

Just go by which gecko you really like (the looks and character of it), and set up separate cages :main_thumbsup:

Chrissy

It's very tempting to get another, and many of us do --over and over and over again. Here are some things to think about:
--the more geckos you have, the less "personal" it is and the less time you have to interact with them. That may or may not be OK for you, but it's worth thinking about.
--There's something exciting about pursuing and purchasing a new gecko and for some people there's a let down after that which can only be erased by starting the process of buying another gecko. You can see where that leads
--it is possible to have a number of geckos and not breed. Breeding takes more money and resources, not to mention time and energy. (I recently got really excited about the possibility of going off for 2 weeks this summer to take a ceramics class but then realized that I'll be in the middle of baby season and I really can't go anywhere for 2 weeks)

If you really think you want another gecko, I'd recommend the following:
--find out the sex of your current gecko. If it's a male, you will have to keep a new gecko in a separate enclosure
--if you have a female, get yourself a 20 gallon set-up. Get the new gecko (make sure it's female) and put it in the new set-up by itself for at least a month. If the 2 geckos are roughly the same size, clean the larger enclosure thoroughly, rearrange the furniture and put the 2 geckos in together. Watch them to make sure they're getting along.
--you always have to be prepared to keep the geckos separate if they don't get along, so you may as well have 2 set-ups from the beginning.

Aliza