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

[Olympus]

This is just a cute story, but last night I opened up the lid of my AFT gecko community tank and was adjusting a cork hide because someone had made a mess of it. And as I'm working on it I suddenly feel a little mouth clamp down on my pinkie finger! I look down and my white out male had come running out of a different hide, seen my fingers, and I guess got excited for dinner lol. Ungrateful little tot.

I put some superworms and butterworms in their feeder bowl and he was greatly appeased!

 

[Herbiebug]

bought a cricket keeper and a small tub of crickets yesterday. i've been putting this off as, truth be told, crickets really creep me out. It was the smell I was concerned about mostly. When you walk up to a display of cricket containers in the pet shop, it is palpable. However, I read more about the situation and learned that the powerful garbage odor is mostly something you encounter when cricket enclosures are not clean. This turned out to be true. I have 25 crickets here at home in a cricket container and the smell is not noticeable unless I stick my nose directly in there, and even then it isn't strong. So that is good. I will not be breeding them as I do the mealworms. Just going to buy a 2 week supply at a time. There is local pet store nearby that sells them in bulk and keeps them well gutloaded, so that is perfect for me.

I was glad to read that alfalfa pellets are one of the acceptable food items for crickets as I have half a bag of those designed for juvenile guinea pigs. So i made a blend of carrot, alfalfa pellets, oats, bran, and some reptivite for the buggers. They appear to be enjoying. Good good.

I know that the reptile shop I purchased Leto from fed crickets almost exclusively so I'm sure he will be thrilled when I drop a few in to his tank.

edit--- Oh! Just saw a gecko yawn. I manage to see Leto do that about once a week. Hilarious.

 

[indyana]

So i made a blend of carrot, alfalfa pellets, oats, bran, and some reptivite for the buggers.

Might want to mix in a good amount of protein, ground dry dog food for example, so the little buggers don't start eating one another. Crickets crave protein a lot more than other feeders. One of the many reasons I don't like keeping crickets either... >_< Give me roaches any day!

Today was vet day for my gecko and his big brother the skink. I wanted to get them both parasite tested, as I'm thinking about getting another gecko this year. Amoré, the gecko, got a good checkup report, and his weight is up to 80 grams! Skink has a case of gingivitis though, so we get to have fun with cotton swabs and mouth gel for a few weeks. D'oh...

 

[Olympus]

I would not use anything like dog food in my gutload, reptiles don't do well when they ingest a lot of animal protein (they eventually get things like gout), so it's always much safer to stick to a vegetarian diet. Or a commercial food like Repashy superload, which has been carefully formulated to provide protein but not too much. Dog or cat food is way too high in protein content.

 

[Herbiebug]

I did a bit of extra research and yes this does seem to be a bit of a contentious thing. Correct gut load for crickets, that is. I've gone somewhere about right down the middle and added some tropical fish flakes to my existing mix. Should be good. My crickets are healthy and active, and none have died under my care yet so all is going well.

Saw Leto use his hammock the other day. The cupboard liner has a bit more elasticity to it than the commercial reptile hammock material, and much to my amusement, he seems to get a kick out of the bounciness. Won't sleep on it but he definitely likes climbing and walking around on it. :main_yes:

In other reptile news, I'm all set to take on a gargoyle gecko. Going to pick one out next week i think.

 

[cstone]

It hasn't happened yet but I'll share anyways. Hopefully this Saturday Raka will be getting a new furry, much larger, 4-legged friend to keep her company while my wife and I are at work. My wife and I started talking to a lady about a pitbull that she rescued but now needs a forever home Don't worry, their relationship will remain behind glass or a closed door.

Sent from my d2lte using Tapatalk

 

[Tico]

made them a custom tank




custom Tank , and they are all hand fed .

 

[Herbiebug]

Neat!

did a cricket feed today. i am learning cricket handling techniques as I go. Like all cricket transferring between their container and plastic bag is now done sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor with a fly swatter or slipper or shoe or something to dispatch any escapees with prejudice. I have also begun disabling them (break one rear knee) prior to feeding. There is quite a bit of decor -hiding places- in Leto's tank and I will not have them all running loose in there. So what has generally happened in the past week is, Leto eats the majority from his bowl, a couple manage an escape off the shock wave of Leto's head plowing into the pile of them, and he then hunts those down. That's good enough for the time being.

Once I have completed taming process and I can transfer him in to a separate bin for cricket feeding in a stress free way, i will switch to that technique and stop disabling the crickets prior.

Also having way too much fun putting together my gargoyle viv. It's going to be awesome. I even braided and silicone sealed a length of nylon rope for extra climbing fun.

 

[Herbiebug]

Second shed at home yesterday evening and first time I managed to watch some of the process. It was a little scary about an hour before he started loosening the skin on his nose. Breathing was normal but he had sort of, i'm not sure how to describe, tunnel vision. He seemed completely oblivious to the fact that I was sitting there watching him. Very slight mouth breathing as well.

Poked my head in briefly to check on him before work this morning and he was back to normal behaviour. He peered around the corner of the entrance to his moist hide to say hello as usual. Will do a check to see if all skin removed successfully this afternoon. I expect so. The previous shed about a week or two after I got him went perfectly.

edit---- shed successful. no stuck skin. gave a light snack of a few mealies and remoistened his hide. he's already fast asleep. all tuckered out. d'aww. :nice:

 

[leolover7]

I love my leos. Usually the things I do for them are make them new play boxes for them to go in. I recently got them wax worms as a treat. They loved them!

 

[Herbiebug]

cleaned and redecorated the tank a little yesterday. new cool hide. switched to a wood thing instead of the faux rocky sort of thing he had before.

also insulated two sides of tank with foam core. i might do a part of a third side as well. my apartment is quite chilly as it is ground level so the tank loses heat quickly, uth has to work harder than it needs to to maintain temps.

Leto is doing very well. He is now comfortable enough with the digs here that he will sleep out in the open on occasion. funny thing about watching him acclimate; the more comfortable he is, the less picky he has been about allowing parts of his body to stick out the entrances of his hides while sleeping. sometimes he is not inside the hide so much as flopped halfway across the threshold. gaining weight and noticeable muscle mass too. :main_yes:

 

[Herbiebug]

I'm finally getting the hang of cricket care now. It was the hydration issue that caused some snags early on. At first I used the sponge method, but rejected that within a few days because the sponge amplified the smell way too much. Daily sponge cleaning was not going to happen so I just added more veg for them to chew on to hydrate. I live in western Canada and the climate here is extremely dry most of the time. 45% humidity is the average and it often dips well below that in the apartment here. So my veg was drying out really fast too. Crickets were still regularly kicking the bucket. Finally on impulse I spritzed the walls of their container with a light coating of water. Success! This also keeps the veg moist a bit longer too. I do two quick mists a day. Death rate has dropped way down.

I could do the gel I guess, but would rather not add yet another thing I need to buy from pet stores.

 

[Herbiebug]

Quick update today. Leto has a new neighbour now. Gargoyle gecko female. Her name is Gilligan. She is still in new gecko acclimation week. Estimate 8-9 months old.

Leto is getting on very well. He has grown quite a bit in past month. I think may be approaching gecko puberty shortly. He's a character. Absolutely loves water. He gets almost as excited when I freshen his moist hide as he does for food. As for food, he goes nuts for crickets and superworms but won't give mealworms the time of day unless they are placed on the floor next to, but not in, his bowl. If they're in the bowl, he just curls up next to them and watches as if they were his pet goldfish or something.

 

[Herbiebug]

Minimal changes to the routine for Leto lately. Feeding schedule has settled nicely in alternating crickets and meal or super worms. So, crickets, day off, mealworms, day off, crickets, day off, super worms + a wax worm, day off, crickets etc.

My cricket gutload has changed just a bit. I'm using grapes as the fruit component (served in a separate dish) and have switched to the water crystals for hydration. I have a gargoyle gecko now as well who does not like Repashy CGD 3.0, so i toss a pinch of that in to the cricket's dry food as well.

Leto continues to be ridiculous. For a lot time I thought he completely ignored his water dish. He gets most of his water off the inside walls of his moist hide. Last week I noticed him using the dish. Sort of. Leto licks the condensation off the side of the dish, but won't touch the standing water contained therein. -___-

 

[Ersatzi]

As of today, I have had my gecko for only a little over four days. And Smaug is pretty young so I've been holding back from doing much of anything besides the maintenance every day. Today however I've noticed that Smaug has grown rather curious of not just me but in general my family. I had cleaned the tank around mid/late afternoon around the time when Smaug starts to wake up. I did my thing, changed the water, cleaned the designated poop area and when all was finished I went to answer some emails.

From where I sit, I can see into the tank and I noticed that Smaug had crawled over and had half climbed up on his water dish in order to get a better look at where I was and what I was doing. Once Smaug was satisfied with making sure I was there, he crawled over to his warm spot and flopped down for a nap.

The best part of today was however, that after feeding him, Smaug played hide and seek with me. I started by putting my pointer finger on the side of the glass, calling his name. And he ended up scurrying over and licking the glass where my finger was. So I ducked down with my finger and low and behold, he raised his teeny little body up looking for me. I did this a few times and then finally decided to call it a night. It was good to see the little babe not scared, but more curious. It's the first time I saw no outward signs of Smaug being nervous with the back arched. But simply wanting to figure things out. It was cute!

 

[Herbiebug]

Aww! It's so fun to see them slowly come out of their shell as they get more comfortable. I find the constant staring hilarious. In the first few weeks, mine did the hide and seek games as well. Stick nose out from hide just barely and stare at me. If i looked back, he'd slowly retract his head back in to the shadows. Then after a few minutes out of the corner of my eye, there he is again watching me. :main_robin:

Try this: sit in front of the tank for a bit, then lie down on the floor. If your leo is anything like mine, he'll immediately climb up on a hide and peer down at you.

 

[nikki9093]

i gave them both cuddles! and i got my newest ones tank set up right. she got some sun yesterday too.

 

[Olympus]

I'm in the slooow process of re-doing my fat-taileds' tank... I was sick with mono for most of March and April so all the plants in my naturalistic tank died, and most of the clean-up crew crawled away to greener pastures. So I decided that instead of starting the tank all over again I would take out all the soil and use stick-on tiles instead. So far I'm loving the result, I chose the white carara marble look-alike tyles and did the bottom and the back wall. I also added a 24" white ledge just a few inches above the ground which they definitely climb up on to explore.

I also got in my new LLLReptile black hides, so I just have to get some more decor in there and I'll call it a finished project. But the tile can't get easier to clean, it has traction for gecko feet, and the geckos seem to like the new look.

 

[nikki9093]

today she was cuddled and weighed. and her tank was moved to a new rack. she gained 2 grams since Friday. lol. i also gave her two tiny drops of liquid calcium for a boost to her system….and added more vitamins to her her calcium worm bowl. I watched her chase mealies around too . lol.

 

[Herbiebug]

A couple weeks ago I picked up two suction cup shower soap dishes for extra ledges in my garg's terrarium. For her tank, I put moist moss in. She hasn't used it yet so far as I can tell. Since I had two, I put the other in Leto's. Leto's has some non-slip liner so he can grab on to it with his toes for climbing. As you can see, Leto is quite pleased with his. He uses it as a watch tower of sorts for keeping a close eye on the goings on in the room.