Sharing Food...New Intro

[SLY]

Hey all, I'm looking at introducing a new baby female in with my established female. First, I have a couple of questions:

1. How do the females act in regards to sharing things (i.e. food [do they fight over crickets], hides [will they share the same hide?], etc.)
2. Will the established female defend her stuff at all?
3. Do I need two humid hides?
4. I know the general rule is 10 gallons/gecko. I have a custom "17" gallon tank, with custom climbs/hides...will they be okay? See my setup here: http://www.geckoforums.net/showthread.php?t=29159


Any other tips/suggestions?



Thanks!

 

[sauroid]

i think it's better to keep/raise them separately.

 

[LizMarie]

Even though I havn't housed leos together I've read a few things about it. First if you have to make sure the two are similar in size or there's a chance that your bigger gecko with bully the smaller one. I've also read that a 20L gallon tank (30x12) is good for two or three and each gecko should have 3 hides to itself so 6 hides in total.

Besides that even if you take all the precautions there's not guarantee that they will like each other and like each other. Leo's are known to be mainly solitary and being housed together might stress them out. You can try but you have to have an eagles eye on them and separate them at the first sign of aggression.

 

[acpart]

It's a good idea to house new geckos, whether they're adults or babies, separately for at least a month to make sure no one has any health problems.

Although the general wisdom is to only house geckos of the same size together, I have housed *adult* geckos of different sizes together, usually in the case where a female is significantly smaller than a male. If you mean that your new gecko is really a baby I suggest you wait until it grows up and is at least 50 grams. If you mean that it's an adult or close to it (some people call all their animals their "babies"), then after the quarantine period, you could put them together for a trial and see how it goes.

Either or both geckos may wave their tails slowly when introduced and one may even try to nip the other. If they don't get into a big fight, leave them and see what happens. The negative signs to look for would be if one gecko starts looking scratched up, seems not to be eating, or loses weight. Also is you see one gecko following the other around from hide to hide and sitting on her wherever she goes, this means there is bullying going on and they need to be separated.

I have kept 2 geckos in a regular 20long (30" length) and up to 4 geckos in a 20 long with a 12"x12" heated upper story. For 3 or 4 geckos I use 1 humid hide which doubles as a laybox and can accommodate up to 2 geckos easily, and 3 regular hides. Most of my adults eat crickets so I don't need food bowls, but if I do supplement with mealworms I use 1 bowl. I use 1 large water bowl. This has worked fine for me for the last 3 years.

Aliza

 

[SLY]

Thanks for the responses, guys. From what I gather, my set up would be ok to house a couple of geckos. It's got a bunch of hide/climb space, with a really large warm side hide. The only problem I could see (from what aliza said) is that I should wait until the geckos reach 50 grams. My current girl is about 20 grams, and the gecko I'm looking at getting is advertised as 23 grams.

 

[LizMarie]

Thanks for the responses, guys. From what I gather, my set up would be ok to house a couple of geckos. It's got a bunch of hide/climb space, with a really large warm side hide. The only problem I could see (from what aliza said) is that I should wait until the geckos reach 50 grams. My current girl is about 20 grams, and the gecko I'm looking at getting is advertised as 23 grams.

I think that would be ok since they are similar in size..


But something i forgot to say I'm not sure if anyone else mentioned it is that I hear a lot of people saying that when you get a new gecko you should put them in quarantine for a few months to make sure they don't have any diseases that may affect your gecko.

 

[SLY]

The thing I feel I should ask about with this too is that, since the new gecko is coming from a breeder who says the gecko is healthy, and I know my gecko is healthy, and given the young age of both geckos...should I really worry about quarantine?

 

[Bennayboi]

House them separately permanently. Your geckos wont enjoy being together, theyll fight for food and the established female will be a pain in the ass to the baby. And a 17 gallon isnt big enough for two geckos.

 

[acpart]

As you can see, there are different opinions about what to do. It does sound as if the 2 geckos are about the same size, so that shouldn't be a problem. It's a good question to ask why quarantine a gecko if you're getting it from a reliable source and it's in good health. In my opinion there are 2 reasons:

--it is possible for a breeder (who may have a large number of geckos) to have a problem that s/he hasn't yet discovered. If you quarantine your gecko for a month, it allows time for anything to surface with the breeder's colony (and hopefully to inform you)

--the more compelling reason is that all geckos carry a normal parasite load which is OK for them. Sometimes under stress, the load can get to be too much and the leo suffers. For some geckos, moving to a new home is stressful. I have always figured "better safe than sorry" so I quarantine everyone for about a month. I would do it for longer if,for example, I were rescuing leos from a source that I didn't trust.

Aliza

 

[nats]

I house my leos seperatly.
Trust me, they are much happier that way! :main_yes:

 

[acpart]

I house my leos seperatly.
Trust me, they are much happier that way! :main_yes:

I think that many of them are. However, I do have one male that tries constantly to dig his way out of the cage when he's housed alone. When I put a female in with him (obviously, I can't put a male in with him) he's much less inclined to do that and seems more content.

Aliza

 

[Bennayboi]

I think that many of them are. However, I do have one male that tries constantly to dig his way out of the cage when he's housed alone. When I put a female in with him (obviously, I can't put a male in with him) he's much less inclined to do that and seems more content.

Aliza

Of course! He just wants to get laid. But i think in general, especially for beginners, leos should be housed separately.

 

[MSMD]

I personally house all of mine seperately. I feel that I can monitor them much more closely as individuals (ie: food intake, bowel movements, etc.). However, some people have had good luck housing them together. That is solely your own choice. That said, if you do decide to house them together, it sounds like they are similarly-sized and should be OK, but only after a minimum of 30 days in quarantine, regardless of who they come from. Quarantine is something that you should practice, no matter what.