Thoughts on Setting up a New Terrarium for Leopard Geckos

[Cliff43J]

I bought a 40-gallon terrarium, second hand, for my grandsons, ages 8, 10 & 2 (more or less). Of course, they were excited to set it up and to buy their geckos. Setting up a terrarium is an adventure as the boys wanted just about everything that they saw at the Bio Dude's store...lol... I bought a fair amount there and some online. The geckos were another story. As the terrarium started out as being for the oldest boy, it soon turned into a family affair, but to be fair to Harvey, I had to let him select the geckos. We saw nothing that interested him at the area pet shops. So, it was online we went. After pouring over hundreds, perhaps thousands, of photographs of geckos - whoever thought that there could be so many different varieties and colors? - Harvey settled on a pair of baby chocolate albinos from Backwater Reptiles. They arrived just as we finished (or so we thought) the terrarium setup. FWIW, these chocolate albino geckos are not true albinos. At best they may be leucistic - muted white color with muted colored markings. I don't know why the "industry" insists upon such a blatant false naming practice that flies in the face of scientific naming practices. LATER: Whoops! The literature says that albino geckos may have pink or DARK RED eyes, and upon closer inspection, ours appear to have dark red eyes. So, we move on...lol...

The first few photos show our lovely, at least to us, setup with all of its flaws. What was wrong with it? Just about everything. With all of the hides, the geckos disappeared quickly, and they wouldn't come out...not exactly what I had been hoping for. Well, we had to make it more friendly for handling by my grandsons. Out came the hides. See the revised setup photograph. This has worked out nicely. The geckos still have a simple hide under a small ledge on one of the large pieces of slate which we simply remove when handling time starts. Handling times are in the morning, afternoon and evening for at least 10 minutes each time. The boys love it. Well, Douglas, the youngest, does not touch them as he is too young as far as I am concerned. When he gets older he will be in on the action, and the geckos will be larger, more durable and used to being handled, hopefully.

The geckos are supposedly a male and a female, approximately 2 months old. One is slightly larger than the other. The smaller one is very vocal and has nipped Barry's finger, once. The slightly larger gecko is quite docile. Perhaps next week I'll put them on a pane of glass and try to sex them. They do not like to be turned over, so the glass or plexiglass should do the job for us. Please, excuse the poor quality of the photos. They are done with my cell phone camera.

UPDATE: I have a small heating pad on the underside of the terrarium directly beneath the slate tile in the lower left corner of the "Revised" photo. They love the heat generated by the pad.

 

[acpart]

Here are a few thoughts about your geckos and your setup:
--juvenile geckos protect themselves by hiding, so their behavior isn't unusual, especially when they are in an unfamiliar place (which will become more familiar with time). They also react to stimuli that make them nervous by arching their backs, opening their mouths and screaming. They will calm down with time. I bred geckos for 13 years and found that even though I cared for all the hatchings the same, some never really wanted to come out of their hides much, some didn't want to be held and some were the exact opposite
--I don't think your geckos are "chocolate albinos". They are actually snow albinos. Albino leopard geckos hatch out beige and yellow, while non-albinos hatch out black and yellow (albino in leopard geckos means no black pigmentation). The snow morph features no yellow pigmentation (initially). Normal snow geckos hatch out black and white and albino snow geckos hatch out beige and white. Frequently they get yellower as they mature, but often the albinos stay beige and white. I find it an attractive look. "Chocolate albino" (which isn't a formal gecko morph) just means (beige and yellow) albinos where the beige is really dark. It would be great to have a picture of your geckos from nose to tail taken from the top because I think they also have the stripe gene (more about that after I see the pictures)
--you do realize that housing a male and a female together will ultimately have inevitable consequences. The problem with housing them together as juveniles is that when they get older the male may mate with the female before she's at a good breeding age, sort of like a 13 year old human girl getting pregnant. Leopard geckos aren't hard to breed, but it's not totally simple. Even if you decide to discard the eggs, it's taking a toll on the female.

Feel free to keep asking questions!

Aliza

 

[Cliff43J]

Here are a few thoughts about your geckos and your setup:
--juvenile geckos protect themselves by hiding, so their behavior isn't unusual, especially when they are in an unfamiliar place (which will become more familiar with time). They also react to stimuli that make them nervous by arching their backs, opening their mouths and screaming. They will calm down with time. I bred geckos for 13 years and found that even though I cared for all the hatchings the same, some never really wanted to come out of their hides much, some didn't want to be held and some were the exact opposite
--I don't think your geckos are "chocolate albinos". They are actually snow albinos. Albino leopard geckos hatch out beige and yellow, while non-albinos hatch out black and yellow (albino in leopard geckos means no black pigmentation). The snow morph features no yellow pigmentation (initially). Normal snow geckos hatch out black and white and albino snow geckos hatch out beige and white. Frequently they get yellower as they mature, but often the albinos stay beige and white. I find it an attractive look. "Chocolate albino" (which isn't a formal gecko morph) just means (beige and yellow) albinos where the beige is really dark. It would be great to have a picture of your geckos from nose to tail taken from the top because I think they also have the stripe gene (more about that after I see the pictures)
--you do realize that housing a male and a female together will ultimately have inevitable consequences. The problem with housing them together as juveniles is that when they get older the male may mate with the female before she's at a good breeding age, sort of like a 13 year old human girl getting pregnant. Leopard geckos aren't hard to breed, but it's not totally simple. Even if you decide to discard the eggs, it's taking a toll on the female.

Feel free to keep asking questions!

Aliza

Here are 2 pics of the wee ones. Let me know your thoughts. For some unknow reason to me the second photo has a slight bluish tint to the tiles.

 

[acpart]

Yes, they are snow albinos. The broken tail and body bands (which are usually solid at hatching from side to side) indicate that they have the stripe gene. I really like the look. They should be lovely pastel colored when they mature,

Aliza

 

[alejandrodia]

I bought a 40-gallon terrarium, second hand, for my grandsons, ages 8, 10 & 2 (more or less). Of course, they were excited to set it up and to buy their geckos. Setting up a terrarium is an adventure as the boys wanted just about everything that they saw at the Bio Dude's store...lol... I bought a fair amount there and some online. The geckos were another story. As the terrarium started out as being for the oldest boy, it soon turned into a family affair, but to be fair to Harvey, I had to let him select the geckos. We saw nothing that interested him at the area pet shops. So, it was online we went. After pouring over hundreds, perhaps thousands, of photographs of geckos - whoever thought that there could be so many different varieties and colors? - Harvey settled on a pair of baby chocolate albinos from Backwater Reptiles. They arrived just as we finished (or so we thought) the terrarium setup. FWIW, these chocolate albino geckos are not true albinos. At best they may be leucistic - muted white color with muted colored markings. I don't know why the "industry" insists upon such a blatant false naming practice that flies in the face of scientific naming practices. LATER: Whoops! The literature says that albino geckos may have pink or DARK RED eyes, and upon closer inspection, ours appear to have dark red eyes. So, we move on...lol...







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thanks for the information!