Our first Leo - Bell Albino Sunglow

[pixiepurls]

Hello! We traveled an hour and a half today to buy a sweet gecko from a breeder at the Prince William County Fairgrounds at a lizard/reptile show. It's my first reptile and my first leopard gecko. From the research I did ahead of time it seemed like the lowest maintenance animal we could get. I was tempted by the bearded dragons but wanted to go as low maintenance as possible as I have a 5yo and 7yo.

We wound up with a fairly expensive (more then I meant to spend!) "Bell Albino Sunglow". She was fed crickets so we will begin with crickets with her. I bought some today but am not sure when to start feeing her (I made sure to get small). I wish I had written down how old she is I think he said 3 or 4 months old. I tried not to get one younger then that based on stuff I read online.

She is very sweet and docile, out of all the babies we held or saw held, she was the calmest and even licked our fingers. Any breeders we went to we asked them to point out the calmest ones, hoping we get a very docile one. She slept in the car and is now checking out her new home.

We bought her a 10 gallon tank, lined it with newspaper, used a plastic container and wet paper towels to create the hide thing, and we attached the heat pad to the bottom side of the tank (we need to get a proper table to put it on, right now its onto my dresser and would ruin the wood) so I'm going to be looking online for a proper frame/table to keep the tank on so the pad can go under like its supposed too. Going to try to get that in the next few days.

She's very sweet from first impressions, not sure how its easy to tell in the long run. Do we try to feed her crickets tonight or wait? We have distilled water in two water bottle caps set out as well and a few empty toilet paper rolls for her to play with.

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

Hi ~

A warm welcome to Geckos Unlimited! What a lovely leo you have there!

It may take a few days for her to settle in prior to eating. Good idea to use paper as a substrate. You may wish to consider paper towels or textured tiles.

Sometimes Craigslist is a good resource for coffee tables/stands.

Be sure to elevate the enclosure off the stand to provide ventilation for your UTH to prevent heat buildup. 1/4" to 1/2" will be fine. Sometimes little sticky pads come with the UTH.

Have you some supplements yet?

I just use tap water for all my geckos and have since 1988.

 

[pixiepurls]

No supplements. Petsmart dusted the crickets for me and told me to shake the container before giving it to them. She wouldn't eat any last night I may need to go buy more if they die before she will eat them. I am not sure when to try and feed her again. I've heard some will eat in the middle of the day and other like to eat at night. She's in her hide right now. My tank came with a 40w daylight bulb, its super hot when I turn it on. She wouldn't open her eyes when it was on being an albino I think it was too bright for her she moved around because I made some noise and would not open her eyes at all while walking in the hide (which is see-thru) but I wanted her to get some heat... but turned it off. Maybe if I elevate the tank onto of the dresser I can place the heating pad underneath without damaging the table, like if I set each corner up on a book so its a good 2" off the wooden top of the dresser. I've read they may not eat if not warm enough, and I just don't want to be the cause of her not eating. Its fine if she's stressed and wants to chill but I would like to provide the best environment I can.

It's 70 in the tank, I don't know how warm it is over where the heating pad is against the lower side. The stand I ordered will probably take a few days to get here, found one on petco for pretty cheap.

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

No supplements. Petsmart dusted the crickets for me and told me to shake the container before giving it to them. She wouldn't eat any last night I may need to go buy more if they die before she will eat them. I am not sure when to try and feed her again. I've heard some will eat in the middle of the day and other like to eat at night. She's in her hide right now. My tank came with a 40w daylight bulb, its super hot when I turn it on. She wouldn't open her eyes when it was on being an albino I think it was too bright for her she moved around because I made some noise and would not open her eyes at all while walking in the hide (which is see-thru) but I wanted her to get some heat... but turned it off. Maybe if I elevate the tank onto of the dresser I can place the heating pad underneath without damaging the table, like if I set each corner up on a book so its a good 2" off the wooden top of the dresser. I've read they may not eat if not warm enough, and I just don't want to be the cause of her not eating. Its fine if she's stressed and wants to chill but I would like to provide the best environment I can.

It's 70 in the tank, I don't know how warm it is over where the heating pad is against the lower side. The stand I ordered will probably take a few days to get here, found one on petco for pretty cheap.

Hello ~

Thanks for sharing. Best to feed in the evening.

There are a huge amount of details when caring for a leo. Please scroll to post #81 of the Leo Care Sheet linked in my signature below for the "short version".

1. Any chance of upgrading to a 30 x 12 x 12 enclosure from the geck-go? If she turns out to be an average size female (~9 inches long, ~70ish grams), a 20 gallon LONG might be a good forever home.

2. Temperature/thermal gradient: Let's get a digital thermometer with a probe so that you can be certain of the temps. Proper heating is the bottom line to leo husbandry. Without proper heating a leo will be unable to digest food.

Recommended temperatures for all leos regardless of size
88-93 F (31-34 C) ground temp at warm end inside the warm dry hide
no greater than 85 F (29.5 C) air temp - 4 inches above ground on the warm end
no greater than 75 F (24.5 C) air temp - 4 inches above ground on the cool end

Leave the UTH on 24/7. Turn off the overhead lighting/heating at night (~12 hours on and ~12 hours off) unless ambient room temperatures are particularly cool during the night.

3. Suggest these supplements, only. (There are reasons why.)

Lightly dust crickets, Blaptica dubia, and mealworms with Zoo Med's supplements like this:

Monday - lightly dust with Zoo Med's Reptivite multivitamin without D3
Wednesday - lightly dust with Zoo Med's Repti Calcium with D3
Saturday - lightly dust with Zoo Med's Repti Calcium with D3

Use the Reptivite multivitamin sparingly! The directions on both containers suggest dusting according to your gecko's weight.

Recommend feeding crickets, Blaptica dubia, and mealworms an All Purpose Poultry Feed 24/7 or Zoo Med's Natural Adult Bearded Dragon Food 24/7 with added collard greens and dandelion flowers/greens.

4. Recommend an opaque humid hide on the warm end of the enclosure for more security. Easily made. Just ask.

 

[pixiepurls]

I can not upgrade her tank, maybe in a year though. She FINALLY ate last night I was so thrilled. I picked up some meal worms at petsmart to see if she would atleast get started eating if those would temp her. I left them in a dish all afternoon. She comes out of her moist hide a few times a day for sure, but she ignored the dish and worms. So at 8pm I placed two in front of her she gobbled them up and ate like 4 or 5 then I gave her like 6 or so crickets which she also ate. I left two in there last night I don't see them this morning. So nice to know she's eating now I will have to figure out how many she will be eating a week. I'm going to feed a mix of meal worms and crickets. I read a lot of conflicting information online, on forums etc. I am going to make sure she gets the small sizes ons and just mix it up a bit. Variety is the spice of life as they say.

I've purchased the calcium but have not dusted anything yet but will attempt at her next feeding. I am slow going getting used to all this stuff!

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

pixiepurls ~

Good to hear that your leo has crickets and mealworms for variety! Nice that she's eating.

A 1/2 inch elevation at each corner should be fine for ventilating your UTH.

Did you get a calcium with D3? How are you doing for enclosure temps?

 

[pixiepurls]

I have a smaller (mini) under tape on pad and thermometer to regulate it set to 91 sometimes its 89 and I've seen it as low as 87. I have another regular small size one coming in I'm going to add it to the tank. Everyone says to just have 1 under there but she never ever goes to the cold side so i think its too cold and I'm not a fan of the over head lights (thought I do have one but it broke and I have to return it) but they are serious fire hazards and I have kids who mess with everything. So I think with the two under pads it might up the overall temp in there a little. Her cool side is room temp I would assume 72 is what we keep it which I know is a little cold for them they like 75 right? So I need to work that out but she's eating and popping and seems very happy. She never went into the coconut hide I got her only went in her wet hide which was over the heat but it still felt very cold in that wet hide. So I moved the coconut over the hot spot and now she goes in there half the time and the wet hide the other half the time so I am glad I did that. I was worried she wasn't getting enough belly yeat. I am way overthinking it all but its fun to problem solve.

My tank table has no bottom so i think we are loosing heat that way I may try to find a heat proof material to place under the tank (I have pads on the tank bottom so they don't touch anything they are on) but I think the opening under the tank table just lets too much heat escape from the pad.

I think she's bored I want to get her some stuff to climb!

As it turned out the petsmart only had calcium with D3 though I keep reading about over doses of D3 online? but I went ahead and got it and figured I could just not give it to her every feeding if I was worried about too much.

What I would really like it some sort of TOP I could attach to the top of the tank (but easily removable for feeding/cleaning) which I could pop some low wattage night time bulbs in and just keep those on during the day to add some heat (she's albino so I wouldn't want bright light). Something that attached like a top so no lamp could ever fall off.