New leopard gecko owner

[chinggay]

hi all, i'm a new to leopard geckos and i just got mine yesterday

I live in the philippines and was reading guides to leopard gecko care.

here's my gecko

I forgot the morph name though :main_huh:

All guides say i should have a heating mat or a lamp but when i looked at the temperatures geckos should be at, it's 80-85 degrees Fareheit and 70-80 at night. Here it reaches up to 90-96 degrees in daytime and about 80-85 at night time. do i need to get a cooling pad instead? :main_huh:

 

[LeopardShade]

90-96 F is actually the preferable temperature gradient for leopard geckos, most others would agree would me as well. Sounds good And great looking gecko you've got there!

 

[chinggay]

oh i see that's awesome!

thanks, do you know what kind of morph he's called? the seller told me that the spots will disappear once he'll grow older, he is 25 grams in weight and 5 months in age as i was told

 

[Owens]

gonna take a stab at the morph and call him a hypo tangerine. can't see the tail so can't tell if its a carrot tail or not

 

[Grassroots Geckos]

Great looking gecko, would say it's a hypo tangerine, but as for the heat no need for a cooling pad. Leopard geckos are from an arid desert climate so they are more than capable surviving with your current temperatures. If you do decide to get a heat source make sure it is not a heat lamp but rather a under the tank heat source.

 

[chinggay]

here's a top view of my gecko

and another view

his color is very dull now, the seller told me that he's going to shed his skin and will become brighter after not sure how long it would take though?

also my gecko hasn't been eating for 2 days now and just pooped last night! i didn't know the poop was going to be that big :O

also he stays inside his house and i have not seen him go outside for 3 days? but last night when we went out and came back home he was outside lol! i'm not sure if it's because the lights were out.

I also handle him daily about 3 minutes per day since i bought him, he can be skittish but sometimes he's calm.

 

[LeopardShade]

I'd say your gecko is a Hypo or Super Hypo. Hypo, which stands for Hypomelanistic, is a genetic condition in which melanin (dark pigment) is reduced, hence the few spots. Super Hypo is a name coined for geckos that exhibit little to zero spotting on the body.

Your gecko is probably acclimating to his new home and getting used to the new surroundings. Preferably, you should've waited about a week or so before you started handling him. Over-handling, especially during the acclimation period, can cause a lot of stress on the gecko. I'd quit handling him for now and leave him be for a while as he continues to adjust.

 

[chinggay]

I see thanks for the info, it's a good thing i haven't handled him yet for today :O

Also i just got a book about leopard geckos but i'm still not finished reading it, i was skimming through and i read a part about healthy geckos should have dry stool, the one he pooped yesterday wasn't dry, it was mushy solid but wet! could he be sick?

 

[LeopardShade]

Healthy leopard geckos should generally have solid, well-formed stools. All stools come out moist (just came fresh out of the body, you know) Pretty sure it's impossible for a stool to come out of the body completely dry. Stools that are liquid (diarrhea-like), unusual looking, an odd color, or foul smelling can all be symptoms of various health problems such as Crypto and Coccidea. As long as the stools are solid and well-formed, I don't think there's any need to worry.

 

[chinggay]

oh i see! thank you but what do they usually smell like? it smelled like bird dung! :O

 

[marc26]

I found smell can vary depending on what they eat, On mealworms the smell is really bad, where as circkets and waxworms hardly a smell. Dont know if anyone can shed any more info on this.

 

[chinggay]

thanks for the reply,

it's been 4-5 days now and he's still now eating, he's still dark in color and has yet to turn white(as i've seen in pictures before shedding) how long could this take?

i've been giving him wet tissue yesterday and placed it in his home, i placed another dry home and he the next day he moved to the dry home