Hello everyone...little guidance needed

[DadCoy]

My son and I have done some research on these fascinating creatures. We have a 55 gallon tank that we are going to turn into a gecko home(looking to house 1 male and 3 or 4 females). We plan to do the bio-soil substrate and have "natural" hides and place they could borrow under a flat rock or small log.

My son has become obsessed with different "Morphs" I believe is what they are called, and he is wanting to even try breeding some. We have a large room in the basement that can house many gecko homes if need be, but hopefully he could find happy homes for most if not all that he may successfully hatch.

we are looking to purchase a male and 1 maybe 2 females from someone, and possibly add 1 or 2 standard females in the future.

I have looked over the classifieds on the site and pm'd a couple folks. any other suggestions on where we might could find an established pair or at least a good deal on a couple pretty critters?

 

[Drawberry]

Be very careful with any loose substrate, particularly sand, your gecko can consume it and become impacted which is a huge killer of leo's :\ there's a huge debate about this but there's an enormous amount of evidence to it being terribly dangerous and I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Reptile carpet, natural tile, and even paper towels can all be safely used for substrate and you'll never have to worry about your gecko family eating dirt or sand and getting ill.

 

[acpart]

Welcome to GF. There are regular reptile shows in MD and that may be a good place to find some geckos. Be aware of several things:
--if you get your geckos from different places, you will need to quarantine them from each other for at least a month
--if you put a male in with females, you will end up with breeding geckos whether or not you plan to breed. A better plan is to keep the male separate from the females until you're ready to breed. "Ready to breed" means that you've had experience caring for multiple geckos, understand gecko genetics and the breeding process, and have the finances, space and resources for multiple cages, lots of food and the incubator.
--most of my female gecko groups get along well, but there's no guarantee, so be prepared to separate even the females if necessary
--the non-particulate substrate is safest, though I am keeping a pair of females on a substrate of coco fiber, a bit of desert sand and leaf litter

Aliza

 

[Tongue Flicker]

Hey there welcome aboard!

You can't go wrong with aliza's breeding advice

 

[harry981stevens]

Hi I'm new to this all, but was just wondering if I buy a exo terra background made out of polystyrene, will any of the crickets or locasts that I feed her bite throw it? Or just any general comments about this product?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[DadCoy]

Thank you all for your input. I plan on using the bio soil, I have done a ton of research and while all substrates have there ups and downs, I have a friend who has 2 and he has been using the biosoil for some time now and seems as long as ur other elements( heat and humidity) are good, it shouldn't be a problem. Not really looking for a debate on that subject. Just some other advice. I have 4 10 gallon tanks that I an on using to "quarantine" if we do buy seperate, ultimey I would like to get them all from same place. As for breeding, I understand the cost and care aspects. Where might I do some research on genetics and what exactly do u mean by that?

 

[indyana]

Welcome! Great to see someone doing research beforehand. There are tons of resources online... you can spend endless hours looking up the various topics on Google (and I have, haha). I'll post a few of my favorite resources here.

The Learning Center
Contains genetics and breeding information, a great primer.

Leopard Gecko Wiki
Lists of morphs, pictures.

Leopard Gecko Morphs
List of morphs

Leopard Gecko Genetics Calculator
Calculates offspring morphs based upon parents, especially useful if you learn what traits go into each combination morph.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/bioactiveherps/
Facebook group, great community of folks doing bioactive setups for various species.
They also have a community page and website, not as active:
https://www.facebook.com/bioactiveherps
Bioactive Setups - Homepage

Another bioactive Facebook group, not as active, but specializing in geckos:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/318661951655357/

Side note, I'm also gearing up to try bioactive for leopard geckos in the coming year. Tracking progress on that in this thread:
http://geckoforums.net/f175-vivariums/102660.htm

And random nutrition links for gutloading feeders. It's something a lot of folks overlook, but what goes into the feeders goes into the geckos. I feel they deserve something a little better than just tossing in a couple carrots.
Much Ado About Chameleons: The Anatomy of Gut-Loading | Ingredients & Nutritional Info
http://bluetongueskinks.net/foodchart.html *Blue-tongued skink food chart can be used as feeder guidelines.

 

[DadCoy]

Welcome! Great to see someone doing research beforehand. There are tons of resources online... you can spend endless hours looking up the various topics on Google (and I have, haha). I'll post a few of my favorite resources here.

The Learning Center
Contains genetics and breeding information, a great primer.

Leopard Gecko Wiki
Lists of morphs, pictures.

Leopard Gecko Morphs
List of morphs

Leopard Gecko Genetics Calculator
Calculates offspring morphs based upon parents, especially useful if you learn what traits go into each combination morph.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/bioactiveherps/
Facebook group, great community of folks doing bioactive setups for various species.
They also have a community page and website, not as active:
https://www.facebook.com/bioactiveherps
Bioactive Setups - Homepage

Another bioactive Facebook group, not as active, but specializing in geckos:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/318661951655357/

Side note, I'm also gearing up to try bioactive for leopard geckos in the coming year. Tracking progress on that in this thread:
http://geckoforums.net/f175-vivariums/102660.htm

And random nutrition links for gutloading feeders. It's something a lot of folks overlook, but what goes into the feeders goes into the geckos. I feel they deserve something a little better than just tossing in a couple carrots.
Much Ado About Chameleons: The Anatomy of Gut-Loading | Ingredients & Nutritional Info
http://bluetongueskinks.net/foodchart.html *Blue-tongued skink food chart can be used as feeder guidelines.

Thank you for taking the time to do the lists for me.

as for the gut load, my other son(I have 5 boys) raised bearded dragons for years, and we had a dubia colony that rivaled the best...lol

had well over 500,000 at any given time, and we always paid attention to there food, we made our own through different cereals, dry milk for calcium...and always some fresh fruit or vegetable. so that is not an issue for us, I agree, you have to pay attention to what goes in the feeders.

after looking all over online he likes the tangerine and the snow morphs...not sure which way he will go when we get to buying them, but should be a fun and interesting hobby for him, he is already talking about getting another tank so he can have both without the possibility of cross breeding them ... "rolls eyes"

 

[nwtampaguy34]

You may also want to look into zoo med excavator clay. It hardens like cement. Less chance of leos ingesting it. Mimics there natural habitat.

 

[DadCoy]

You may also want to look into zoo med excavator clay. It hardens like cement. Less chance of leos ingesting it. Mimics there natural habitat.

I have read up on this stuff, and the reviews I have read say its no good alone, needs to be mixed with sand. It tends to "crumble" which would be real bad. all reports say that soil and play sand mix will not cause problems if ingested as long as the temp and humidity are were they should be.
As I did with the Bearded ones, will always be anal about the parameters. thanks for the info though, I have be thinking about mixing a bag in with the sand/soil mix, but that stuff would almost always be deadly if ingested and it got hard in the digestive track.

 

[acpart]

Sounds like things are moving along well. I wanted to explain what I meant about "understanding gecko genetics". Since there are so many morphs and combinations out there, it's important for breeders to be able to document what they've produced and what the genetic background is. Specific examples include which strain of albino a gecko is (if applicable) and what hidden genes (recessive hets) the gecko possesses. In order to be able to document this, the breeder needs to have a basic understanding of gecko genetics. I have found it so far to be a very exciting and fun process.

Aliza

 

[DadCoy]

that is part of the fun right...lol
My son and I are having a blast reading, digging, tracking through the woods...lol
and we haven't even decided on the "residents" yet, still a week or 2 away from even considering that.