New to the Gecko world..need suggestions

[don_juan_el_guapo]

So, I'm a long time Chinese Water Dragon owner. I had the opportunity to go to a reptile expo and I loved the geckos I saw. I'm just wondering what suggestions for a newbie you could give me. There are sooooooooooo many to choose from. Suggestions on starters?? Thanks in advance.

John

 

[acpart]

Welcome to GF! It's hard to tell you what to get because it really depends on what you like. Think about these parameters: do you like lots of spots or no spots? black/white, yellow, white or orange? Banded, striped or jungle (partial stripe is one way to think of that)? When I was choosing my first geckos I looked at a lot of pictures till I found what I liked the best. Look at the gallery here, the classifieds and also look at the leopardgeckowiki.com. When you decide what you're interested in, see if you can get one from a show or a breeder rather than craigslist or the pet store. If you go to a show, I recommend you stay away from the vendors that have 10 different species and a few leopard geckos as well. In my opinion you should get one in the $25-$100 range. Unless you see a really expensive gecko that is just exactly what you're looking for, there's no need to start by spending that much (I don't think I"ve ever spent more than $150 for a leopard gecko). I also recommend you get a female so when inevitably you feel you want another one, you can get another female and house them together (after quarantine) if they can get along. If you haven't read caresheets yet, read the ones you access by clicking on the articles/caresheets button at the top.

I hope that was helpful.

Aliza

 

[don_juan_el_guapo]

I love the smooth knob tail, really cute. I also love the Halloween masked leopards. Unfortunately, I don't have that kind of $$$. Plus I have 4 kids. They handle my chinese water dragon just fine. So, I'm not afraid they will hurt it. But I don't want to pay a lot for a starter.