What have you done for/with your Leo today/recently?

[Herbiebug]

things I have learned in my first three weeks as a reptile owner:

-live bugs always seem to get restocked at the shops around late Wednesday or Thursday,. I was trying to pick up a small thing of waxworms for the longest time and couldn't figure out why they were always sold out.

-my leo is pretty fussy about substrate and will prioritize comfort over proper temperature. he doesn't like sleeping directly on the ceramic tile, which was why he had initially preferred to spend his daylight hours in the moist hide. as he uses a corner of his warm dry hide as a bathroom, i put a sheet of paper towel under it to simplify cleanup and all of a sudden warm dry hide becomes preferred sleeping spot.

-best time to work on taming is right before meal time. worst time, on the other hand, is directly after meal time. he goes into post-thanksgiving dinner style food coma almost immediately after his supper is eaten, promptly belly flopping in a warm spot and will not be arsed with anything for the next several hours. xD

-things Leto has stared at, tilted his head, wagged his tail, and attempted to eat while I have been in process of tank maintenance: thermometer sensor probe, plastic leaf, speck of cork bark on the paper towel. The leaf was my favorite. He hunted that thing down from half way across the tank. basically when he knows it's about time for food and sees me getting out the bugs, he will start imagining things already in the tank that might be food and sets about hunting.

Last but certainly not least: reptiles are awesome. I am so glad I chose to broaden my pet horizons in this direction.

 

[Herbiebug]

Lesson learned for today: don't mess with the decor too much (while gecko is still inside tank) or your gecko will become stressed and/or annoyed with you. ...Sorry Leto. -____-

 

[cstone]

Last night, while feeding Raka, a cricket managed to wedge itself between her water dish and the wall. I reached in to move her water dish and force the cricket out where she could get to it. When I did so, she mistook my thumb for a cricket and latched on. It took almost a full second for her to realize that what she had in her mouth was not food. It didn't really hurt, but the strength of her jaws kind of surprised me. Moral of the story: watch where you put your fingers at feeding time...

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[DarkNTwisty]

I had a mini photo shoot with my geckos today


Rei, my female tremper

Capone, my male SHT

Clyde, my male Bold stripe

Amara, my female Mack Snow

Aztec, my male Tremper.

 

[DarkNTwisty]

(continued from above)


Luna, my female blizzard

Ziggy, my male Mack snow.

 

[cstone]

Great looking geckos DarkNTwisty! Clyde's pattern and coloring remind me a lot of Raka

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[cstone]

My wife bought her some more crickets and after feeding time I cleaned all of her rocks and water dish then rearranged her tank to move her moist hide closer to the hot side since she is about to shed and made her a cool hide out of her rocks. She's been exploring for a couple hours now.

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[jfleegs]

Both my girls have been on a shedding spree. They are both getting so big now its awesome! Clementine is becoming more orange each shed as well! Also just set up my dubia roach colony today, so there will be a feeding frenzy soon haha.

 

[Herbiebug]

taming progress today. went to do some minor cleaning of tank and started chatting as I have read it is helpful to do to help your gecko recognize what flavour of human is nearby their tank. Leto actually came out of his hide for a little bit in response. That's a new one. Usually he hunkers down under cover when I have my hand in the tank unless there is also food being made available at the time.

I offered him a butter worm as a treat but he wasn't especially interested. Not surprised on that as he had a large meal just yesterday. Anyway, only reason I mention it is that I left the butter worm in as I finished up cleaning, super genius butter worm crawls directly into warm hide with Leto, snuggles up (from what I could see) against his tail, and gets comfy. Leto then switches to different hide. Goddamnit Leto you reptilian teddy bear you allowed yourself to be evicted from your own house by a squishy little butter worm! >.<

I removed said butter worm.

edit--- Leto has now returned to his favorite hide after an extensive inspection to ensure there are no worm inhabitants lurking therein.

 

[cstone]

Went to the pet store today to pick up mealworms since Raka ate the last of hers yesterday, and I decided to pick up some superworms too. I was a little nervous that she wouldn't like them since it was her first experience with them, but she seemed to like them even more than mealworms!

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[indyana]

Yesterday was "disinfect EVERYTHING reptile" day at my house, so both the lizard cages got a complete and thorough cleaning and disinfecting. Amoré the leopard gecko responded by trashing his tank and spreading calcium everywhere about a half hour after the cleaning. XD

The silkworms are just barely reaching mealworm size, so I gave Amoré one as a treat last night. I'll probably feed him a bunch tonight for his normal Sunday meal.

 

[Herbiebug]

I witnessed an event today that solved a mystery about my leo's bathroom behaviour. Ever since I started putting paper towel under his warm hide, and he started to use it as his primary sleeping spot, he stopped using the far corner of it as bathroom spot. Bathroom spot moved to a pretty tight area in the corner of the cool side of tank, behind a decorative log and some plastic plants. I knew there was plenty of space for him to get back there but I couldn't figure how he was causing his droppings to land right in the corner the way they were. The angles involved seemed like they would have been... uncomfortable.

Anyway. The answer is simple. And really really funny. He is climbing all the way up to the top of the log, swiveling around so hind end is facing the corner, and bombs away from there to land on the paper towel some nine inches below. Like a sailor on a ship at sea. :main_robin:

 

[Olympus]

Yesterday I went to a reptile show and bought butterworms for everyone, which I haven't done in a while. I loaded up my geckos' feeder bowl, which is a large shallow ceramic bowl, with butters, crickets, and supers and one of my AFTs came running over and was so enthralled by all the food in her bowl that she didn't even know where to start. She stared at everything for a good 5-10 minutes and finally decided that one of the butterworms was probably a good first choice. This morning the bowl is pretty much empty and all four geckos seem pretty content.

This morning I moved their tank into a different room and misted everything down, so they've been out for a couple hours now checking out their new view. It's cute how curious they are, they definitely realize when things are different and aren't happy until they've been fully checked out!

 

[Herbiebug]

Taming progress! :smitten:

My guinea pig inspired hand feeding and food association taming plan has been going really well. I first learned how to do this with guinea pigs but it seems to translate pretty much the same for a leo. General idea is just the food association with my hand and also to always wait for the gecko to make physical contact. The later is especially important with guinea pigs as they can be super slippery when you need to pick them up if they don't want to be, so the more you can teach them to come to you first the better.

I've been feeding some part of the meal with chopsticks then leaving hand next to bowl as Leto finishes the remainder. At first he headed straight to the hide when he polished off the worms for a couple weeks, then started to stick around a bit to strike at or lick the calcium off the ends of my chopsticks, and the last two feedings he has actually approached my hand itself and made some introductory licks (looking for more food). Success!

There is one wrinkle i hadn't expected though. He will have nothing to do with my hand if I'm not holding the chopsticks. A hand without chopsticks that is not otherwise engaged in tank cleaning activity makes him nervous.

 

[Olympus]

You'd be surprised how positive conditioning works exactly the same for all animals, mammals or otherwise! Using food to create positive associations works for everything.

 

[Herbiebug]

Made a hammock out of a piece of cupboard liner and some wall hooks. Curious to see if he'll use it.

Also managed to grab a quick photo while he was out staring me down in reminder of the fact that it was bug time.

 

[cstone]

Made a hammock out of a piece of cupboard liner and some wall hooks. Curious to see if he'll use it.

Also managed to grab a quick photo while he was out staring me down in reminder of the fact that it was bug time.

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Lol! Raka greeted me when I got home tonight with that same look. She was standing on top of her worm dish and looking right at the door from the garage where I come in. I took it as "you're late... I'm hungry!".

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[Herbiebug]

Couple gecko related doings today, one directly leo related and one potentially leo related:

1. I've started very lightly misting the plants on the cool side of Leto's tank. The climate is extremely dry here and Leto seems to really enjoy it when I do this. He climbs up in to the leaves and licks the drops from them.

2. Baked some cottonwood branches I have picked up from the ground at the university campus where I work. These are for Leto's future new neighbour's tank. Will be either a gargoyle or chahoua. Probably gargoyle unless northern gecko posts up a chahoua i instantly fall in love with on their site in the next couple weeks. Leto may also get a new branch of his own if it turns out I have extra.

 

[wafles]

Started a mealworm colony! Call me weird but for 6 bucks this is the neatest thing, food for my gexko , soil for my garden, and if to many mealies show up fishing bait or chicken feed.

 

[cstone]

Raka got to explore the yard for the first time today. She seemed to enjoy the grass and new interesting things, but when I set her down on the deck it was clear she was ready to go back inside. The patio doors were open and she darted straight inside and back to her tank.

I've wanted to let her go outside for a while now, but mostly I just took the opportunity since the weather was nice and I had just painted a wall near her tank and I wanted to get her away from the fumes while the room aired out.

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