L0VE_ARiES
New Member
- Messages
- 3
- Location
- Iowa
Hi everyone!
I want to start off by saying I adore my leo and would be crushed if anything were to ever happen to her. I'm a very well educated person when it comes to taking care of leopard geckos...I've done hours, maybe even days worth of research on how to care for leos. She's my first leo, but I have a great amount of confidence that I'm doing everything right.
Aries is a morph...she's an Albino Tangerine Leopard Gecko and absolutely beautiful. She weighs 70g and she is over 8 inches in length. Her cage consists of four hides. Two hides on the cool side, one hide in the middle, and one hide on the warm side. I keep the cool side of the tank at least 74 degrees Fahrenheit and the warm side between 88 and 91. The humid hide sometimes goes over 40%, but I live in the Midwest...it's bound to happen. I try anything and everything to lower it (fans, turning the AC up to get the humidity out of the house.)
She's never had an issue with shedding, and her eyes are not cloudy. There's no signs of impaction (the substrate I use is tile so there's no chance of ingesting anything.) I clean her tank daily, I change her water daily, and I also add a couple drops of ReptiSafe water conditioner to remove chlorine and chloramines from the tap-water and it adds electrolytes to the water. Additionally, I keep a little bowl of extra calcium (plastic pop-bottle lid) at all times so she can access that whenever she wants. She does periodically eat from this.
These past few weeks, I've been having a lot of trouble getting her to eat real food (the insects, of course.) I took her to the Veterinarian a few weeks ago and he said that he felt a very tiny egg in her stomach, and advised me to add another hide 3/4 full of reptile sand so if she needs to lay an egg, she can use that hide to do so. So far, it has not been successful. I've tried numerous insects for her food - crickets, mealworms, superworms, and waxworms...all appropriately sized...she doesn't seem interested what-so-ever in anything I offer to her. I haven't tried fruit nectar, but I want to research further information before I give that to her. Some people say to not force-feed your gecko, but the vet advised me to do so. She ate two large-sized crickets two weeks ago, and refused everything I offered after that, force-feeding was unsuccessful between two weeks ago and now. Tonight, I was able to get her to eat 1 medium-sized gutloaded superworm and it took me a long time to get her to eat it. I dust all insects with calcium powder.
I also wanted to add that, at times, she will walk slowly and sometimes stiff-like...but more times than not, she'll walk normally. Her bones feel solid when I hold her, and she loves it when I hold her, believe it or not lol. She's very comfortable with me, and shows no signs of stress when I'm handling her. When she's out of her cage, she's very active and quick. At night while she's in her cage, she explores and climbs on top of her hides sometimes. So, overall, Aries is a very happy leopard gecko...but she doesn't eat nearly enough.
What are your thoughts, fellow reptile-owners??
I want to start off by saying I adore my leo and would be crushed if anything were to ever happen to her. I'm a very well educated person when it comes to taking care of leopard geckos...I've done hours, maybe even days worth of research on how to care for leos. She's my first leo, but I have a great amount of confidence that I'm doing everything right.
Aries is a morph...she's an Albino Tangerine Leopard Gecko and absolutely beautiful. She weighs 70g and she is over 8 inches in length. Her cage consists of four hides. Two hides on the cool side, one hide in the middle, and one hide on the warm side. I keep the cool side of the tank at least 74 degrees Fahrenheit and the warm side between 88 and 91. The humid hide sometimes goes over 40%, but I live in the Midwest...it's bound to happen. I try anything and everything to lower it (fans, turning the AC up to get the humidity out of the house.)
She's never had an issue with shedding, and her eyes are not cloudy. There's no signs of impaction (the substrate I use is tile so there's no chance of ingesting anything.) I clean her tank daily, I change her water daily, and I also add a couple drops of ReptiSafe water conditioner to remove chlorine and chloramines from the tap-water and it adds electrolytes to the water. Additionally, I keep a little bowl of extra calcium (plastic pop-bottle lid) at all times so she can access that whenever she wants. She does periodically eat from this.
These past few weeks, I've been having a lot of trouble getting her to eat real food (the insects, of course.) I took her to the Veterinarian a few weeks ago and he said that he felt a very tiny egg in her stomach, and advised me to add another hide 3/4 full of reptile sand so if she needs to lay an egg, she can use that hide to do so. So far, it has not been successful. I've tried numerous insects for her food - crickets, mealworms, superworms, and waxworms...all appropriately sized...she doesn't seem interested what-so-ever in anything I offer to her. I haven't tried fruit nectar, but I want to research further information before I give that to her. Some people say to not force-feed your gecko, but the vet advised me to do so. She ate two large-sized crickets two weeks ago, and refused everything I offered after that, force-feeding was unsuccessful between two weeks ago and now. Tonight, I was able to get her to eat 1 medium-sized gutloaded superworm and it took me a long time to get her to eat it. I dust all insects with calcium powder.
I also wanted to add that, at times, she will walk slowly and sometimes stiff-like...but more times than not, she'll walk normally. Her bones feel solid when I hold her, and she loves it when I hold her, believe it or not lol. She's very comfortable with me, and shows no signs of stress when I'm handling her. When she's out of her cage, she's very active and quick. At night while she's in her cage, she explores and climbs on top of her hides sometimes. So, overall, Aries is a very happy leopard gecko...but she doesn't eat nearly enough.
What are your thoughts, fellow reptile-owners??
