Is it worth it???

[herplover92]

I was thinking of buying some geckos at Daytona because I have a few hundred dollars from my birthday still lying around, I eventually want to have hundreds of geckos.

But then today, I was talking to a friend of mine and he said he did the same thing and he ended up going through thousands of roaches and crickets and meal worms every month, and he also said it is not worth it. I really love geckos so I cant have 2 or 3 I need all of them.

Do you think it is a pain in the *** having to feed so many leos? is it worth it? At the end of the month do you sit down and say, "I just spent 400 bucks in feeders, but those are the best $400 I have ever spent"?

I also think someone should come up with a gecko diet that could be fed to geckos instead of insects.

 

[Scott&Nikki]

I was thinking of buying some geckos at Daytona because I have a few hundred dollars from my birthday still lying around, I eventually want to have hundreds of geckos.

But then today, I was talking to a friend of mine and he said he did the same thing and he ended up going through thousands of roaches and crickets and meal worms every month, and he also said it is not worth it. I really love geckos so I cant have 2 or 3 I need all of them.

Do you think it is a pain in the *** having to feed so many leos? is it worth it? At the end of the month do you sit down and say, "I just spent 400 bucks in feeders, but those are the best $400 I have ever spent"?

I also think someone should come up with a gecko diet that could be fed to geckos instead of insects.

That depends on the person. Me personally, I would rather fewer than more. If you have hundreds, you will never be able to enjoy them. It will be constant cleaning and feeding. I only want a few because I like being able to just watch her, see how they react to things, just learn how geckos are in general. If you are breeding, that can be a little different, but it is also one reason I don't want to breed them.

There are diets other than live insects. The problem is, they are never as nutritious, and many geckos will not eat them. My leo won't even eat a cricket or mealworm unless it is moving. If a cricket stops half an inch in front of her face, she will stare at it and will not strike until it moves, no matter how long that may be. I cannot see her even looking twice at some other type of food. There is a reason they are "insectivores".

 

[ReptileMan27]

Before you decide whether to buy or not, you need to stop and find out much room you have. If you only have room for 5 leos, if you get more then that then you will have problems trying to house them all. For the food bill, you first need to make sure you can afford it before you decide whether its worth it or not.

 

[Lyndsey]

It's not worth it to me. I would rather have just my one. Especially not hundreds. If I were breeding them...then that would be a different story. I would never consider breeding them...so there you go lol


Hundreds is just too many imo. You would be sooo busy maintaining them that you would have no time to interact and enjoy them

 

[thaveteran]

I'm like you I want one of every morph. So far I've collected a few....18 to be exact. The 10 gal tanks are a pain to clean. I have like 4 of those. But the rack is only a slight pain. All I can say is it is work but in my opinion its worth it.

As for feeders, if you can convert them all to mealworms and then breed the mealworns yourself you can save alot of money.

I'm going to try breeding this year and then put a select group of hatchlings in a 90 gallon cage I built (once they're big enough). That is also an idea. If you can get similar size female geckos and they manage to get along you can try that. I've been unsuccessful thus far with that approach but I'm hoping this new idea works.

 

[herplover92]

I'm like you I want one of every morph. So far I've collected a few....18 to be exact. The 10 gal tanks are a pain to clean. I have like 4 of those. But the rack is only a slight pain. All I can say is it is work but in my opinion its worth it.

As for feeders, if you can convert them all to mealworms and then breed the mealworns yourself you can save alot of money.

I'm going to try breeding this year and then put a select group of hatchlings in a 90 gallon cage I built (once they're big enough). That is also an idea. If you can get similar size female geckos and they manage to get along you can try that. I've been unsuccessful thus far with that approach but I'm hoping this new idea works.

Thanks. This was what I was looking for.

 

[moosassah]

I'm guessing if you're asking you're really not ready to take on a substantial number of geckos. You need to make your decision based on the money & time you are willing to commit.

As for us, we're a 3 gecko maximum family. And it sure would be nice if we could get a few beetles going in the mealworm bin.

 

[GeckoMandi]

I have 15 Leopard Geckos, and I want more daily, I buy one then I start searching for my next one lol. I think if you look at it as a money issue then you shouldn't have a lot of geckos or be buying more than you can handle. I had 8 in 10 gallon tanks at one point and that was a pain! I switched to a rack which was good and bad, because that gave me more ROOM! lol

I think it's well worth it if you have the passion and time, I love when I open the tubs and they know it's feeding time and they come out and look at me with a smile, or a I see a hatchling in the incubator for the first time, to me that's like Christmas morning lol.

I think you ever stop and ask yourself if it's worth it, then there is your answer.

 

[nwheat]

Let your collection grow slowly - you'll find the right balance. There is a happy medium between having just a couple vs hundreds!

 

[papaK]

Thanks. This was what I was looking for.

I know you've taken a lot of heat on the RDR forums for doing this exact thing. It doesn't make sense to ask a question and then disregard everyone until you get the answer you want to hear. Taking on a lot of geckos is a lot of work and if you plan on breeding you're going to have to buy or build an incubator too.... there's a possibility of having hundreds of hatchlings and that's going to be a lot to handle.

 

[Lyndsey]

. It doesn't make sense to ask a question and then disregard everyone until you get the answer you want to hear. .

I noticed that too...odd

 

[giantkeeper]

Anything worth having takes work!

 

[eyelids]

Not if you have to question yourself...

 

[okapi]

I have over 20... I just started out with a few that I thought looked cool then started looking into genetics and decided to prove out some possible hets and work on a few projects. I plan on building some racks this summer. It IS a pain having a room which is full of 10, 15, 20,and 30 gallon tanks. I breed mealworms but digging through the tubs and sorting them out by size can be a pain. And its crazy how fast they dissapear. I enjoy my leos, and dont mind having so many, but its still a handfull. I have a full time (40hr+) job and college (12hrs), so some nights when I come home cleaning/feeding can be a chore. Racks speed the process up, so im sure it will be better once I have those. I do plan on starting to order mealworms so I will have less sorting.

Plus a few hundred dollars wont go far unless you get high yellows or "regular" tremper albinos... I paid $400 for my ss, $200 for my raptor het male, $150 + 45 shipping for my possible raptor female, $75 for my giant, $90 for one blazing, $50 + 45 shipping for another blazing, etc. The ones without shipping prices I got at shows... some of which are hundreds of miles from my house, so im not even going to try to factor in gas prices. :main_rolleyes: Plus the costs of tanks, UTHs, heat lamps/bulbs, and my first few thousand mealworms.

 

[thaveteran]

Good point I think some people were looking at his question unreasonbly. He couldn't possibly afford to buy hundreds of geckos with a few hundred dollars. For that reason I think you'll be able to determine for yourself when enough is enough.

 

[crs]

get a few more and if it is just right dont get anymore, if it is easy and the finances are in order, get more

 

[yellermelon]

welp I have 16, And I just got back into leos in late december. Money wasnt really an option because if you dont have it....well you cant buy anything. But what i did buy, I was sure i could afford a fecal, and food for everything.When you price the leo at the show, take the base price say....125 for a trempor hybino...Then add 40 for a fecal, 15 meds if needed, 40 for recheck on fecal, if your using 10 gal. add 10 for tank 20 for heat. Now that covers the leo, housing and health. Thats 250 (if I can add lol) And you still need to add in food, substrate(i use paper towels)
I see you have some experience and understand all of this already probably, but then again you did ask, being that you asked Id say buy one....your favorite, And keep that one.

 

[Haroldo]

Costs of keeping a fairly large collection can be subdued if you are capable of administrating various faculties yourself. For instance, I have the ability to do fecals at home on my 100x oil immersion scope, several of the common meds to remedy endoparasites and solution for creating suspensions. Not to mention I have a DVM mentor with decades of experience to call on for aid and I breed my own feeders, build my own cages and my own misting systems. All these sidebars enable me to be a full-time college student, while managing a collection of nearly 100 specimens (all in individual cages). Keeping geckos is far more than being able to afford the cage and the animal as many have mentioned. Being able to sufficiently take on the normal "outsourced" services, dramatically affects how many animals one can sensibly "take on"...

 

[Scott&Nikki]

Good point I think some people were looking at his question unreasonbly. He couldn't possibly afford to buy hundreds of geckos with a few hundred dollars. For that reason I think you'll be able to determine for yourself when enough is enough.

He said:

I was thinking of buying some geckos at Daytona because I have a few hundred dollars from my birthday still lying around, I eventually want to have hundreds of geckos.

He didnt say "I want to get hundreds of geckos with my leftover birthday money"...

 

[goReptiles]

I'd say get one at the show, and see how that goes for you and your current collection. Work your way into it. But, as it's been mentioned if you're already questioning if it'll be worth it, then maybe hundreds isn't the way to go. You may want to stick with a few. Pick your favorite morphs and go with those. Just my two cents.