Leopard Geckos

What's the minimum housing size for 2 female leopard geckos. Also, how do you clean the aquarium they're in?

 

I'd say a 20 gallon, minimum, the bigger the better. I had a Leucistic Leopard gecko, but shes been sold. She used to be in the 35 gal I have my fishies in! Get a small strainer and "strain" the poop out of the sand (if that's the substrate you are using, I recommend it). It works good, when the sand starts smelling its time to throw it away and get new sand.
Any more questions feel free to ask.
Brianna

 

Well, a book I read said 1 male and a female wll do fine in a 10 gallon aquarium, but never mind. I heard that sand isn't good for the leopard geckos since they can actually swallow them since they get big.

 

It is generally argued upon whether or not sand is OK. I had used it for 2 years with my LG, with no problems (since it was a baby). Its also easy clean up and the gecko really likes to dig in it. 10 gallons is much too small IMO.

 

How big do they get?

 

Around 8 inches. Some bigger, some smaller. My Female got to 7 inches.

Brianna

 

What are the supplies you should get? I did a little research on it but I may have missed a couple. :-\

 

My friend has a leapord gecko and he keeps it in a 30 gallon tank, he has one of those heat rocks, cave, water dish, and another rock. He trained it to poop in the corner of the tank and he just scoops it up with a dixie cup. I think he has some sort of small grain sand and she's fine. I've taken care of her a couple times and it makes it easy to take care of her. He also has a heat lamp and a light lamp and a humidity monitor in the tank. I think that's all that he has, if that helps at all.

 

Thanks.

 

Here are basic supplies.
Sand/substrate.
Heating pad (human grade is fine), set to medium in winter, low in summer,
Heat lamp, for bulb I recommend Zoo Meds Daylight blue, run it 10-12 hrs a day.
Humidity/Temp gauge-Temp around 80, humidity 40-60% or more if its shedding
Plant to climb.
A couple hideaways.
Water dish.
I personally DON'T recommend heat rocks, they can malfunction and your leopard won't know and get horribly burnt.
Heres a bit of feeding info,
FEEDING: I fed mine large size crickets and my leopard gecko was about 5-6 in. I recommend starting them off on 2 week old crickets and when it turns about 4 inches feed them adult crickets. You can continue to feed them small crickets if you want to. Don't be afraid they will choke because they really don't. But at 4 inches I would feed them 1/2" crickets not 1" or 3/4" either. At 5 inches you can feed them any size crickets. SELECTION: Selecting your pet is very easy. Look for big, fat tails atleast 3/4 of neck width. You can (if you prefer) ask the pet store owner if they will throw a live cricket in and see which goes after it the fastest is the one you want.

Heres a pic of my leucistic leopard

 

Ok, thanks. How much did all of the equipments you listed cost altogether?

 

around $50-$60. Crickets are a running cost of $2.40/week. A LOT of crickets die no matter how good of a set up you have for them.

 

Have crickets escaped before?

 

They certainly have! They are good at escaping.

 

Oh man, that means some are going to escape. My mom hates bugs. :

 

I have one last question, would it be all right to let thme out of the cage and let it run around a little in the room as long as the room is "lizard proofed?"

 

Make sure it cannot get under the door and make sure that you are right there with it. They can be fast at times though they don't look it.

Brianna

 

Ok, I just hope they won't start using my carpet as a toilet.

 

how much money did you spend on the leopard geckos.and where did you buy it.

 

I didn't buy them yet, but I will soon. They cost about $25 @ the pet stores.

 

They most likely won't use your carpet to relieve themselves. They generally poo once a day, right in the same spot in their home. If you don't see them poo at least once a day there could be a problem. They cost about $30 at petco near me. They are little babies, and I would get them as a baby because it is fun to watch them grow. Good luck and I would love to see pictures. ;D Brianna

 

leopard geckos are great.. my roomate has one just moved him from a short 30 gallon tank to a tall about 25.. the new tank has a rear rock wall a cave and a waterfall.. he loves it... he likes to come outa the tank and crawl around the house... especially likes to watch tv in the front pocket of a hoodie.. they are great pets you will like them

 

I probably won't get them for a long time though so you'll be waiting a long time for the picts, lol. ;D

 

Hey, I have just aquired new space for something new in my room because I moved Tom out to the dining room (He looks better there anyways) I really want something other than another fish tank because it will just be another small one and if I get another tank I want at least something bigger than 20 gallons and that just can't happen right now. So I think a gecko would be perfect. I want to know if anyone else has or had kept geckos and what does it take to keep them?

 

wow that's weird...my granddaughter and I just took a vid for her mommy of ours eating her wax worms...would you like to see it? they are super easy to keep...mines in a ten gallon with sand subtrate..a small tree...she eats gut loaded crickets and wax worms...she has a heating pad under her tank and just the reg light that came with the tank....just have to make sure your hands are clean before you hold them and deffinately after you hold them...they can transfer salmonella to humans if you don't clean your hands before and after

 

Sure, I would ove to see that video! I've heard mixed things about sand being used so maybe I'll just use newspaper or paper towel. I've also heard that the geckos can't see the red light or something like that so it dosent effect them? is that true? thanks for the response!

 

we have had ours about 4 years..and she was my daughters for 2 prior to that...and she loves the sand...she actually basks in it like shes in aruba LOL ....heres her vid we got last nite while she was eating her wax worms

 

wow! what a cool looking gecko you guys have! Do crickets chirp when they are in captivity because I really don't want to listen to crickets all night long... would a diet of meal worms be fine?

 

only get about 6 at a time...they will be gone within a day or so...you won't even notice they are there she doesn't get much exercise as their matabolism rate is very very slow...so she gets some movement from chaseing the crickets...its good for her...

 

Thanks for the help shawnie but the geckos here cost 90 bucks each! forget that! I really want one but I'm not gunna shell out $90 for just the gecko alone. Guess what that means now... ANOTHER FISH TANK! Now I just gotta convince my mom to let me get something bigger than a 20 gallon.

 

90$ that's expensive! What morph? Try a breeder.

 

I've had Amelia, my Dreamsickle Leo, since March, and she's grown leaps and bounds. She's been living in a 10 gallon (much to my dis-like), but mom is finally starting to see how much she moves around, and how cramped she is looking, not to mention the fact that she's needing bigger hides, and there just isn't any room to do so.

Mom finally decided, on all her own, that she wants to upgrade her to a 20 long! So, I have a couple questions

Many people online are saying that their leos had trouble getting food in a 20 long. Since she is fed mainly worms, and I make feeding time interactive and a time to move about and make her hunt (or some times, if I don't have the time or energy to do this, I feed her in a dish), and worms don't move very fast, would that really be an issue? She rarely gets crickets, because mom hates them.

And the second question; Do they like the buddy system, or do they prefer being alone, or is it up to each individual? I wouldn't mind getting another female. They do need to be the same size, though, right? And what if they don't get along? I'd hate to divide the 20 long, or move them both into 10 gallons. Too squishy... I know they'd need 2-3 of everything (dishes, hides, etc).

Last one for now. I got Amelia from a breeder, already sexed, at ReptiCon. Lets say, if I did get a second, and not from a breeder, how the heck do I sex them? I could never figure that out...

And just because, heres my little girl

 

She's so cute!

Leo's are solitary critters except during breeding, so she'd do better alone. Not to say she wouldn't be ok with another, but she may be more comfortable alone. As long as its not a male

I have found my Leo's (which I got old and have since passed) never had a problem hunting crickets in their 20 gallon long aquariums. I also fed mainly mealworms and superworms though and they were easy enough to find, I put them in a bowl for them to eat at night and refilled it the next night.

To sex them, lift their tail gently and look at their vent. Above it (closer to the stomach) there will be some little pores. At 6 months you can usually easily tell if they're dark or light colored; dark means male. If the pores are barely visible and you can't really differentiate the color it's a female

 

Thanks! She's not quite albino LOL Makes her eyes brown (red and black mixed), and then she has baby blue on top of her eyes. I got her from a breeder that I can't remember the name of for the life of me! Very nice and have great, healthy stock, though. They even let us haggle on the price

If I did get another female, how would I go about introducing them? Since she's so large, I'd have to buy another that size from ReptiCon or another show. Probably not a fancy one, though. 85 bucks on Amelia was enough! I chock up her nice growth to her Repashy vitamins

Well that's not too hard! lol I think I'll leave the sexing to the pro's though. What size are they usually when they are sexable?

 

She's so cute!

Leo's are solitary critters except during breeding, so she'd do better alone. Not to say she wouldn't be ok with another, but she may be more comfortable alone. As long as its not a male

I have found my Leo's (which I got old and have since passed) never had a problem hunting crickets in their 20 gallon long aquariums. I also fed mainly mealworms and superworms though and they were easy enough to find, I put them in a bowl for them to eat at night and refilled it the next night.

To sex them, lift their tail gently and look at their vent. Above it (closer to the stomach) there will be some little pores. At 6 months you can usually easily tell if they're dark or light colored; dark means male. If the pores are barely visible and you can't really differentiate the color it's a female

Very good advice! Solitary indeed, and no, your little guy will have no problem, not even with crickets in a 20 long... predatory animals love to hunt, and it actually makes them happier and healthier to do so!

 

She's not very smart when it comes to hunting crickets LOL That's why she gets wormies. I drop them to one side of her (so she see's them) and we do that through the whole tank, so she moves gets to around. I let her hunt till she's done, and then she'll go into her cave and digest for a while, then come back out and cruise around. She can't really catch crickets. I don't think she was raised on them before I got her, so she never learned how. I have to grab them with the tweezers, squish them till they stop moving but aren't dead (yummy), grab them by a leg, and drag them around by her. Otherwise they're too fast and she's too dumb. She will sit and stare one down that is an inch away from her, and then slowly stretch her neck out and poke it with her nose, and then watch it run away. She'll lash right out at worms, though. I think she may be a little too inbred

Her new thing, because she's gotten so large, is to rearrange the tank LOL Just her moist hide, because it slides easy on the paper towels. I don't leave her dish in there unless I have to feed her from it so that she's got as much room as possible. Her dish is actually a cat food saucer. Say's "Spoiled" on it Its about 4 inches across, so you can see how it would take up a lot of room in such a small tank.

 

She's not very smart when it comes to hunting crickets LOL That's why she gets wormies. I drop them to one side of her (so she see's them) and we do that through the whole tank, so she moves gets to around. I let her hunt till she's done, and then she'll go into her cave and digest for a while, then come back out and cruise around. She can't really catch crickets. I don't think she was raised on them before I got her, so she never learned how. I have to grab them with the tweezers, squish them till they stop moving but aren't dead (yummy), grab them by a leg, and drag them around by her. Otherwise they're too fast and she's too dumb. She will sit and stare one down that is an inch away from her, and then slowly stretch her neck out and poke it with her nose, and then watch it run away. She'll lash right out at worms, though. I think she may be a little too inbred

Her new thing, because she's gotten so large, is to rearrange the tank LOL Just her moist hide, because it slides easy on the paper towels. I don't leave her dish in there unless I have to feed her from it so that she's got as much room as possible. Her dish is actually a cat food saucer. Say's "Spoiled" on it Its about 4 inches across, so you can see how it would take up a lot of room in such a small tank.

With a little practice and less help, she'll get the hang of it... you underestimate the power of natural instinct I thought my Garter snake was too slow for the crickets I fed him... only took time, and man, it's awesome watching them hunt and it!! She'll get the hang of it if you let her figure it out on her own, they are fast than you think!

 

I only do that when she really gets discouraged. She can catch them sometimes, but she really hates it when they keep getting away :;rofl she tries, but most of the time it just doesn't happen lol

I love watching her hunt the crickets, though. She'll get real close, then sit really still, shake the end of her tail like a rattle snake, and launch like a lightning bolt! XD She doesn't do this with worms. Sometimes, just the the heck of it, and to get some movement out of them, she'll sneak up on them and poke them lol

I got her from TMF Exotics. Found their card in my car lol Anyone ever heard of them?

 

I have both a male and female in a 20 long. they have sand to dig in and multiple hidey holes. They've been together for 2 years now and have been fine. The male (TC) isn't fantastic at chasing crickets but I'd rather not help him out. Let him learn on his own. He's figured out that the crickets congregate near the water dish. They're both not too social considering they've lived in a elementary school and now a high school since they were babies. TC is more social than the female. She's always been more slender than the male. She goes by the name CT. They actually prefer crickets over everything else ive given them -_-






It's also fun to watch them shed. A little disturbing, but awesome as well.










TC is a cutie an he knows it

And the only photo I had of CT lol

 

Those are AWESOME pics, Makena95'GT!!!