hello!

[free-pizza]

Hi,

My name is Bruce, I'm from Nova Scotia, Canada. My 8 year old son has been asking for a Leopard Gecko for well over a year and this Christmas (today ), we got him one. So for the past two weeks I've been doing a ton of research on leopard geckos. My wife picked up a kit at our local pet store and I set everything up last weekend, trying to prepare the environment for him before his arrival. He is a giant leopard gecko, who we named Lenny. I'm happy to join this community in hopes of getting some help with his care. Right now, he is in a 10 gallon tank (I'm hoping to upgrade the size eventually). I have one side of the tank at around 85-90 degrees. This side has a heating lamp with a 60w zoo-med Moonlite bulb. It also has a zoo-med mini under tank heater. The other side is around 75 degrees and has his moist hide where I have some moist sphagnum moss for substrate on one side. inside. I have mealworms, superworms and crickets for feeding. I use Repashy calcium plus in a bag to shake on the insects before feeding. I have a lot of questions but I'll just start with a couple. I'm really not sure how much I should be feeding him. For the last few days it's been about 2-3 crickets and a couple mealworms. He seems to poop once a day, in the same spot on the very top of his hide. I have been keeping his heat lamp and lights on from 8am-8pm. I gradually dim the outside light from 6-8pm and shut off the heat lamp and lights at 8 leaving just a smart light on the ceiling (turned a blueish colour) very dim through the night trying to simulate a moon. At night the warm side goes to about 76-80 degrees and has the under tank heater. The cool side goes as low as 73. The humidity can go from 35-50%. Dropping when the heat lamp comes back on in the morning. Does this seem ok? There's so much conflicting information online. I'm also worried about him ingesting the sphagnum moss in his hide and it causing impaction. I'll post a couple pics. Thanks in advance for any advice.

UPDATE: I've wrapped the moss in some doubled up paper towel and made a bed out of it. I've made it nice and moist and will check it everyday.

Bruce

 

[Yvonne G]

Welcome!

 

[acpart]

Welcome! Nice looking gecko. It could definitely use a larger enclosure soon. When you do that, here are some things to consider:
--get a larger heat mat or ZooMed heat cable (which can be reconfigured unlike the mat) that will cover about 1/3 of the floor area. You will likely need a thermostat with that (Zilla is priced reasonably)
--consider ditching the lights. The heat mat should provide enough heat (I assume the "85-90" degrees is on the floor, not in the air) and the heat lights tend to dry out the air and dehydrate the gecko. As long as there's daylight in the room, you don't really need lights.

Feeding: generally the suggestion is to feed as much as it wants to eat. With a gecko the size of the one in the picture, it only needs to be fed 2-3 times a week. I have a lot of geckos and I put some crickets/superworms in and don't worry if there are extra. Some people worry that the feeders will chew on the gecko and I have found this to happen extremely rarely with a healthy gecko. If you want to be exact, pick a number of feeders, put them in. If the gecko snaps them all up and is looking around for more, put in more. If the gecko never eats that many, put in less. Eventually you'll get a feel for it.

There's definitely more than one way to do things which is why the information is conflicting. In general, the best bet is to read the reasons why people do what they do, choose something and see if it works for you. Continue asking specific questions which we'll be happy to answer.

Where in NS are you? I have many happy memories of bike trips to the province in my past.

Aliza

 

[free-pizza]

Welcome! Nice looking gecko. It could definitely use a larger enclosure soon. When you do that, here are some things to consider:
--get a larger heat mat or ZooMed heat cable (which can be reconfigured unlike the mat) that will cover about 1/3 of the floor area. You will likely need a thermostat with that (Zilla is priced reasonably)
--consider ditching the lights. The heat mat should provide enough heat (I assume the "85-90" degrees is on the floor, not in the air) and the heat lights tend to dry out the air and dehydrate the gecko. As long as there's daylight in the room, you don't really need lights.

Feeding: generally the suggestion is to feed as much as it wants to eat. With a gecko the size of the one in the picture, it only needs to be fed 2-3 times a week. I have a lot of geckos and I put some crickets/superworms in and don't worry if there are extra. Some people worry that the feeders will chew on the gecko and I have found this to happen extremely rarely with a healthy gecko. If you want to be exact, pick a number of feeders, put them in. If the gecko snaps them all up and is looking around for more, put in more. If the gecko never eats that many, put in less. Eventually you'll get a feel for it.

There's definitely more than one way to do things which is why the information is conflicting. In general, the best bet is to read the reasons why people do what they do, choose something and see if it works for you. Continue asking specific questions which we'll be happy to answer.

Where in NS are you? I have many happy memories of bike trips to the province in my past.

Aliza

Thanks for all the information Aliza. It's a great help. Today he ate 12 little mealworms and 3 crickets which I dusted with Repashey calcium plus. He seemed hungry. I didn't want to over feed him but I honestly wasn't sure. I'm from the island of Cape Breton. It's cool that you've been to NS. Thanks again!

PS: should I skip feeding tomorrow do you suggest?

Bruce

 

[acpart]

You may as well feed every other day. I can't believe the number of posts in the last few months wondering if their gecko is overweight.

I have nice memories of Cape Breton including crashing into my biking partner at night on the Sydney-Louisberg road (and being taken in by a nice guy since the bike wheel got bent) and camping out in Sydney waiting for the ferry to Port aux Basques.

Aliza