leo housing

[amandaroar]

hey! I'm kind of new to leo's. I have two which are not named yet. In my tank i have aspen substrate, a hide house, a water dish and like a fake vine for them to hide under and climb on, i also have a heating pad a day light and a night light, also a uvb light. what else would i need in the tank? i feed them in a seperate area, and I've had them for a couple weeks now, one has some trouble seeing in one eye and was the runt, so hes pretty small, and is a really picky eater, is there anything i could do for him? I'd love any additional suggestions and feed back. Thanks!

 

[DrCarrotTail]

Switch the aspen to something the gecko cannot ingest like tile, paper towels, or repti carpet ASAP. Not only is aspen dangerous if they eat it but it can also be very rough on a leo's soft underbelly. You want to make sure the under tank heater is providing a warm spot of about 90 degrees and get rid of all the lights. I would only use a black light if your house temperature tends to be under 65 degrees for the majority of the day. Lights tend to dry out the enclosure, cause shedding issues and generally stress leos out. I wouldn't recommend putting anything in the tank that they can climb more than a few inches on. They are not climbing animals and if they fall they can hurt themselves.

What are you feeding? My guess would be your guy is a picky eater because he's stressed out. It could be due to the move, the lights, the bedding or having a cage mate (if they turn out to both be males they WILL fight). I would read a few care sheets to make sure you understand their needs, make sure you have them on a high quality vitamin and calcium supplement and if the gecko is still picky I might take a fecal sample to the vet to make sure there are no internal parasites at play.

Good luck with them!

 

[amandaroar]

what other kinds of substrate could i use? they like to dig like a bed for them selves. i feed them in a different container. im sure they are both not males. i feed them crickets and i feed them a couple waxie worms tonight. my room tends to get really cold which is why i have the lights. I did not just go decide to get the geckos, i have read about them and continue to do reaserch on them. the vine isnt even over an inch tall. about drying out the tank. i spray it about around everyother day to keep the humidity from dropping to much.

 

[acpart]

I"ve moved this thread to the proper forum, which is "Housing" in the Leopard Gecko forums. PLease check to be sure you are in the proper forum/subforum when you post a new thread.

The poster above listed some substrate choices. If your geckos like to dig, you can get a gladware container, cut a hole in the top and put some coco fiber in there. THis can double as the humid hide. THen they'll have a humid place to go and a place to dig, so you can stop misting so often (they come from a low humidity environment, so misting the whole cage that often is not a good idea). ALso, consider eliminating or greatly reducing the waxworms since they don't have very good nutrition and leos can get addicted to them.



Aliza