What mistakes have you made as begginers

[panthergecko]

just curious?
mine is got 2, put in short tub and lost1

 

[OnlineGeckos]

-Buying a "kit" with a basking light, and end up not using 4 out of 6 items in it.
-Listening to petco employee about not needing an UTH.
-Buying 5 20 gallon long repti carpet (over $50), instead of 12x12 slate tile pieces that are $1.80 each.
-Spending too much money on decorations & hides.

That's about it, nothing fatal or bad. Hurt my wallet but thankfully it didn't hurt any leopard geckos in the process.

 

[Franklinj480]

do you mean mistakes? or just plain epic fails?

For my first geckos first night he had sand, replaced the next day when I found these forums. I've never lost, killed, emaciated any pets yet.

edit: also didn't have a probe thermometer so I thought I needed a red light on 24/7 to keep the temperature up.

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

When I got my first leopard geckos 16 years ago, I made so many mistakes it's hard to count them all... especially when I started breeding them! There wasn't much information available on the internet back then, so there was a lot of trial and error. Eventually, Kingsnake.com started a gecko forum in the late 80's that was a wealth of sharing experiences. These are the most significant mistakes I made during the first year:

- I originally housed my geckos on orchid bark substrate and then switched to play sand. This is how I learned about impaction the hard way.

- I housed 1.2 juvenile geckos together, and got my first eggs when they were only 6 months old. One of the females nearly died because she was too small and young to recover between clutches. There were plenty of injuries they inflicted upon each other as well.

- The first half of my first egging season, literally every egg failed. I was so discouraged I stopped even checking the eggs. This is when I started getting babies! When I saw those first two little hatchlings, I sat in the middle of the floor and cried like a baby for joy. That was in September of 1995. It turned out I was keeping the incubation medium too wet, and opening and closing the incubator so often that the temperature as erratic.

- I housed all the babies together in a separate tank (on sand), and lost some due to impaction and starvation because they were being bullied by the older, more dominant ones.

- I lost a baby that drowned in the water bowl that was too deep, and others to bad sheds because sand is a desiccant and we didn't use humid hides in those days.

- I acquired more young geckos at a show, and housed them all together. One was sick with coccidia, and every one of them contracted it and died. Again, I learned about quarantine the hard way.

Fortunately, many of us veteran gecko keepers met online on Kingsnake (that's where I met Kelli!) and developed relationships, knowledge bases, started setting morph standards, ethics as breeders, and understanding the way leopard gecko genetics work. We learned from each others successes and failures, supported and respected each other. Now, the community has evolved (in some cases de-volved), and geckoforums.net is here so we can still share, and learn.

 

[Franklinj480]

Thank god for the internet! Its the greatest tool ever. I wonder if new breeders starting out have to go through as much trial and error they did when you started out Marcia.

 

[OnlineGeckos]

With access to google and forums like these, there's really no excuse for people to still make fatal errors. But unfortunately people do still make pretty bad errors.

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

I wonder if new breeders starting out have to go through as much trial and error they did when you started out Marcia.

In my opinion, someone new shouldn't have to go through so much trial and error now. There is really so much information out there, even if it's confusing, that they shouldn't have to unless they choose to ignore the wealth of knowledge available.

 

[TokayKeeper]

first time I cleaned my first leo's tank I placed him in a 30 gallon I had a hatchling ornate box turtle in. It was well past lights out and the turtle was "sleeping".

"Golden-Eye" wound up having his right hind foot bitten, losing 2 toes and having a 3rd partially bitten off. In the process he also tropped part of his tail. It was an amateur mistake of someone not prepared with a separate tub for cleaning. A lesson learned almost 15 years ago that I've never repeated since.

You can see his missing toes, but how well can you notice where his tail dropped?

To go off of others here, "mistakes" I'm still currently making:

1. using sand* (15 years running with no ill effects)
2. using basking lights** on my leos that are housed in aquaria

*I use sand on strictly my adult geckos. Adult = 1 year of age or 45grams in weight, whichever comes first.

**Yes leos utilize (note, not need) belly heat. A UTH, conceptually is no different than a hot rock. It is a heating device with a built in set-temp thermostat. If improperly used both can result in thermal burns. Thermal burns mostly occur on the belly or side(s) of an animal within a cold habitat that seeks out warmth and does no leave that location. Typically these burns are seen in snakes and diurnal species. I utilize both heating systems, my tubs are on flexwatt, but my aquaria are heated with incandescent bulbs.

The idea behind the bulbs is conceptually identical to the sun. A radient heat source via light energy heats the habitat. A piece of limestone or a concrete cave are placed under this light to generate a "natural" hot rock. Reptiles are capable of thermoregulation outside of direct heat absorption via a surface. By providing both a heated surface and a stable ambient air temp I'm allowing thermoregulation via 2 modes and promoting natural behaviors that would be observed in the wild. Behaviors I've observed in TX and Tucson Banded Geckos (New Mexico's native Eublepharids) and in diurnal lizard species.

The best example of diurnal species would be collared lizards, where they will wait until air temps reach a certain point, come out and plaster themselves on an elevated basking location, and then once their body reaches a desired temp they will elevate their body off the basking rock, and then stand high on their legs, resting on their heels and wrists, basking further through the use of radient light energy and ambient air temps.

 

[TokayKeeper]

Eventually, Kingsnake.com started a gecko forum in the late 80's that was a wealth of sharing experiences.

Fortunately, many of us veteran gecko keepers met online on Kingsnake (that's where I met Kelli!) and developed relationships, knowledge bases, started setting morph standards, ethics as breeders, and understanding the way leopard gecko genetics work. We learned from each others successes and failures, supported and respected each other. Now, the community has evolved (in some cases de-volved), and geckoforums.net is here so we can still share, and learn.

Late 90s...see you're losing your memory!

Kingsnake.com's original forum system had something to the effect of:
Fieldherping forum
Alterna Forum
General Snake Forum
Boa & Python Forum
General Lizard Forum
Gecko Forum
and a few others.

I remember nagging Barringer in the old mIRC kingsnake.com chatroom back in 97 or 98 for us to get a leopard gecko forum and keep the general geckophiles from crying about all the leopard gecko postings (Jeff had already done similarly for other snake forums). I recall it was you, myself, and Kelli that finally convinced him to do it and the Leopard Gecko Forum at kingsnake.com was born. GREAT times back then, and low times, particularly when I came home from college one afternoon and saw your posts about mycotoxin.

 

[panthergecko]

oh i tried 2 give space so i used 32qt tub but i switched 2 tank
also if i use height can i use a 10 gallon as perm. housing

 

[TokayKeeper]

Thank god for the internet! Its the greatest tool ever. I wonder if new breeders starting out have to go through as much trial and error they did when you started out Marcia.

Honestly, I never went through such trial and errors back in 97 when I got my first eggs, getting 89 of 90 to hatch that year. I started reading up on leopard geckos back in 1993 (that was 5th grade for me!) when I first saw a photo of one in Chris Mattison's Lizards of the World. I tried to find out as much as I could then on the species and Tokay Geckos through any lizard books I could find at local libraries, the base library (I grew up an air force brat), and my school library. I didn't learn about REPTILES mag until early 1995 and got my first issue in Oct '95; I forget when I read first leo article in it. Before getting REPTILES mag though and before getting my first leo, I had read, and still own, numerous old lizard books:

Lizards in CAptivity by Richard H. Wynne
Your First Lizard by Jerry G. Walls
The General Care and Maintenance of Leopard Geckos and African Fat-Tailed Geckos by Philippe de Vosjoli (this is the ©1990 edition, before Ron Tremper, et al were co-authors)
Leopard Geckos Identification, Care & Breeding by Ray Hunziker

I researched well before the internet was commonly available outside of the government and colleges. My first incubator, the Robin Struck termed "ghetto-bator" was a 10 gallon tank covered with a piece of glass, had 2-3 inches of water in it, and was heated by a submersible aquarium heater. I learned how to make it in REPTILES mag if my memory is right.

 

[Pinky81]

Lets see I housed my male and female together...acheiving a breeding that was probably a tad too early for her. But with the help of those on the forum Bonnie had a great season, with only two non-fertile eggs and weighs more at the end then she did to start.
thats just one of MANY mistakes Ive made...never stop learning!
I know that because of the information from ppl like Marcia, Kelli, Tokay..etc etc that my first breeding season was a epic success, with no losses. and 10 beautiful babies that are now all but 1 enjoying their new homes. BTW SHTCT available LOL

 

[Kat&Rin]

Gah....just thinking about it upsets me....though it wasn't really caused by a lack of knowledge, more like two very stupid mistakes.....

Rin's tank is in my room. We have a cat. One day while cleaning the tank I left the lid of the tank cover open....now, the opening wasn't that big and our cat is HUGE, but somehow he managed to get inside the tank and Rin lost her tail It really shows how effective that defense mechanism is....we were horrified and I was miserable and felt supremely guilty. I hadn't found this forum yet but I did extensive research over the internet and she healed up fine. Of course one mistake isn't enough for me to learn my lesson so, and I still don't know how this happened because I'm certain I closed it, the cat got into the tank again and she lost her tail a second time. :sad3:

Wow, even typing it makes me want to cry, still, Rin must be quite the survivor because she's still as bright and cheerful as she was the day we got her, if not more so! Still, I've thoroughly learned my lesson and the cat is now totally banned from my room unless I'm there and sometimes I get paranoid and freaked out that I left it open and I race upstairs to make sure.....All in all I still feel like a horrible person for it.

So yah, thats my huge mistake.

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

Late 90s...see you're losing your memory!

You need to keep reminding me I'm getting senile and losing my memory... I keep forgetting!

 

[SamsonizeMe]

- I housed 1.2 juvenile geckos together, and got my first eggs when they were only 6 months old. One of the females nearly died because she was too small and young to recover between clutches. There were plenty of injuries they inflicted upon each other as well.

Ditto, but 4 months old instead of 6. As soon as I saw a wound on the smaller girl's head, the boy was out of there for good. Then came the pregnancies.

Also, I bought a rheostat when I was looking for a thermostat. No big deal but kind of a noob mistake. Works alright though.

 

[notacoshells]

over handling my baby leo and stressing him out. It stunted his growth a liitle but he's eating fine.

 

[notacoshells]

and now I leave him a lone to prevent stressing him out

 

[TokayKeeper]

You need to keep reminding me I'm getting senile and losing my memory... I keep forgetting!

hahahaha

If it makes ya feel better I do the same to my mom.

 

[stager]

1. Had crickets dusted when I bought them so they all died in a day.
2. Bought a set up that included a light.
3. Got a gecko that wasn't what I was told it was
But I had been on these site about three days straight before I got it so that saved me, from making much worse mistakes

 

[PaladinGirl]

Relatively minor things:

* Used reptile carpet (yes, I know some people like it, but Toon was getting her nails stuck in it)

* Had too small of a UTH

* Wasn't supplementing correctly

That's really all I can think of, but it's largely because of the internet that I was able to get things right. Otherwise, I'd have her on sand with a heat lamp and no heat regulation.