More Newbie Leo Questions

[EmilyB]

Hi again,
I have a few more questions for the experts:

1) How much should we be handling our geckos (we have 2 adult females that we adopted from a family who handled them regularly. They are 3 and 4 years old. One is more shy than the other.)? We handle them a couple of times each day, basically just carrying them around and petting them. We're really gentle with them, of course. Also, we let them cruise around on the floor a bit each day. Is that too much handling? We've had them for three weeks.

2) I read that leos shed once a month, but is that true for adults or just juveniles who are still growing? One of our leos looks like she needs to shed (very dull appearance) but nothing's happening. How long does the shedding process take?

3) My son now wants to buy a 3rd leo from the pet store. We have a 1-gallon kritter keeper that we could keep him in for now. Not sure if we are jumping the gun. I guess this isn't really a question, just a concern.

Thanks for reading!
Emily

 

[sleepyjones]

Howdy Emily.

1) You should handle your geckos as much as they want to be handled.
You should let the geckos come to you, as opposed to you going in and grabbing them.
If you just put your hand in the tank, if they walk on take them out, if not, then they probably don't wanna come out so I'd leave them be. Horses for courses though, this is just the way I deal with my geckos. Different people have different methods.

2) Different Leo's shed at different intervals, it depends on a lot of circumstances, but it can be anything from once every 2 - 5 or 6 weeks. So you could have one Leo shed once a month, and another shedding twice in that same month.
The dull appearance would indeed suggest she's about to shed. Again, the time it takes to shed can vary from gecko to gecko. Give it a week and she'll be looking bright and shiny again. Chances are you won't actually see her shed, you'll just wake up one day with a bright, colorful gecko.

3) Leo's are addictive pets. It's entirely up to you if you feel you are able to look after another gecko, and bear in mind that they can live up to about 15 years, so it is a long term commitment. I personally wouldn't house a gecko in a 1 gallon kritter keeper, that's far too small. For a single young gecko you should be looking at least at a 10 gallon tank, which should then probably be upgraded to a larger size when the gecko gets a little bigger.

Also, if you get a younger Leo from a pet store, the chances are it won't have been handled too much, so he won't be as friendly as your older geckos. You'll probably need to go through the whole "training" period where you slowly get the gecko used to human contact. I don't know how old your son is, but because of this he may not like the new gecko as much as much as the friendlier, older ones, he could get bored of it 'cause it's not as fun as the others, and it could be almost forgotten about.

 

[EmilyB]

Thanks, Sleepy. I was actually thinking about keeping the baby gecko in the kritter keeper temporarily only. We'd upgrade to a 10 gallon in a few months. But if we got a female, could we put her in with the two adults after she was quarantined? They are in a 20 gallon long with 3 hides (cool, humid, and warm).

Thought of one more question--am I supposed to be hand-feeding them with tongs or fingers or can they just eat when they feel like it? We're keeping a dish of calcium-dusted mealworms in the tank. Should we be hand-feeding the worms to them instead?

 

[sleepyjones]

It really depends on your geckos.
A lot of geckos, like mine, just won't go near anything in a mealworm dish I have, they're just not interested at all. So if they'll feed from there then that's fine.

You could house the 3 females together, however you'll need to be really careful because a new one would be so much smaller than the older ones. Some people on the forum might recommend against housing a much smaller gecko with the larger ones, I was always of that same opinion. However I rescued a Leo from a pet store that had MBD and a broken leg, I bought a new tank for the new guy, but had to give them to a friend to look after while I was on holiday so had just put them in the same tank which I seperated with a sheet of glass, somehow my older gecko had managed to climb over it and almost seemed to be looking after the smaller sick gecko. If I seperate them again, the larger gecko refuses to eat untill I put them back together. So, you could do it, but you need to be really careful, especially as far as feeding is concerned.

As far as the Kritter Keeper is concerned I think it's too small, it would be too hard to regulate the temperatures. If I were you and you had decided to get another Leo, I would wait untill the time when you have a suitable tank for him, and then get the new guy.

You could also probably do with a couple more hides in your current setup (before getting a new one in there).
You should really have 2 or 3 hides per gecko. So for 2 geckos you should probably have 2 hides in the hot side, 2 in the cool side, a moist hide, and I would put another hide in the middle of the tank.

 

[Spots]

I'm not as experienced as some of the others on this site, but a kritter keeper for a few months seems too small. When I first got mine, she was about 3 inches when I got her, I put her in a 20 gal to start. I know some people would said it would stress her out because it was a little big, but I found it worked great. I could also divide it so it wasn't as big to start then take the divider out when she got larger.

I just think that the kritter keeper is too small to provide a cool and humid hide as there isn't a large surface area to "spread" out the temperature. Unless I'm thinking of a totally different kritter keeper...lol

Also, I never had to hand feed mine. As long as they are moving, she went for it. Check with others about this though since I don't feed mine mealworms as much as others do

 

[Spots]

oh...I guess sleepyjones posted my same thoughts at the same time...lol

 

[EmilyB]

Very good point about the temperature regulation factor. I hadn't thought of that. Sounds like we will wait.
I don't know how I'd fit in any other hides in my current tank unless I just used tp rolls. It's pretty crowded in there. Does it make a difference that I have the foam fake rocks on the back wall for more vertical space?

 

[leonewbie]

10 gallons is the minimum recommended for one gecko, so 20 gallons equals 2 max, and even then, some will say 20 gallons per gecko. You should always house geckos that are of just about equal weight together, but there are a few exceptions, like sleepy said with hers, but it isn't ideal, there could be a lot of stress and bullying that could occur. I would wait on getting a new one.