noob gecko owner with questions aplenty . .

[fallenangelfyre]

so i got a leopard gecko for my girl for her b-day. neither of us have ever had a lizard. we are learning as we go.

^question one:
the dude who sold me the gecko said that sand is bad. and after viewing multiple posts, i see why. so he recomended bark as a substitute. now after looking at multiple posts i have yet to see one person who uses this as a substrate.
*is bark in any way harmful to the geckos life? (as is sand)?
*it seems that most people use either tile, the carpet stuff, or just paper towels. now i see the perks in these as they can't possibly be ingested and therefor safe. but i would like to use something that would mimic a more natural envorinment. i've seen this sand stuff in the pet stores that claims to be safe to ingest- is this a hoax? is there anything that is safe and still mimics natural environments? how about just plain dirt?


^question two:
what is the best way to heat the gecko's environment?
dude who sold me him sold me a ten gal. aquarium with a mesh screen top, a ballasted lamp with a 40 watt basking bulb, and a 60 watt red light night bulb. we bought a digi thermometer and basically it is always around 80 degrees, day or night. we try to change the bulb around the same time to give him a normal day/night schedule. but from what i've seen on the forum it's best to give him 90-95 degree heat in the day and around 80 degree heat during the night.
*would it be better to use an under-tank heating pad? or i've also seen ceramic heat emmitters that you screw into ballasted lamps. or would it be better to just get a higher watt basking or daylight bulb that would bring the temp up to about 90 during the day?

^question three:
what is the proper way to feed him? we are feeding him four crickets dusted with repti-cal every other day. is this enough crickets often enough? is repti-cal enough? i've read that they need some sort of multi-vitamin as well. when if ever should i give him meal worms?

^question four:
how active should he be?
he seems to just hide in his favourite hide-cave all day and all night. is this a sign that he is unhappy or unhealthy? is he just not yet used to his surroundings?

^question five:
when is it okay to handle him?
i read in a basic care page online that you should handle him often when he is young if you want him to be okay with it when he gets older. but then i read in a conflicting article that you should not handle him for the first few months to let him aclimate to his new surroundings. we may have shot the pooch on this one as we have already been handling him . . oh i'd say for five minutes every few days.


. . . . suggestions . . . suggestions . . . .suggestions


thank you- i know that this is alot of questions, but we are bumbling idiots trying to figure things out. we love him very much and want to give him a great life and trying to figure out how to do that. again thank you so much-

 

[ReptarNDukeNukem]

I believe the best if you want a natural look will be clay.
Heat:Leopard gecko NEED belly heat MORE than air heat.You need a hot and cool side so I suggest putting the heat lamp on the hotside.
You can keep on feeding him/her crickets but just in case if she is hunger leave a dish with dusted mealworms so if he/she gets hungry she is able to eat and also have a cap full of calcium because they will take licks of it when they want.
Most people do not see their Leopard geckos move because they are usually most active when their is not a lot of moving or noise.
When you buy a New Leopard gecko quarantine them so they do not have worms or parasites for 1-2 months and do not handle them because will be stressed out.

 

[vctkiller]

Question 1: For a natural look tile is a great one. They come in many colors for you to choose from. Maybe if you have the time with your girl you can do a fun project with a grout background. I would say about the sand is not a good idea. Yea, your gecko may lick some of it and impaction wont occur, but sooner or later it will so you shouldn't take any chances of buying sand even if it says can be digestible. Its like saying I can take a bag of sand and digest it and say that I would have my stomached pumped =). I wouldn't recommend dirt either because it could contain chemicals or harmful bacteria if your getting it outside or from a Home Depot.

Question 2: For heating you should go for the Under Tank Heater, UTH, because its going to heat your gecko's belly and help it digest its food. You shouldn't really need a basking bulb because since leopard geckos are nocturnal they wouldn't be basking in the morning.
A UTH would do you fine, just get a thermostat to control your temperatures between 90 to 92 and you'll be fine. Be sure that the UTH covers 1/3 to a half of your tank, I think now the UTH have listed on them what size tank they are recommended for. So your gecko will be able to choose which side she/he wants to go on.

Question 4: Leopard geckos aren't usually active in the day buy are active in the night. Maybe it's still getting use to its surroundings and might take a while.

Question 5: A couple of MONTHS of wait to handle your gecko is really to long. I handled my first leopard gecko around a week and a half after my purchase.

 

[fallenangelfyre]

thanx for the advice guys. what i've got so far:
- definitely need a UTH rather than a basking bulb.
-it seems that tile is the best choice so far for substrate.
- handling is okay.

to vctkiller; we have actually already started a grout & styrofoam backround that is turning out great looking! especially for the whole "natural environment" look. a few more coats of grout and some paint and it will be goin in the tank.

 

[fallenangelfyre]

what about eco-earth as a substrate?

 

[GeckoGal]

I've know of a few people here using Eco-Earth, But I wouldn't suggest it. It's still a loose substrate and they can swallow it. I do Use it in my gravid female's lay boxes though.

 

[fallenangelfyre]

arrrgghhh! this substrate thing is bringing out the pirate in me. is there no visually pleasing naturalistic substrate that is safe for the lil' guy?

anybody have any more input on my other questions?

 

[ReptarNDukeNukem]

I think that hard clay would be fine but I do not know the rest.

 

[fikken]

what about eco-earth as a substrate?

I have have had 0 problems with eco earth in two separate tanks. I have two 3 year old geckos that originally were on repti carpet for the base majority of their lives that transitioned to eco earth without an issues. I also bought 3 sub adults for another tank that were put into eco earth and they are doing great as well. The main thing about the substrate is based on your observations. If you observe that they may have an issue with it, change substrate. Most likely though you will not with eco earth. You keep it dry as any substrate should be for leopard geckos and the substrate is fine. I don't see an ingestion issue what so ever if you feed the geckos by hand, with elongated feeders tongs, or buy a feeder deli dish. I only see them ingesting eco earth by accident if they were lunging for prey and got a mouthful, which as said above can be avoided by several options. It works great in moist hides with sphagnum moss on top of it too.

 

[Tony C]

I doubt eco-earth would be hazardous, it doesn't impact frogs when they eat a little with their crickets. You could also try zoo-med excavator clay, it is supposed to dry into a solid mass that shouldn't be easily ingested, and would actually be pretty similar to their native habitat.

 

[fallenangelfyre]

bump-

more suggestions please-

*substate?
*proper feeding?
*how active?
*handling?

 

[HugeGenes&LoLa]

Substrate: I don't know much about eco-earth, but we use repti-carpet and turf. You can go to home depot and get it by the yard I think, and it is super easy to clean. And cheap! Also, the leo's natural habitat is actually hard packed clay from what I've gathered in all the debates we've had here They do not live on "sand" but more of a hard surface. There are some really visually appealing tiles sold at home depot, which look just like sand, and are safe. You can probably find a lot of threads with pictures if you use the search bar up top ^^ and type in "tiles". (The search engine works best if you only use one word).

Proper feeding: This mostly has to do with the size of your gecko. Smaller/younger geckos should be fed every day, while adults can be fed every other day. I think crickets are a lot of fun for them to catch, but you probably shouldn't feed them if you decide to go with eco-earth (but I'm not an expert on eco-earth). Geckos know when they are full, so you can keep feeding until they stop. If your gecko is young, and it eats to many, it might regurgitate the food. This could be very scary I know! But it's not a terrible thing, and we've only had 1 out of maybe 20 geckos do that so far. Plus, if he does that, he'll learn and will not do it again next time. Keeping a dish of ten meal worms or so in the tank is a good idea. They tend to feed better in the evenings, since it's when they are active. We feed calcium to our leos at least once a week, but generally 3 or 4 times a week. If you find it difficult to remember to dust feeders, keeping a bottle cap with calcium in the tank is a good idea. They love the stuff, and they know when they eat it. We have a hard time getting it to stick to meal worms, so we just spoon feed it to our leos and they bite the spoon they like it so much!

As far as being active, your leo will come out when he's ready. It also has a lot to do with personality. We have one gecko who never comes out of his hide, 2 females who will roam around a little during the day and a quite frequently in the evenings, and I have another male who scratches at his tank walls he wants out so badly! Your leo probably won't be roaming around for another couple of months until he's used to his new place.

Handling: We handle ours right away! We take it easy for the first few weeks, only taking them out for a few minutes each day so they get used to us, but we have always handled our geckos right away and they have all turned out just fine. Eugene, who we've had the longest, gets pretty upset if he isn't handled every night, and he will actually crawl up onto my hand when I put it in his tank. Just make sure that there are no loud noises when you take him out, talk in a soft voice if you talk at all, and if he's running around looking really stressed out that probably means he should go back in his cage.

I'm glad you're making sure you get all the answers you need to take care of this little guy properly! Good luck!

 

[fallenangelfyre]

Substrate: I don't know much about eco-earth, but we use repti-carpet and turf. You can go to home depot and get it by the yard I think, and it is super easy to clean. And cheap! Also, the leo's natural habitat is actually hard packed clay from what I've gathered in all the debates we've had here They do not live on "sand" but more of a hard surface. There are some really visually appealing tiles sold at home depot, which look just like sand, and are safe. You can probably find a lot of threads with pictures if you use the search bar up top ^^ and type in "tiles". (The search engine works best if you only use one word).

Proper feeding: This mostly has to do with the size of your gecko. Smaller/younger geckos should be fed every day, while adults can be fed every other day. I think crickets are a lot of fun for them to catch, but you probably shouldn't feed them if you decide to go with eco-earth (but I'm not an expert on eco-earth). Geckos know when they are full, so you can keep feeding until they stop. If your gecko is young, and it eats to many, it might regurgitate the food. This could be very scary I know! But it's not a terrible thing, and we've only had 1 out of maybe 20 geckos do that so far. Plus, if he does that, he'll learn and will not do it again next time. Keeping a dish of ten meal worms or so in the tank is a good idea. They tend to feed better in the evenings, since it's when they are active. We feed calcium to our leos at least once a week, but generally 3 or 4 times a week. If you find it difficult to remember to dust feeders, keeping a bottle cap with calcium in the tank is a good idea. They love the stuff, and they know when they eat it. We have a hard time getting it to stick to meal worms, so we just spoon feed it to our leos and they bite the spoon they like it so much!

As far as being active, your leo will come out when he's ready. It also has a lot to do with personality. We have one gecko who never comes out of his hide, 2 females who will roam around a little during the day and a quite frequently in the evenings, and I have another male who scratches at his tank walls he wants out so badly! Your leo probably won't be roaming around for another couple of months until he's used to his new place.

Handling: We handle ours right away! We take it easy for the first few weeks, only taking them out for a few minutes each day so they get used to us, but we have always handled our geckos right away and they have all turned out just fine. Eugene, who we've had the longest, gets pretty upset if he isn't handled every night, and he will actually crawl up onto my hand when I put it in his tank. Just make sure that there are no loud noises when you take him out, talk in a soft voice if you talk at all, and if he's running around looking really stressed out that probably means he should go back in his cage.

I'm glad you're making sure you get all the answers you need to take care of this little guy properly! Good luck!

thank you, HugeGenes&LoLa so much! you have been a great help- especially with the feeding. i had no idea how much i'm supposed to give him beyond what the obviously ill-informed pet store employee told me. the lil' guy now has an UTH, and i'm currently looking into tile or slate for his substrate. and i'm in the last few stages of building him a nice faux rock wall backround:

. . just a couple more layers of grout, some sanding, and some painting!
can anyone recomend a good multi-vitamin for him?

 

[Tony C]

What about doing a floor made the same way as the background? Should be durable and keep a consistent, naturalistic look for you.

 

[sammer021486]

What about doing a floor made the same way as the background? Should be durable and keep a consistent, naturalistic look for you.

Now that would be a great idea, as long as it is easy to clean, keep clean, and allow the heat through from the UTH.

A point to keep in mind when selecting a tile is that it is not the super smooth type because it will be a royal pain for the gecko to move around on. Think of it as if you are running a sheet ice and you'll know how the gecko feels. Slate is a very nice tile and that is what I use in my custom tanks, in my 10 gallons its just paper towel.

 

[HugeGenes&LoLa]

That rock wall looks amazing! Someday I want to get around to making one of those

We use Reptolife vitamins I think, but it is messy and our geckos HATE it. We have to mix it in with the calcium to trick them into eating it haha. We use Repcal calcium, but we've never used the vitamin supplement. I think if I were going to pick something else I'd choose that, because their calcium product is great. If you decide to get the vitamin supplement, I would probably only give it to him once a week. They don't need the vitamins as often as the calcium. Maybe someone else can suggest another vitamin supplement that their geckos actually like.

 

[Tony C]

I dust with Repashy Calcium Plus ICB for all my bug eaters, haven't had trouble with any of them rejecting it.

 

[fallenangelfyre]

thanx guys. update: we went to a big pet store that had more options and got a multi-vitamin for him. i think it's reptolife. we actually bought some brown repti-carpet for him temporarily. i'm going to marinate on the whole substrate issue. prolly going to just get some slate tile and have it cut to size. that's an interesting idea of doing the floor the same way i did the rock wall. i will have to do some experiments to see how well it would work.
a big thanx to HugeGenes&LoLa again for the advice on feeding. we had been just giving him four crickets every other day since that is what the guy who sold me him told me. but yesterday we put a lil dish of calcium with some meal worms in it and put like ten crickets in there to see how much he would eat. he ended up eating i think 6 crickets and five meal worms. we then removed the crickets he hadn't eaten. so it seems we have been under-feeding him.
while at the pet store i perused some of the larger aquariums and vivs. contemplating building my own custom one as i have a lot of experience in wood working. is there such a thing as one that is too big for just one juvie leo? also, we looked at some of the other lizards there and i was wondering if it is okay to house different species together? the crested geckos are cute and thought about getting a couple of those or something-

 

[fallenangelfyre]

Tony C- you're in ashland? i actually grew up in eugene! man i miss the great pacific northwest. it's odd, i've noticed on this forum quite a few oregonians are into keeping lizards and frogs. i guess it must stem from our love of nature and the outdoors.

 

[Tony C]

I grew up in Eugene too, just moved down here in September.