New Owner

[ElementR]

Hello all! I just adopted a young leopard gecko from a friend and am glad to find a site like this, lots of good info here. The picture in my avatar is my leo, with its tongue out!

Unfortunately I do not think the gecko was well cared for, believe it was bought at Petsmart a week ago. Not where I would get a pet but Im glad to give it a safe home now.

Its young, but not sure of the exact age its 3-4 inches. I picked it up yesterday and it was grey and white, now its turning black and orange/yellow. It has been eating small crickets since I got it. I think it is a bit scared of me though. If I walk by the tank during the day it will disappear, but it doesn't seem to mind being handled. I'm not sure about the sex or name yet but I will have to figure it out soon.

There is a reptile show coming here soon and would like another leo but no eggs in the future. Would it be a problem to have 2 males or 2 females in a 10 gal terrarium together? Also can I accurately determine the leo's gender at this size?

 

[JordanAng420]

Hi there! Welcome!

Congrats on your new addition! Cute pic, with the tongue out and everything!

Leopard geckos are nocturnal so they generally come out more at night than during the day, and being that it's still so small, i'd imagine it's still pretty scared of everything, so the hiding is normal behavior...

At 3-4 inches, it is probably still too young to sex...the pores and hemipenal bulges of a male become quite obvious the older the gecko gets.

You're not going to want to keep 2 males together, but 2 females are SOMETIMES okay...I keep all my geckos separate, because I like to monitor them separately and one usually ends up bullying the other one anyway...but other folks have had great luck keeping females together. You're probably going to want to get something around a 20 gallon long for 2 geckos, a 10 gallon is fine for one.

Post up some other photos when you get a chance....and again, welcome!

 

[delilah61011]

You shouldn't ever put two males together in a tank as they will become territorial, but two females should be fine in a 10 gallon. You can sex leos if they are about 3-4 months and you are somewhat familiar with what their 'parts' look like. Males will have hemipenes bulges at the base of their tail and they will also have a v-shaped row of preanal pores before the vent. Females have no bulges and only a slight row of modified scales that may look like pores. You can find tons of pictures of the male and female 'parts' by google searching sexing leopard geckos, but I would suggest that you wait to get another gecko until you know for sure what gender this one is, or you could purchase another 10 gallon and put the new gecko in that tank.

 

[Bongo]

Welcome to GF and congratulations on your gorgeous first leo! 2 adult male leopard geckos will fight if housed in the same enclosure except for some instances in which the geckos have been housed together from an early age. Multiple females can be housed together, though I feel that a standard 10 gallon terrarium is too small to comfortably house more than 1 adult leo. A 20 gallon long terrarium is a better choice for housing 2 females. Though many people claim that leos can be sexed at only a few months of age, this is not always true in my experience. I have 1 male leo that looked female even to an experienced herpetologist until the gecko was over a year old.

 

[contracteryin]

As everyone as said, don't house two males together.
20 is fine for two, though 20 long is better then 20 tall, cause as I'm sure you know they're terrestrial animals. Your gecko is very pretty by the way congrads

 

[ElementR]

Thanks for the replies all here is another picture

 

[Suncharmers]

:main_thumbsup:Hey a BIG welcome to you and your pretty new baby and thank you for the nice comments on my snow babys, Not sure what ya have yet but sure is a CUTIE ! See ya on the forum