Rescued a leopard gecko

[LB0324]

Hello,
I have never owned a reptile before and rescued a leopard gecko with little known history. He/she is about 6in long and weighs 23 or 27grams (I forgot exactly although it’s in my chart at the vet). Also the tail is skinny too in my opinion. Vet thinks relatively healthy and has some suggestions to change the care.

I have nicknamed him Geico. I brought him home on Wednesday. He came with a tank, sand, one hide, freeze dried crickets, some two light bulb system ( one red bulb and one blue bulb but seems to be a normal light?) and a travel box. Since I have had him, 48 hours, he has been fed mealworms. I have supplies coming tomorrow, I live in a rural area and access to adequate pet stores are 75 miles away.

I have a heat pad and thermostat coming. More caves. Sphagmot Moss? Some green washable tank bottom covering, a humidity gauge and will be picking up roaches tomorrow. Also some rephasy calcium plus powder.

My main questions right now are:
Does the above sound right?
How old is he/she roughly?
Do I feed twice a day, or one large feed a day?
What time of day to feed?
How quickly should I implement all the new changes?
Do I leave the rephasy calcium plus out in a bowl and dust his food?
Should the bugs really only be as tiny as the space between his eyes? My mealworms are twice that size I think. But not the giant mealworms.

He seems shy and hasn’t come out of his cave much. I’ve seen him like his head out but quickly dart back inside when he sees me. He doesn’t come out for food so I lift his hide and then he comes to the food bowl. After he is done I put his cave back and leave him be.
I’m really hoping to be able to engage with him and play him but I understand it’ll take time and patience. I put my hand flat on the bottom of his tank tonight and he seemed to be sniffing me and put one foot on me but that was short lived and he liked to hide behind my arm mostly.

Thanks for reading this and please help me out.

 

[acpart]

Congrats on your new gecko. Here are my answers to your questions:

Does the above sound right? Ideally the cage should eventually be at least 20 gallon long size (12x12x30"). The green carpet is fine. You may want to consider getting a second one so you can switch them out and wash them. I use ceramic tile for my cages and like that a lot (no laborious washing). The sphagnum moss could be used for the humid hide, though some geckos end up eating it. I use coco fiber and sometimes paper towels in my humid hides. I don't think you have to worry about the humidity but there's nothing wrong with having a gauge. If there's light in the room, you don't really need extra lights since the gecko is nocturnal, but you can use it if you want.

How old is he/she roughly? There's no way to really tell how old it is, but the markings seem to have finished changing, so it's at least 3 months, likely older.

Do I feed twice a day, or one large feed a day? What time of day to feed? Feed initially once a day in the evening (the gecko is nocturnal). Experiment to see how much the gecko seems to want to eat. Once it has gained some weight and seems not to be as interested, decrease to every other day, which will come to 2-3 times a week.

How quickly should I implement all the new changes? In my opinion, I'd just make the changes and let the gecko adjust.

Do I leave the rephasy calcium plus out in a bowl and dust his food? The current preferred practice is to dust the feeders every other feeding and not leave any in the cage since they can get too much supplement.

Should the bugs really only be as tiny as the space between his eyes? My mealworms are twice that size I think. But not the giant mealworms. At that size of gecko, you can really feed it any size bug or worm.

Aliza

 

[LB0324]

Congrats on your new gecko. Here are my answers to your questions:

Does the above sound right? Ideally the cage should eventually be at least 20 gallon long size (12x12x30"). The green carpet is fine. You may want to consider getting a second one so you can switch them out and wash them. I use ceramic tile for my cages and like that a lot (no laborious washing). The sphagnum moss could be used for the humid hide, though some geckos end up eating it. I use coco fiber and sometimes paper towels in my humid hides. I don't think you have to worry about the humidity but there's nothing wrong with having a gauge. If there's light in the room, you don't really need extra lights since the gecko is nocturnal, but you can use it if you want.

How old is he/she roughly? There's no way to really tell how old it is, but the markings seem to have finished changing, so it's at least 3 months, likely older.

Do I feed twice a day, or one large feed a day? What time of day to feed? Feed initially once a day in the evening (the gecko is nocturnal). Experiment to see how much the gecko seems to want to eat. Once it has gained some weight and seems not to be as interested, decrease to every other day, which will come to 2-3 times a week.

How quickly should I implement all the new changes? In my opinion, I'd just make the changes and let the gecko adjust.

Do I leave the rephasy calcium plus out in a bowl and dust his food? The current preferred practice is to dust the feeders every other feeding and not leave any in the cage since they can get too much supplement.

Should the bugs really only be as tiny as the space between his eyes? My mealworms are twice that size I think. But not the giant mealworms. At that size of gecko, you can really feed it any size bug or worm.

Aliza

Thank you so much for your detailed answers. I truly appreciate it!!