Another newbie :)

[faeriecat]

Greetings! I'm Hope, and I became a first time gecko owner yesterday.

This wasn't an impulse addition, it was 10 years of admiring from afar and then 3 months of reading every website on gecko care. Of course, with any site, there's always differences of opinions! LOL

I'm just hoping the learning curve isn't too painful.

I picked up an adult, male, snow leopard gecko who is as yet unnamed. He's in a nice glass lidded set up with about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch of sand (ish). We have a cave with moss and a water bowl so far. Oh, and an under tank heating pad.

Decided to go with the adult as he was mellow and friendly and the juveniles were hissy and jumpy ... and as a newbie I didn't want to risk hurting the little guys till I figure out what I'm doing.

Anyway, just wanted to say Hi before jumping in and asking questions.

 

[Ruvik]

Eh. take out the sand. Try eco earth or paper towel, maybe even tiles. careful with the moss seeing as some geckos have been known to get the moss and become impacted. I would say the best thing for the hide is just to a hot hide and then when it comes to for the little one to shed soak him in luke warm water.

 

[faeriecat]

LOL the sand seems to be the most interesting thing to him so far ... found him digging in it like the cats dig in the cat box.

 

[Ruvik]

Just because it's interesting doesn't mean it's safe... Sand can cause impaction in the gecko and kill it. Look up on impaction and the leading causes for it, sand being one of them.

Edit: Also if you research into leopard gecko's natural habitats, yes they are desert environments, but they dont have sand in those environments. Its mostly dry brush and dirt. Im not sure what websites you have been reading, but I would keep doing research. Most websites, leopard gecko owners and breeders will tell you not to use sand.