new to leopard geckos .. general questions

[monsters]

a little background .. ive owned bearded dragons for a couple years now .. one very big and healthy male and one very healthy female .. i decided to get leopard geckos because of all the morphs and colors ..

anyway ..

i have a really big tank i was given to by a neighboor of mine ..
50 gallon ..
right now for substrate im using tile ..
i have a 100w ceramic heater and the highest ive seen it get is about 87f ..

should i use and UTH?

what are your feeding/sleep schedule?

for my dragons i do 12/12 7a-7p
so thats pretty much how i have the geckos also(being in the same room)

do i reeeaaaally need a calcium dish if im dusting feeders regularly?
best ways to do a shed box?

id say these guys are about a month or month n a half old ..
idk the gender yet .. shall find out as time comes .. if 2 males, is this tank big enough to house with no problems?
i have my male and female dragons in 2 sep. tanks ..

thanks to all who help me out

monstersss

 

[bjleemkuil]

http://geckoforums.net/showthread.php?t=26095&highlight=Sexing+Made+Simple

This may help you sex them. If they are female you may find it a little harder to determine what they are, but if they are male you know right away!

Also, Leos really don't need an overhead light but it's really essential that they get their belly heat via UTH to help them digest what they're eating. In such a big tank, you could probably use the light as well, just make sure you don't fry them! (I recently got a better UTH ("ZooMed") that works a WHOLE lot better than the cheap one I got when I first started and I find that with the light the temps are WAY too hot for my little girl, so I keep it off for a while) If you do decide to use the light, you may find that an infrared light works really well, they can't see the light (supposedly) so it doesn't bother their sleep cycle.

You don't NEED to have the calcium in the tank with them, but I have noticed in mine that they lick it at random times. Also in a tank that big I don't see why it would hurt anything.

Hope this helps!

 

[monsters]

thanks and yea that did help out ..
i will purchase a uth pad asap ..

well i kno that dragons can see the red light .. so i dont see why a gecko couldnt see it?

should i have calcium+d3 in the dish or just cal.?

when do you feed your geckos?

 

[bjleemkuil]

I feed my Leos mealworms daily (my little ones eat this often, my adult eats when he feels like it lol) usually between 6-9 of them, depending on what they feel like eating. They won't go after them when they aren't hungry.

I have a mixture of both versions in the dishes I have. A little goes a LONG way. =)

 

[Tony C]

They can see red light, but it doesn't bother them like it does dragons. My guess is that the dragon's better developed pineal eye sense the light and leads to sleep disturbance, while geckos react to it as they would moonlight. I don't have any evidence to back that up, just an explanation that seems reasonable.

The dish should have plain calcium, calcium+D3 can be used to dust feeders bugs once or twice weekly with plain calcium and a multivitamin being used on the other days, or you can use a complete supplement like Repashy Calcium Plus at every feeding.

Feeding in the evening is my preference because that is when they start to wake up, but sometimes I feed during the day, they don't really seem to care either way. Some will come out and eat whenever I drop bugs in, and others will wait until night and hunt them down then.

 

[monsters]

thanks^

and your guess seems like a pretty good one to me ..

ive been feeding them mini mealworms and small crickets

im going to be ordering small dubias
how are they with silkworms?

im only have 2 hides for them right now .. i want to do a couple more

 

[clink51]

Silkworms are fine, never fed them to mine as he has fun with the crickets and gets bored with mealworms. From what i've read on here about 98% love the silks so u should go ahead and try it....roaches work too again something i never tried but have read plenty about