New leo owners........BEWARE!!!

[mmsi1002]

So you just got your 1st leo & you love him to death......right? You already can't wit to get another. Then you'll say "I can get gorgeous hatchlings if i only had a certain female". Next thing you know you see a tank on craigslist & say wow, i can have a few more females in there. Later you notice that your leos are gorgeous but your camera doesn't do them justice & you go out & buy a fancy new digital camera. What started with 1 adorable little leo, led to you being a collector, a photographer, craigslist junkie, a regular at reptile expos, & an expert at worm species.........not to mention a genetics expert. Just to be clear......i'm not complaining, just realizing what my 1st leo did to me. I can't believe that a 25 gram gecko made me realize what passion was all about. To all the new owners, this is a very brief summary of your life in the future......have fun with it!!

 

[Baysidegeckos]

Thats right, Just keep your burning desire and you will have more to come of it!

 

[GeckoConnection]

agree

I agree. It all starts with that first leo. I had been a long time snake keeper. However my brother got a few leos and when I first saw them, I was kind of like, big deal. But after watching them for a while, I became interested. So I did the above. Got a gecko (from Dan at HotGeckos, thanks.) and I was in. Everything you mentioned above is true. I even traded my snake collection away, since these leos take alot of my free time and are much more enjoyable in my opinion. It is more then a passion... its an addiction.

 

[Ipsl]

Ha Im at the new camera phase. WOOT!!! But I allready went to the expo to get those specific females.

 

[TWC]

you pretty much just pegged me.

 

[Double LY]

What a great thread!!! Too funny and totally true. We "adopted" our first leo last year for a Christmas gift for our two sons and now have 20 - plus 3 beardeds, a crestie (I want more, more, more of them) and a uro (plus a ball python my poor husband had been requesting for years).

The one thing you forgot is you eventually run out of room for tanks and decide to buy/build a rack system If you build your own you will realize how easy/inexpensive it is and decide to build two (Then you have a garage full of tanks waiting to be filled up again)

If you're lucky you will also go to a show and meet one, two or more of the fabulous breeders on this site. Knowing you won't see them again soon, that purchase of "only one more leo" turns into as many as possible (Jeremy Letkey has been a huge enabler in my addiction :main_laugh: )

Oh, and I already told Santa that I've been good and want a camera for Christmas ...

 

[mmsi1002]

In the beginning i didn't agree with rack systems bc i thought they were too simple. But now i'm realizing that as long as they have similar amounts of floor space for the leos........it's definitley the way to go. I guess after a while you realize that fancy hides & decorations are more for you than the geckos!

 

[supperl]

agreed^^

 

[Ccrashca069]

Everything I have read in this thread is so true lol. I got my new camera just before I got my first leopards and now I am making the plans on building a rack system. I too been against rack systems for a good 7 years. I have now seen the light. I even think my first leopard I bought is even gravild now. When I clean her cage later, I will look better.

 

[JConley]

Addiction!

Yes i agree with this,i myself started with one approx 8 months ago, now i have 3 and thinking of getting 2 more very soon. "They are like potato chips" you just cant have one! lol

As for their habitat i like to keep them in something thats pleasing to look at but at the same time highly functional and easy to clean and deal with. I am now looking at a glass display case that a jewelry store is selling 9 feet wide
by 2 feet deep, plenty of room to separate many future Leos i get.

I am building a wall center to hold all the cases and tanks should be done by spring.

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

Pegged!

 

[paulnj]

I have always been into reptiles my whole life but Sold or gave away my vast collection of snakes 10 years ago.

I got a pair of normals in 06. Fast forward .. Well let's just say I passed the 50 mark along time ago.

 

[DAWNoftheLEO]

Lol, seems to me it goes this way with all of "us", It was almost the exact same thing with me a few years ago with a tremper albino, shtctb, and went full blown as of the last couple of years, except I do have racks BUT! I have a stack of 6 Visionariums just to view my favorite ones or pairs! And now I want an EVEN better camera than the one I bought last year, lol.

 

[dod_resq_ff]

I so agree we started with 2 in a small 20L tank and now have 7 tanks and 12 leos from 25grams all way up to 100grams. Always knew I would be a reptile keeper at a ''zoo'' little did I know that zoo would be my spare bedroom.

 

[ARgeckos]

I agree...its addicting. But you gotta love it! its fun

 

[Double LY]

BUT! I have a stack of 6 Visionariums just to view my favorite ones or pairs!

We still have 3 in tanks. Spot the originator of this madness , Alex, who just has a really cool tank that I don't want to get rid of and Ojai, who is so psychotic that he would probably gnaw his way through a plastic tub :main_laugh:

Always knew I would be a reptile keeper at a ''zoo'' little did I know that zoo would be my spare bedroom.

My husband has called me the "pet hoarder" for years. Now he REALLY has a reason. As long as the "Animal Cops" don't come breaking down the door, the collection will continue to grow :main_thumbsup:

 

[yellermelon]

Yeah umm...worse than CRACK and more expencive!

 

[paulnj]

:main_evilgrin: Are you sure Chris :main_evilgrin:

 

[rubym]

There needs to be A LA fo rsome of us. I had to laugh at your post. I went to Walmart at 4 am on the day after Thanksgiving JUST to get a digital camera that they had on sale and I have 110 pictures on my sd card and 95 of them are of our 4 legged babies ( NOT the cat or the dog either), LOL. I should have read that post a year ago and I would never have let my hubby buy "Leo" our first leo. Naw, I can't think of a much better addiction to have if you have to have one!!!!!!!

Ruby

 

[moosassah]

for me it's the fact that we have a mealie colony...prior to owning leos those nasty squirmy wriggly things were nothing short of crusty maggots. Now I hand feed, sort by hand...HUGE DIFFERENCE in perception.