Why don't more people simply read up on geckos before getting them?

[jerrymb]

There's tons of info on leopard geckos online. In less than a few hours you can probably get your PHD in leopard geckos just by typing leopard geckos into Google and reading what's there. Seems that so many people first bring the gecko home and then they try to figure out how to care for it. Or walk into a pet store totally in the dark. I don't get it.

 

[Russ S]

What's this? You want people to take the time and do some basic research? You have got to be kidding me. BTW, can I breed my leopard gecko to a pixie frog?

 

[panthergecko]

lol

 

[Thorgecko707]

Russ, i thought you were serious. now my pixie just ate my gecko

 

[artes]

I admit, I walked into the pet store, glanced at their reptiles, saw Clare, and my eyes turned into hearts. She came home with me, I put her in a critter carrier, sat down, and started researching leopard geckos immediately. I had her perfectly set up by the next day (and let's face it, not like she was getting perfect care at PetCo, so living with me for one day not perfect-like certainly didn't damage her).

However, I did know a little about leos before bringing her home, just because I research different pets in my spare time. I hadn't done enough on leos, but I knew enough that she wanted three hides, a water bowl, and paper towels instead of anything loose.

But, that's my story. I didn't do a ton of research first because I didn't set out to get a leo - she chose me. She's a happy gecko, so that's what counts!

Edit: LMAO @ Thor.

 

[TokayKeeper]

but I knew enough that she wanted three hides, a water bowl, and paper towels instead of anything loose.

I'm glad my geckos anthropomorphized with me and told me they wanted particulate substrate by cramming all their paper towels to the warm end and moving their hides to the front.

 

[prettyinpink]

What's this? You want people to take the time and do some basic research? You have got to be kidding me. BTW, can I breed my leopard gecko to a pixie frog?

Yes, and we shall call it a Lixie.

 

[Russ S]

Russ, i thought you were serious. now my pixie just ate my gecko

Morgan, that is sad. I hope your Pixie doesn't get heartburn. Perhaps your gecko just wasn't large enough to breed yet. Next time try a giant.

Yes, and we shall call it a Lixie.

I like that, Erica. I shall give you credit if this ever is successful.

 

[M_surinamensis]

BTW, can I breed my leopard gecko to a pixie frog?

I couldn't even get my pyxie frog to breed with females of his own species. I didn't want to mess around with LHIH* injections so I bent my experience with seasonal environmental manipulation to the problem and... Well, he kept eating the girls. Big girls too. Expensive big girls.

Russ, i thought you were serious. now my pixie just ate my gecko

Mine may have also eaten a leopard gecko or two. Nutritionally much better for the frog than rodents are and if something is going to be culled anyway there's no sense wasting the remains.

One of only two herps I've owned (in a very long time anyway) that have had a name. The other was a chondro I bought from someone in the AOL Pets: Reptiles chatroom that arrived with one.


*LHRH? I would have been prepared to swear that it was luteinizing hormone inducing hormone but it's been a few years since I tried.

 

[Thorgecko707]

seamus, he ate the females? thats like trying to find a wife for a cereal killer. i dont feed leopard geckos to the pixie because the monitor likes them more.

 

[PaladinGirl]

I'm proud to say that I did a ton of online and book research starting a month before I got my first gecko. I had my tank all set up complete with my UTH on when I brought her home, and had a basic understanding of some important aspects of their care requirements...and I say "basic" because I later found I still had quite a bit of learning to do. I did pretty good for a noob though, I think.

I will say that it's a good thing when people come on here looking for advice, even if a little late. They're making an effort and obviously care about their geckos, and I'm sure most of them become wonderful gecko parents

With that being said, I got my first leo before I found this forum (never came across it in my prior online research for some reason), and ended up tweaking quite a few things. When I first got Toon, I had her on reptile carpet in a tank with a UTH that I later found out was too small. I also didn't have a temperature probe or any kind of thermostat. This forum helped me to make what I believe is a near perfect set up for my geckos. I ditched the reptile carpet for paper substrate (brown lawn bag, but may switch to slate someday), got a digital probe for the floor on the warm side, a bigger UTH and a lamp dimmer to keep the heat regulated, and learned more about proper calcium/D3/phosphorus supplementation. Thank you everyone on GeckoForums.net!! <3

 

[M_surinamensis]

seamus, he ate the females?

Yeah.

Pyxies (and various horned frogs, tomato frogs and others) are usually bred commercially by putting the adults through a cycle of hormone injections that leapfrog (a pun!) the usual seasonal triggers. It's efficient, it's highly controlled when its done correctly and it has a kind of certainty in provoking reproduction. It is also potentially a bit rougher on the breeding animals, introduces possibilities for human error and... just isn't how I usually approach things. There's nothing wrong with it, in the hands of someone competent, I just have different reasons for keeping my animals and wanted something else out of the planned breeding. I was mostly doing it in order to watch some of the behaviors associated with the whole courtship, egg-laying and nesting process.

I have a male. A big, full grown beast of a male. He's about the size of a dinner plate. Bit bigger or smaller depending on your flatware of choice. I bought a full grown female; which wasn't as cheap as I had anticipated it would be, the price really goes up substantially as they get larger (or did at the time anyway, it's been awhile). She was quarantined for 180 days and then placed in an enclosure near the male's.

I cycled them by manipulating the environment. I gradually changed the temperature, the light duration and intensity, the moisture and precipitation and the diet. She very definitely developed eggs, he did a bit of calling and had nuptial pads. He was placed in her enclosure, they hunkered down in the substrate a few inches from one another and didn't really do much else for the rest of the evening. I went to bed, a bit disappointed that copulation wasn't immediately manifesting, but willing to give them some time. Woke up, checked the enclosure... the female's gone and the male is a bit distended looking. He ate her overnight.

Did the same thing twice more, with additional cycling triggers added on each time, I had a pretty elaborate enclosure I had put together which allowed me to manipulate air pressure and which had an arc of lights, each producing a different spectrum and intensity, carefully selected and arranged so that I could provide ultra-realistic photoperiods, I was manipulating water chemistry and precipitation, I fine tuned prey availability and used a cycle which was eight months long, coinciding with actual seasonal changes in central/southern Africa... the last girl he actually had in amplexus when I last saw her.

After the third one, even with indications of progress each time, I decided it wasn't worth the expense, effort and (importantly) lives of the girls to keep trying for another year and haven't made an attempt since 2002 or 2003.

 

[lillith]

I must admit, I was hoping for a Leopard Pixie. "Lixie" will do, I guess.

And YAY Paladin! See? it can work out alright.

 

[lillith]

Oh jeez, Seamus...that's disheartening.
Maybe get a different male? Trade your male for a female and get a slightly smaller male later, quarantine him, and put him in with her? (and hope he doesn't get eaten)

Of course, this just reaffirms to me that sex and hunger are linked at a primal level.
Who's got the chocolate-dipped strawberries? (j/k!)

p.s. is this the stuff?
http://www.anaspec.com/products/productcategory.asp?id=173

 

[Thorgecko707]

that sounds like my love life. minus the killing. haha

 

[M_surinamensis]

Oh jeez, Seamus...that's disheartening.

It is... something. The breeding success rate for some of the species I like tends to run a bit lower than it does for some of the species that are more commonly focused on by the bulk of the users of this site. In that particular case, the method was far more challenging. The failure is a bit frustrating but nothing that hasn't happened before, the specific way that it failed is just more spectacular than is usual.

The last ten years (give or take) my attempts to provoke breeding have declined substantially. Prior to that, I was pretty actively encouraging it, producing and selling a pretty wide range of species as they happened to catch my interest. I have boxes upon boxes of notes and a few computer hard drives with more of the same detailing various successes and failures and specific steps that got me there. Most species I have set my hand to I have experienced some degree of success. A couple I have not. Some have been elusive and less reliable. Failure usually just meant tweaking something and trying again, if I was still interested in the project anyway.

Maybe get a different male? Trade your male for a female and get a slightly smaller male later, quarantine him, and put him in with her? (and hope he doesn't get eaten)

I'm pretty sure with a younger and smaller male I would have ended up with fertilized eggs. The problem was largely my male and the relative size of the pair (sexually dimorphic species, the males get much, much larger), copulation or not, he was big enough to still consider anything the size of the biggest girls I could obtain to be food.

The point of the project was to breed my male though, to see the specific frog reproduce. They have some pretty interesting behaviors leading up to breeding and then some even more interesting behaviors immediately afterwards, with the males displaying some guarding and care of the eggs and tadpoles. They'll even sometimes dig canals or transport the offspring by mouth in the wild under some circumstances.

Of course, this just reaffirms to me that sex and hunger are linked at a primal level.
Who's got the chocolate-dipped strawberries? (j/k!)

A woman eating a strawberry is only sexy if she's allergic and I have all the epinephrine.

p.s. is this the stuff?
http://www.anaspec.com/products/productcategory.asp?id=173

Yes, although as you can see there are differences between the injectable used for different species. Although given the application, I wouldn't guarantee that it's readily available for individual species of frog or that its use to provoke breeding of pyxies and horned frogs is on-label. It may just be my memory playing tricks on me, but I thought the product used by most commercial frog breeders (who were using the stuff that is) was labeled as LHIH, inducing rather than releasing... but same difference really.

 

[OnlineGeckos]

There's tons of info on leopard geckos online. In less than a few hours you can probably get your PHD in leopard geckos just by typing leopard geckos into Google and reading what's there. Seems that so many people first bring the gecko home and then they try to figure out how to care for it. Or walk into a pet store totally in the dark. I don't get it.

Some people may not like what I have to say, but reading up on your past posts, it seems like you just got your first leopard gecko 2 months ago from a rescue. You had tons of questions, bought him without a UTH, and even said you were about to get rid of him if it required more money to properly care for him.

Why is it that people forget they were once noobs too so quickly? :main_huh:

There was a sticky thread created with the same type of idea just recently, do we really need yet another that attempts to scare new leopard gecko owners away from posting?

 

[jerrymb]

Some people may not like what I have to say, but reading up on your past posts, it seems like you just got your first leopard gecko 2 months ago from a rescue. You had tons of questions, bought him without a UTH, and even said you were about to get rid of him if it required more money to properly care for him.

Why is it that people forget they were once noobs too so quickly? :main_huh:

There was a sticky thread created with the same type of idea just recently, do we really need yet another that attempts to scare new leopard gecko owners away from posting?

I had no idea I was getting a gecko until literally 2 minutes before I got it! I was talking about people who decide to get a gecko and then go to the pet store and get one without any knowledge of how to properly take care of them. Big big difference than my situation! Had I not rescued mine when I did he'd be dead now for sure. I didn't have time for any research until after I got him.

 

[OnlineGeckos]

I had no idea I was getting a gecko until literally 2 minutes before I got it! I was talking about people who decide to get a geco and then go to the pet store and get one without any knowledge of how to properly take care of them. Big big difference than my situation! Had I not rescued mine when I did he'd be dead now for sure. I didn't have time for any research umntil after I got him.

My point is, seeing your past posts, you asked tons of questions. Just like everybody else here when they were new. If google/books/past posts always answer every single questions people have, then you wouldn't have asked all those questions you asked.

All I'm saying is, be nice to others. We were all noobs once. Besides, how do you know why others bought a leopard gecko? I see things differently I guess. I'm one that believes it's better to see people asking questions, because those are the ones that actually want to learn and get better at caring for leopard geckos. Those are tons better than ones that pretend to know how to care for them and watch their leopard geckos die, and just *shrugs* and say "oh well".

 

[jerrymb]

My point is, seeing your past posts, you asked tons of questions. Just like everybody else here when they were new. If google/books/past posts always answer every single questions people have, then you wouldn't have asked all those questions you asked.

All I'm saying is, be nice to others. We were all noobs once.

Please. I'm being nice. If you can't see the distinction I was trying to make then I guess my original post was useless. I ammend my original post then. By all means to anyone who is considering getting a gecko. Just walk into the pet store and buy one blind. Let the sales people talk you into buying crap you don't need. Bring the gecko home and then try to figure out how to properly care for it. It's OK to do it this way.