Hello all, newbie here.first time .

[geckobeginner22]

Hello everyone on the forum, i have just taken the boat to leopard gecko world and i must say i am enjoying myself..i have not gotten my first gecko as of yet. i am awaiting the next reptile expo in my area as the geckos at my ***** already look like they are dying. In waiting for my first gecko, I have been reading up on them for a while and just watching youtube videos over and over to make sure i get the set up down pack. with that said i am still so confused....lol..with all the different kind of answers and info out there, i chose to ask my questions on this forum. so anyone who has the time and can answer my questions thank you very much. ok so here goes(its alot of questions..lol sorry in adv.)
1. i plan on getting on baby male and a baby female.( i do not know what morph yet).i will be keeping them in a 20L gallon tank(30 in long)..i do plan on getting a bigger tank later on if i need it. i also plan on trying to breed them when they are ready. is there any site that tells you what and what morph to breed to get what morph or anything like that? like i said i am new to this whole thing so i dont really know.
2. everywhere i go, i am just hearing about lighting and temp and hides.
so far i do understand that you have to have at least 3 hides, one on the cool side of the tank(with about a 70-80 temp) one on the hot side of the tank(with about a 85-95 temp) and another one on the cool side of the tank that has damp moss or damp paper towel in it to help with when they shed.(and mist it everyday to keep it damp)..what i do not understand is about the lighting..ok i know you should have a heat mat on the bottom of the tank on the side that you want it to be warm, i know that they do not need uvb lighting like turtles do.do what i want to know is wat kind of light do i use during the daytime and nighttime when i want to look at the tank ans view there habitat? i heard the words daytime and nighttime blubs and such no dont really understand it that much. do i need to get a certain kind of blub so i can see them in the daytime if the blinds in the room they are in are closed that would not hurt their eyes or something? do these light blubs have to be some kind that while they are all it should raise the temp on the hot side of the tank? the whole tank?
3. i understand that baby geckos do eat alot and yes i am ready to fill their bellys...lol..but to save money i was thinking about breeding mealworms. anyone do this? any advice to share on it?
4.i know that i need a cal dish, a food dish, the 3 hides,a water dish,..but should i give them a log or something to crawl on top of? i also will be using reptile carpet as the floor for my tank, so no risk of impaction.
5.siince reading up about breeding geckos so i am ready when they get to the age to breed, i have one question.what is the world is vermiculite? lol.where do you get it? what does it do? sry i just never heard of the stuff before i started liking leopard geckos.
6. when the geckos do mate("get it on" ) do i have to take the female out of the tank and keep it in something else till she lays eggs in vermiculite or something? then take the eggs out of the tank she is in and put them in their own vermiculite based one until they are born? is this a must? will they not be born if they are not in their own vermiculite based tubs? will the female kill them or something if they are in the same tank?
Again everyone thank you so much for any questions you get answer. it will be a great help. any advice is also welcome. and again thank you and hello again from the new newbie to the leopard gecko world..They really are some cool little guys. :main_thumbsup::main_thumbsup:

 

[acpart]

Welcome to GF. I'll give it a whirl:


1. i plan on getting on baby male and a baby female.( i do not know what morph yet).i will be keeping them in a 20L gallon tank(30 in long)..i do plan on getting a bigger tank later on if i need it. i also plan on trying to breed them when they are ready. is there any site that tells you what and what morph to breed to get what morph or anything like that? like i said i am new to this whole thing so i dont really know.

If you're going to get a male and a female, you will need to keep them separate because otherwise they will breed when the female is too young (think 13 year old human) and it will not be good for her. If you get any 2 geckos from 2 different breeders at a show you will need to keep them separate for at least a month in quarantine from each other. If you get young babies there's a good chance you won't know for sure whether they are male or female. Here's an alternative suggestion:
get 2 females that are old enough to sex. Get something you like the looks of and don't worry too much about the morph. Keep them for the year and see how you like it. If you still want to breed next year, add a male. Then you'll have a male and 2 females and can consider keeping them together where the male won't hassle the females too much because there are 2 of them. Also think about the incubator and being able to house, feed and sell/give away the babies.

2. everywhere i go, i am just hearing about lighting and temp and hides.
so far i do understand that you have to have at least 3 hides, one on the cool side of the tank(with about a 70-80 temp) one on the hot side of the tank(with about a 85-95 temp) and another one on the cool side of the tank that has damp moss or damp paper towel in it to help with when they shed.(and mist it everyday to keep it damp)..what i do not understand is about the lighting..ok i know you should have a heat mat on the bottom of the tank on the side that you want it to be warm, i know that they do not need uvb lighting like turtles do.do what i want to know is wat kind of light do i use during the daytime and nighttime when i want to look at the tank ans view there habitat? i heard the words daytime and nighttime blubs and such no dont really understand it that much. do i need to get a certain kind of blub so i can see them in the daytime if the blinds in the room they are in are closed that would not hurt their eyes or something? do these light blubs have to be some kind that while they are all it should raise the temp on the hot side of the tank? the whole tank?

You don't really need lighting at all as long as they're in a room where there is natural light. If you want to observe them at night, you could get a "night" bulb which is either red or blue and supposedly is something they can't see. I just have the lights on in my living room at night and it doesn't seem to bother them. I don't have any lights.

3. i understand that baby geckos do eat alot and yes i am ready to fill their bellys...lol..but to save money i was thinking about breeding mealworms. anyone do this? any advice to share on it?

Google "breeding mealworms" or do a search on the forum. There's lots of info. It's not hard but it does take a number of months to go from beetle to worm that's big enough to eat.

4.i know that i need a cal dish, a food dish, the 3 hides,a water dish,..but should i give them a log or something to crawl on top of? i also will be using reptile carpet as the floor for my tank, so no risk of impaction.

It doesn't hurt to give them a climbing log. Some like it and some ignore it. I have both kinds.

5.siince reading up about breeding geckos so i am ready when they get to the age to breed, i have one question.what is the world is vermiculite? lol.where do you get it? what does it do? sry i just never heard of the stuff before i started liking leopard geckos.

It's a plant medium and if you ask at a garden store they should have it. It looks like a collection of teeny gold bricks. To see it virtually, google image "vermiculite".

6. when the geckos do mate("get it on" ) do i have to take the female out of the tank and keep it in something else till she lays eggs in vermiculite or something? then take the eggs out of the tank she is in and put them in their own vermiculite based one until they are born? is this a must? will they not be born if they are not in their own vermiculite based tubs? will the female kill them or something if they are in the same tank?
Again everyone thank you so much for any questions you get answer. it will be a great help. any advice is also welcome. and again thank you and hello again from the new newbie to the leopard gecko world..They really are some cool little guys.

Do some googling about "Leopard gecko breeding" and/or get a book ("leoparde gecko manual" , "herpetoculture of leopard geckos") and read up on it. I think it's beyond the scope of a post.

Aliza

 

[geckobeginner22]

thanks alot.you were really helpful. any other info you come up with would be great. thanks again