Curious

E

Euphoria

Guest
Just out of pure curiosity...
Can a leopard gecko swim, never had the heart to see if my little buddy swam like a brick or not.
And i don't plan on trying in the future either, just wondering.
 
S

Sarah H

Guest
I don't think anyone should try and find out,lol. I would guess sinking.
 
E

Euphoria

Guest
yeah, id also lean towards a negative on the swimming but i defenetly would like a good confirmed answer of someone trying out of former stupidity, lol, sry if that sounds completely cruel
 
E

Euphoria

Guest
haha ok ill take your word for it, but like i said before i wouldnt ever try it
 
N

Nastynotch

Guest
my whitespotted gecko loves to swim. he has a blast in the tub. :-D
 

acpart

Geck-cessories
Staff member
Messages
15,296
Location
Somerville, MA
I would never try this intentionally either, but last summer one of my hatchlings jumped out of my hand and into the water bottle that I keep for watering plants and filling water bowls. I got it out as fast as I could, and no harm was done, but I swear I saw it paddling in the few seconds (or less) it took me to get it out.

Aliza
 
D

dsreptiles

Guest
I thought that was a white spotted gecko in your avatar. I just sold a pair to someone of these forums.

As far as leos and swimming I did a little experiment. I had a trio of het sunglows in a large rubbermaid. I dont remember the exact size but it was one of the sweaterboxes I used for my adult king snakes. In this rubbermaid I had 2 hides of the heat source. One with sphagnum moss, and the other with the green moss you see at all the shows. and as a third hide on the heating pad I filled up a small tupperware the same style as I used for the other two hides with water and put the same top on with the same entrance hole.


And in the cool sides of the tank I put the same three hides. As well as two water dishes, a food dish, and a calcium dish.


And 100% of the time I found all three of them together in the hides with water in them. Either on the cool or warm ends depending on where they felt like going. So I asked myself. Is the humidity in my tank to low? Which I didn't think it was because my gauge (however it was a cheap one) told me it was perfect and leos dont need an extreme amount of humidity anyways.


so one night I sprayed down the cage to raise the humidity for the night to see if that drew them out of the water hides into another hide. Well it didn't, and I cleaned and dried out the cage the next day, and tried again the following night and they still never chose one of their less moist hides, and they werent even in shed.


So to get to your question I tried putting one in the sink to see if maybe people have over looked the fact that possibly leopard gecko sought out more watery areas as hiding spots in the wild. And I put my hand under the gecko enough to where he couldnt go under if he couldn't swim. And no he definatly could not swim.

But a few days later I decided to end my experiment just in case all the water they were lounging in all day may be detrimental to their health/skin since there is nothing documented on this topic.


With that being said. I've never brought this up to anyone before and with this topic I found it to be a good oppurtunity to share my experiment. As long winded as it was haha. And if someone has tried a similar experiment or heard anything about this in the past please let me know as my geckos really seemed to love it for the 10 days I allowed it.

windbag out.....:p
 

Grinning Geckos

Tegan onboard.
Messages
2,515
Location
Chicago-land
To answer your "question" about the humid hides, you just have to think about digging in the earth. Generally, moisture will collect in the cool spaces underground. My geckos prefer their humid hides over other hides as well. However, holes in the ground and and humid hides are micro-climates...their climate above ground and in general is dry/desert. They will develop respiratory infections (and probably skin problems) when left with too high of a general humidity (which they can't get away from if needed). It's a good thing you stopped before they got a chance to get sick.
 
D

dsreptiles

Guest
Yeah I didn't even let it prolong for more than a day at a time. As I figured that was what would happen in too high of humidity. Just more proof that what reptiles like isn't always good for them. (ie) heat rocks
 

Stitch

New Member
Messages
1,277
Location
Kaua'i, Hawaii
I had a female that was egg bound and was told that a warm bath might help stimulate her to lay. So I put her in the sink and made sure she was ok. Well unfortunately I left the room real quick to check out the score of a baseball game and got distracted. I came back about 5-10 minutes later and found that she had drowned in about an inch of water. While I was watching her she did fine, the water wasn't over her back if she was standing on all four legs. I guess she was weaker then I thought or tried laying down to absorb the warm from the sink and wound up drowning.

The point is never leave them unattended while soaking and no they cannot swim.
 

Visit our friends

Top