housing newborns....

[DierdreDreamwalker626]

So, our first leo baby hatched this morning, and we're trying to figure out the best setup for the baby cages. Thoughts anyone? ....

 

[ElapidSVT]

i use 6qt bins with paper towel, water dish and a tp roll for a hide.

 

[DierdreDreamwalker626]

Okay. We have her alone right now in her own space. It's a lot bigger than 6qts but we have 10 gallons we're setting up now. We didn't expect her so early. (lol) Is reptile carpet okay? We have tp rolls in there already and tiny little bowl things for water, so it looks like we're good in that front. (lol)

 

[Landen]

I wouldn't use the repti carpet, but that's just my opinion. Papertowels are easiest and IMO best. I would go spend the 1$ for a 6 qt tub at the dollar store, large spaces tend to stress hatchlings out. You can even put the tub into your 10 gallon and when the hatchling grows out of it, let him/her out into the tank itself.

 

[DierdreDreamwalker626]

kk. then. The only reason y I said reptile carpet is because that's what we already had in the tank, but paper towels are kool too. lol.... I didn't know that about small spaces, so we will def be going to buy more small tubs....

 

[LZRDGRL]

This is how I house my hatchlings:

10 gallon tank, UTH, paper towel, coconut dome, tupper ware with holes for moist/dry hides, jar lids for mealworms, water, and calcium, and some calcium sprinkled onto the paper towel to prevent MBD (some hatchlings don't access jar lids yet to lick from it themselves). I offer the hatchlings a rock wall made of styrofoam (HabiScape Rock Wall from HerpSupplies.com) for climbing, and they use it! I have eight of those glass shelves; they're from Staples and very functional. They're 129 bucks each, and have tempered glass, so it doesn't matter if the UTH gets hot (although the tanks stand on little rubber feet).

Repticarpet gets dirty very quickly, and you need to clean up poop all the time. It only looks good in the beginning, and can harbor bacteria. Also, the little claws can get stuck in it. Unless you are a clean freak and clean it all the time D), I would recommend paper towel, which you can throw away. Once your babies are bigger, you can put them on nicer looking substrate. I use hydroton with broken slate/tile on top of it. As hatchlings, they have an easier job hunting down crickets and mealworms if you don't offer them those hiding places (like on paper towel, where they can't escape). Make sure the worms (and the geckos! because the UTH is hot down there) don't crawl under the paper towel. You can do this by strategically putting down the food/water lids....

Chrissy

 

[DierdreDreamwalker626]

This is how I house my hatchlings:


Repticarpet gets dirty very quickly, and you need to clean up poop all the time. It only looks good in the beginning, and can harbor bacteria. Also, the little claws can get stuck in it. Unless you are a clean freak and clean it all the time D), I would recommend paper towel, which you can throw away. Once your babies are bigger, you can put them on nicer looking substrate. I use hydroton with broken slate/tile on top of it. As hatchlings, they have an easier job hunting down crickets and mealworms if you don't offer them those hiding places (like on paper towel, where they can't escape). Make sure the worms (and the geckos! because the UTH is hot down there) don't crawl under the paper towel. You can do this by strategically putting down the food/water lids....

Chrissy

We clean all of ours out like 2-3 times a week (at least), which is why reptile carpet never bothered me. And yes, I'm a neat freak. (lol) Especially when it comes to my babies. (lol) I can't stand for any of our animals to have dirty cage and poop and stuff. .... I think we will still go with paper towels for our babies though. That way we don't have to get them out so much and put them through the whole ordeal again and again.

about the mealworms... are those better or should we feed them small crickets instead? maybe a mixture of the two??

 

[Carmella]

i use 6qt bins with paper towel, water dish and a tp roll for a hide.

This is exactly how I house mine. Makes it a bit easy for them to find food and feel safe.

 

[Landen]

This is how I house my hatchlings:

Nice set up there, but seems kinda costly for 8 hatchlings.... I like the "rock wall" idea though!

& to the OP, the key to using a larger space is to make sure they have several hides to feel secure in. There's never just 1 right way to do it. Whatever you choose, make sure the hatchlings feel secure and you'll be A Ok!

 

[DierdreDreamwalker626]

Thanks much for the advice you guys!!

 

[DierdreDreamwalker626]

oh! One more question comes to mind: Should the hatchlings be separated individually or can you put more than one together? I've seen people do both, but which is better?

(I know I'm asking questions that I should already have the answers for, but as I said...she came early so we weren't fully prepared. lol)

 

[Landen]

I usually put clutchmates together for the first week or two to get them used to other gecko's right off the bat. Once they start eating or I see one not growing as fast as the other I seperate them to individual tubs to prevent any potential problems. I personally feel that they grow at a more stable rate when they are by themselves though.

 

[acpart]

I house my hatchlings 2 ways: my preferred method is to use front-opening 20 gallon long size tanks but half height (glasscages.com - the stackable tanks) with ceramic tile substrate, divided into 3 sections with plexiglass. I house clutchmates together but separate any that aren't doing well and as they grow will mix and match to get geckos of the same size together. My overflow housing is a 16-tub rack with 6qt tubs. Each tub gets a hide for each gecko, water dish, food bowl and small calcium container. I don't use substrate or a humid hide because I find that it's humid enough in there already.

I prefer feeding mealworms to hatchlings for 2 reasons:
--the small crickets can get under the dividers so some geckos may not get anything to eat and also they can be hard for little ones to catch
--I often sell to people who are grossed out by crickets so it's better for me to get them used to mealworms. That said, any holdbacks ultimately get tired of mealworms and end up with crickets or superworms.


Aliza

 

[DierdreDreamwalker626]

Thanks for the advice everyone!! I set up their tank this morning and we're about to work on our "hatchling condo" (lol) tonight and tomorrow so we can have proper housing for them when they need to be separated. So How's this look? ......