Bioactive Leopard Gecko Experiements

[indyana]

Short, sad update: I lost one of the blue beetles after it got into the water dish (arg, how?!). I think it was a female, so I'm hopeful I still have a male-female pair left...

In other news, I now have booklice and springtails popping up in both enclosures in the humid hole area. Was surprising to see them appear after all these months, but they seem to have colonized. The booklice are especially cool because I will see them out wandering the dry enclosure during the day. Since they feed on mold, it's good to have them around.

My phone camera is in no way good enough to get photos of them to post that look like anything but a microscopic dot, so not even going to try. Feel very confident in the identification though.

 

[Music]

awww...sorry for your loss!

are you planning on more bioactives?

 

[indyana]

Yes, I have a few female leopard geckos that I will move to bio eventually. I don't plan to do it quite yet though. They are both not very well socialized, so I'd like for them to be a bit friendlier before I give them a cage where they can hide forever and ever...

 

[JessJohnson87]

Sorry about your beetle

I rarely see mine near the water dish, but the mealworm beetles climb all over it and I had to rescue one of them. Do you ever notice Amore or Hawkeye wandering around their enclosure during the day? I have noticed that with Ziggy and yesterday he decided to start shedding around lunch time.

 

[indyana]

Yes, mine come out occasionally during the day. I'll see them basking a bit in the morning or afternoon, or if they hear me in the room, they'll come out to see if there are treats.

 

[Music]

wow! wondering how do you"blend" with 'em? do they sleep at night sometimes?

 

[indyana]

I have a flashlight that puts out red light, and I sometimes peek in on them at night. Usually, they are perched up on a piece of furniture awake, so I would assume they are mostly awake at night too.

I try to feed and do things with them after sundown so I am on their schedule, and since I tong-feed insects, they associate me with food. I would assume that is why they come out if they hear me in the room during the day.

 

[indyana]

Haha, since we were just talking about the geckos being up during the day, here's a quick picture of Hawkeye marching about. He's such a nosy gecko. He saw me taking pictures of the girls' new compartments and had to come out to see what was up.

 

[Music]

THAT SO CUTE1111!!!!!


anyway, do you give calcium and such every feeding>

 

[indyana]

Yep, they get fed roaches/crickets once a week, dusted with calcium/D3/vitamins, and then have a dish of mealworms the rest of the week, dusted with calcium/D3/vitamins and a piece of squash or carrot in there for the worms to eat. There's also a small dish of pure calcium in the cage and UVB light for extra D3 if they feel like basking.

I don't worry too much about oversupplementing because the dust wears off the mealworms pretty quickly. They basically have the option of licking supplements out of the bottom of the mealworm dish if they need more.

 

[Music]

great!

 

[Music]

i have a new question(sorry!)

so i have those 15 beetles in a container for several months now, eating poop and some dead(but the reamains are eaten too) which are great... but i cant see any eggs?(breed?) or small newborns?

and i am going to have this carboard cage setting up next week, there will be a hole for the heat mat and can i use the tin foil to protect the cardboard from burning? and the heat mat will be attached to a slate.

so that will be my new bioactive setup. thanks !

 

[indyana]

Hmm, not sure why the beetles would not breed. If they are not kept well fed, they may be eating the eggs as they are laid in the substrate? Also, the eggs are very tiny, so if you have changed or sifted the substrate, they are likely lost.

Tin foil (or any metal) will just absorb and transfer the heat, so it will not stop the heat from reaching the cardboard. Cardboard isn't a really great cage material, as it will absorb liquids/waste/bacteria and break down over time. Also, many insects eat any product made from paper/wood.

 

[Music]

umm...cardboard is my only material thogh...

can i cut a hole in the middle and put the heat mat in that attached to a slate without touching the cardboard? or sty foam? because the warm spot will be covered with paper towel.

the whole cage wll be covered with sty foam... wonder if the insects can CLIMB/EAT through it? (although the substrate is soil...and sty foam, plants, other stones, just some stuff thats not made out of paper)>>>

 

[Music]

oh... and the poop in my other box started to stink!

 

[indyana]

Insects like mealworms, superworms, etc. can certainly burrow into styrofoam. It's important to remember that these guys burrow into rotting wood in the wild, especially when they are getting reading to pupate. In fact, mealworms can actually live off styrofoam if they have to (strange and random fact).

Most people who aren't going to use actual reptile enclosures made from glass or PVC use wood and seal it very well with something like yacht varnish.

 

[indyana]

A little bit of maintenance on the two leopard gecko enclosures today. Picked up any visible urates and swept loose substrate out of the caves. Then, I watered the plants and humid holes, which I do every couple of weeks during the active season. Finally, crushed some new leaf litter into the humid areas and misted down the entire cage to keep the dust down.

More morio beetles than I know what to do with (culled some last month because they were overunning the place), and a TON of baby isopods.

 

[Music]

that nice!

i have a questoin for you, if you choose to collect the leaves outside, wont you bring ants and other unwanted parasites? and in the soil too? TONS of ants and spiders?

 

[indyana]

It is possible, which is why I choose to buy substrate and leaf litter and only collect small batches of leaves from outside that I can scan for anything I don't want in the vivs. Many people do a lot more collecting with success and do not mind the occasional ants and spiders though. It depends what you are comfortable with doing.

 

[Music]

okay, so IF i got like ten ants and a few spiders in the cage, will the gecko and the whole viv be infested?