New Geckos!

[Fatal_S]

My order from TUG finally arrived! There are 10 new baby geckos here now and I am completely in love :cloud9:
These are their bins while they settle in:

And of course I snapped some photos as I introduced the babies to their new homes. I'm also including the Urban photos since they show the babies better - I had my sister taking my photos as she helped me move them all in. I will of course have better photos once they're settled in.
365: Caramel Albino Female:

319: Stripe (het Caramel Albino) Female:

311: Stripe Caramel Albino Male:

355: Stripe Patternless Female:

354: Stripe (het Patternless) Female:

379: Patternless Male:

370: Stripe Amelanistic Male:

315: White Out Male:

Stripe Female:

Normal Female:

This big guy was an impulse purchase at a pet store. Kindof kicking myself now since he's not eating and I have to keep him away from my regular collection. May or may not return him:

This resident gecko seems to approve of the new blood:

 

[Jordycakes]

i want them all!!
Ild keep the big guy as i find it rewarding when they eat and become tame after you TLC but thats just me

 

[Jordycakes]

i want them all!!
Ild keep the big guy as i find it rewarding when they eat and become tame after you give them some TLC but thats just me

 

[Fatal_S]

He's quite tame, but he's not interested in eating. My biggest worry is any illness, especially if it's contagious. I mean what if I just introduced crypto to my house, with this huge order just arriving? I'm pretty worried. I have until next Friday to return him if I decide to. I keep flip-flopping on the decision.

 

[cassicat4]

Ahhh they're adorable! I agree, I want them all! Starting with the White Out male. Beautiful, and congrats.

 

[cassicat4]

He's quite tame, but he's not interested in eating. My biggest worry is any illness, especially if it's contagious. I mean what if I just introduced crypto to my house, with this huge order just arriving? I'm pretty worried. I have until next Friday to return him if I decide to. I keep flip-flopping on the decision.

If you're not worried about the money, I'd actually consider giving him to a rescue or something similar over returning him to the pet store. At least then you'll know they'll try and get him healthy. I don't know that the pet store would do anything for him other than take a wait-and-see approach, which I'm not thinking would work out so well.

 

[KTyne]

Gorgeous babies! I'm jealous of you guys who are getting all of these new Fatties, so cute!

 

[Fatal_S]

He's from ++++++++. I'm not worried about the money, he was a whopping $50. Thing is ++++++++ claims that they will take back a sick animal, see vet, and if the animal recovers you can be first in line to buy it again. So if I take it back I would ask them about that. If they seem like they won't take it to a vet and it's ill, I will take it myself. Money isn't important, but I do feel I messed up by exposing my current collection to a possible issue.

Isn't the white out just amazing?! Totally blows my mind. Very sweet too. The patternless male puked on his way over and is pretty quiet so far. The banded normal girl is a spitfire - keeps spinning around trying to bite things. She thinks she's a leo, lol. I love these guys!

 

[KTyne]

The Whiteout and the Striped Patternless are my fav!

 

[EverEvolvingExotics]

Huge congrats! I know you've been waiting some time to receive them, they look great. Awesome collection you have going, I love the approving Fat Tail picture.

 

[Fatal_S]

So today I tried offering food. They were far from impressed. They were running around, squeaking, and doing spin-attacks.

So far two have regurged - one during shipping and another sometime yesterday/today.

They were eating mealworms at urban. That's what I was offering, but they weren't having any of it. They were obviously stressed so I pulled out and left them alone again. Now I'm stressed.

How does everyone deal with tiny baby geckos? What are your day-by-day tasks when new babies arrive? What do you do for food? How long can these babies go without eating? How long does it take them to settle in and stop being terrified of me just opening the bin? If they weren't handled much (Urban has tons, I assume they don't play with every baby all the time), what's the best way to get them slowly accustomed to it? I appreciate any and all advice.

Right now my plan my plan is to make up dishes with maybe 5 mealworms each and leave them in the bins. I hope they settle in quickly, them freaking out freaks me out, but I need to be able to get in there and move them for feeding and cleaning.

 

[KTyne]

I would suggest offering them Crickets, at least for now. My AFT was apparently eating Mealies too at the breeders but when I offered them to him he wouldn't take them at all. So I've been feeding him Crickets for now and I'll slowly try and get him eating Mealies again.
My AFT would bolt for his hide any time I entered the room for about the first week and a half and then he started getting used to me and becoming more chill. Let them settle in for two weeks and then they should get used to you doing your thing in and around their tanks. Then you can slowly start holding them in their tanks for a few minutes at a time and once they are used to that start holding them outside of their tanks for about 5 minutes at a time.
My Leo was totally spazzy when I first got her at 8 months old and doing this helped a ton. Good luck!

 

[OhioGecko]

So today I tried offering food. They were far from impressed. They were running around, squeaking, and doing spin-attacks.

So far two have regurged - one during shipping and another sometime yesterday/today.

They were eating mealworms at urban. That's what I was offering, but they weren't having any of it. They were obviously stressed so I pulled out and left them alone again. Now I'm stressed.

How does everyone deal with tiny baby geckos? What are your day-by-day tasks when new babies arrive? What do you do for food? How long can these babies go without eating? How long does it take them to settle in and stop being terrified of me just opening the bin? If they weren't handled much (Urban has tons, I assume they don't play with every baby all the time), what's the best way to get them slowly accustomed to it? I appreciate any and all advice.

Right now my plan my plan is to make up dishes with maybe 5 mealworms each and leave them in the bins. I hope they settle in quickly, them freaking out freaks me out, but I need to be able to get in there and move them for feeding and cleaning.

Mel,

Nice group of AFT's you picked up!

It is normal for any gecko to regurgitate during or right after receiving shipments if they were fed within 48 hours of shipping. I would leave them settle in for a couple of days before you try and feed them again. They will be fine.

Make sure there are no lights on the enclosure and your under tank heat is around 90. You do not need a very big spot for the under tank heat. I suggest putting a hide on the warm and cool side also. Put a couple of gatorade caps or milk caps of water, the water is most important for them right now. I have noticed that young AFT's have a hard time finding water and mealworms in deeper dishes.

After a couple of days put mealworms directly on the floor of the container and leave the geckos alone until the next morning. The next morning check to see how many mealworms they ate. Look under the paper towel because some of the mealies will find there way under them.

Good Luck!

 

[Fatal_S]

Thank you, that helps a lot. I will try the mealworms on the ground plan.

How long can a baby go without eating? There babies look to be in great shape, but how long does that last?

 

[EverEvolvingExotics]

Mel,

Nice group of AFT's you picked up!

It is normal for any gecko to regurgitate during or right after receiving shipments if they were fed within 48 hours of shipping. I would leave them settle in for a couple of days before you try and feed them again. They will be fine.

Make sure there are no lights on the enclosure and your under tank heat is around 90. You do not need a very big spot for the under tank heat. I suggest putting a hide on the warm and cool side also. Put a couple of gatorade caps or milk caps of water, the water is most important for them right now. I have noticed that young AFT's have a hard time finding water and mealworms in deeper dishes.

After a couple of days put mealworms directly on the floor of the container and leave the geckos alone until the next morning. The next morning check to see how many mealworms they ate. Look under the paper towel because some of the mealies will find there way under them.

Good Luck!

Exactly what Thad said. It's incredibly stressful being shipped. Leaving them alone to acclimate is the best thing you can do for them. Reptiles are survivors, they can handle a lot. Give them a couple more days and see what happens. Everything should be fine, keep us updated.

 

[TruVueGeckos]

Great collection Mel. I love the striped Patty.

The question on "The Big Guy" you got from the pet store, I suggest you keep him away from the new collection. All the new little ones you know are all captive bred. The Big Guy on the other hand is uncertain. Most animals that pet stores get are wild caught unless they get them from a local breeder. So you would have to ask the pet store owner.

 

[Fatal_S]

No, he is most definitely WC. The store employees think their animals are CB, but I know better. He is kept separate from the others. Still hasn't eaten, but seems a bit more alert. He's just going into a shed. So we'll see how this goes.

Putting mealworms in with the babies today. Will update again another day.

 

[garner63080]

I love AFTs. Would love to breed them someday. Yours are beautiful.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Fatal_S]

Update! Thank you to everyone for the information, it worked great. All but one baby are eating so far, and they seem much more relaxed and settled in already. I've been collecting milk-jug lids to use for water, about 1/2 way there already.

And as a bonus the pet store boy shed Yesterday I was really worried because he was extremely dry and tough and wrinkly - covered in a thick dry shed and just awful looking. He has a humid hide, but I hadn't seen him use it. I soaked it down and put him in it, and today the shed is completely off and he looks so healthy and great! I'm still treating him like he's got the plague (as much quarantine as possible when you only have one room for reptiles), but I think he'll be staying here with me. I took pictures of him too! I'm still not bugging the babies, just food and basic care for now.

My sister says he has dragon eyes. I've decided to call him Draak First one named! I took lots of photos.

You can see in the last one he has an injury on his lip - I didn't notice when I bought him, it was a bit red and looked worse before the shed. I think it will heal up nicely with a couple more sheds, hardly noticable in person now.