leopard gecko- items i may need to keep him happy

[MellowMan24]

ok i'll get a red bulb but for the humid hide instead of replacing my brand new hide i just bought if i get some coco fiber stuff to put in it would that help with the humidity? and the rock hide thing is on the UTH side of the tank. i like the log thing too but a little scared because it goes right to the tips inside the tunnels so i'm scared the gecko might get stuck in it. oh one other question i've read you want the temp of the ground on the UTH side so if i put the thermometer really close to the ground would the gecko do any thing to it? or would it stress the gecko out?

Oh and i'll get a pic of how big the tunnels are for you Sinosauropteryx

 

[Sinosauropteryx]

Adding extra hides

You may not need to replace your new wood hide. Leopard geckos love to hide in small, dark places so, the more hiding places you have, the better. That log hide could serve as a dry warm hide or a cool hide. What does your rock hide look like? You may be able to use that for a humid hide instead if you put some sphagnum moss, cocofiber or paper towels inside it on the bottom. The best answer I could give you, though, would probably be to keep all of your other hides and just add a new humid hide. If there is enough room in your terrarium for an extra hide, that is.

And about the thermometer: if it is a digital thermometer, you han actually put the heat sensor right inside the substrate. Or, if you would rather, just rest it on top of the substrate using the little suction thingy attached to the cord. As for the round, plastic thermometers with the arrows (I forget the right name for those), you can rest the bottom on the ground against the top of the substrate and it may give you a decent reading but I'm afraid that is as close as you're going to get. Those things aren't as accurate anyway so you're better off with a digital thermometer.

 

[Allee Toler]

Mine love small hides. Mines a desert theme, the biggest hide I have is 4"x4". They both curl up into one of the hides. They love small cramped corners. The cool side has a very big hide, a strawberry about 6 inches long, and a rock hide cavern thing that I can't see into. It's about 8 inches in diameter. They never go in either of those, except the strawberry for GiGi. Only she will venture to the cool side and lay in it.

The round thermometers with the arrows are not completely accurate. I have them in the tank still, and use two digital thermometer probes. The arrow one read 81-83F, the digital reading is 95.3F. So I'd much rather get a digital probe.

 

[MellowMan24]

You may not need to replace your new wood hide. Leopard geckos love to hide in small, dark places so, the more hiding places you have, the better. That log hide could serve as a dry warm hide or a cool hide. What does your rock hide look like? You may be able to use that for a humid hide instead if you put some sphagnum moss, cocofiber or paper towels inside it on the bottom. The best answer I could give you, though, would probably be to keep all of your other hides and just add a new humid hide. If there is enough room in your terrarium for an extra hide, that is.

this is the rock hide so you can see it
rock hide picture by MellowMan24 - Photobucket
and the inside of the hide
rock hide2 picture by MellowMan24 - Photobucket

 

[Sinosauropteryx]

Rock hides and tunnels

Ohhh, I remember seeing that cave hide in your other photo when I was looking at it. I also saw the exact same thing, or something very similar to it, at a pet store believe it or not. Yeah, that could do. If you had a tray large enough for the whole hide to sit on and that could collect the water so it doesn't get into the substrate in the rest of the terrarium, you could sink the tray part way into the substrate, fill it with cocofiber and put the hide on top of it. I don't know exactly how well that would work but it is worth a try. Are you sure there is no more room in the terrarium for one more hide?

And I forgot to comment on the tunnels inside the log thing you mentioned. It is not so much the ends of the tunnels you need to worry about because leopard geckos are perfectly capable of backing up out of dead-ends like that. I would worry more about your gecko getting stuck mid-way. If some parts of the tunnels are more narrow or more unevenly shaped, your leopard gecko could get itself wedged inside the tunnel and not be able to get out. If that happens, you may need to go as far as to break the log structure apart to get your gecko out. To make sure this doesn't happen, see if the tunnels start to widen at some point inside. Try rolling a very small ball like a marble into the tunnel and see if it rolls all the way to the end of the tunnel without getting caught somewhere. Try this with the structure upside down and on its side too, to be positive. If the tunnel just gradually gets narrower the way a hollow animal horn does, then it won't do this and you won't have a problem. Or you can always get rid of the log structure if you are still worried about it.

@ Allee: Wow, I had no idea those circular thermometers were so inaccurate :shock: I have one of those in Pepe's (my white-line gecko) terrarium and I always get these unusually high temperature readings. A lot of them are in their 90's and one time it just about went up to 100 degrees. I had been wondering if those were what the temperatures in there really were or not. Hmmm, time for some experimentation...

 

[Allee Toler]

I thought they were fine too. Until I got curious and put one of those ear thermometers on the bottom in the middle of the hot side. It read 107F. So the first 9 months of my geckos life she's been on 107F. Oddly, she loves it. Lol. I've since turned it down to where it never gets hotter than 97F.

My circle thing would be in the 80s some times, then be at 100. It just never made sense.

 

[Sinosauropteryx]

Plastic thermometer accuracy

I think that is because of the way the sensor was made. It is mostly imbedded inside the device and the only part that actually measures is on the bottom underneath the device. You can't take a proper substrate reading with those things because they can never really go into the soil unless you actually bury it. Then of course you would need to take it back out just to read it.

Attaching the thermometer to the glass never really works either because the sensor is shielded from the inside-terrarium temperature by the plastic. In fact, you are more likely to get the temperature of the glass it is attached to rather than the actual air temperature. Glass stores heat slowly but it stores a lot so, if you have yours attached to the gllass, those abnormally high temperatures are probably what is being stored in the glass over time. At first you would get low temperatures but, as the glass gathers heat from the bulb or ceramic heat emitter you are using, those temperatures will soar above those which are present in the air. I am not sure if this would work with a UTH though. The UTH is heating the glass but whether that heat travels from the glass floor to the glass sides remains to be discovered...atleast by me.

What I do with Pepe's terrarium is I put both the thermometer and the hygrometer on branches on his tree. They sit balanced by the branch they are on but the sensor underneath is not covered by anything so I get an actual air temperature reading. I am not sure exactly how accurate it is but at the time it seems accurate enough to be satisfied with. Whenever it gets into the high 90's I just turn the heat lamp off.

 

[MellowMan24]

thanks for the tips guys but Sinosauropteryx what if i soak the wood hide in water for a day so it absorbs alot of water and get some cocofiber to put inside would that make it so the wood would no absorb the humidity because its already full of water? i also look around the tunnles in the log it does get kinda tight in some spots so instead of taking it out of the tank (also new and a gift) :idea:i'm going to stuff the spots that i think are too tight with riped up towels so that the gecko cant get stuck there. may limit the tunnels to just a couple but its better than losing a gecko. and i'm going to keep the thermometers i have now until i can afford digital ones.

:yahoo: i might be getting a gecko soon i found a breeder with babies for sale! i'm just waiting for the OK from my father then i'm going to contact the breeder to see if they are still avalible! its going to be a two hour drive :shock: to get them tho.

 

[Allee Toler]

My thermometer is a plastic covered wire, with a 1 inch probe on the bottom. The chord is attached to the side of the tank, over a hide, and the probe in inside the hide laying on it's side flat on the floor. You must of misunderstood what I meant by probe. Also, my round thingy was attached to the slate tile on the floor. You're suppose to go by ground temp, not air temp. So placing it high up would seem pointless to me...


The humid hide is supposed to be humid. I say just put some coconut fiber in the log hide, and spray it. It should do fine. Mine's just a plastic container with a hole cut in it with bed-a-beast inside.

 

[Sinosauropteryx]

A humid wood hide?

thanks for the tips guys but Sinosauropteryx what if i soak the wood hide in water for a day so it absorbs alot of water and get some cocofiber to put inside would that make it so the wood would no absorb the humidity because its already full of water?

Yeah you could do that with your wood hide. I'm not sure how well the wood would (whoa, homophone alert :lol release the water though. It might just keep things damp inside. It might also decrease the temperature inside and around the hide, and you don't want that. If the dampness of the wood hide decreases the inside temperature, the water in the cocofiber will not evaporate as quickly or to the extent you want. Wood doesn't seem to release water very easily so you might only end up with a cool, damp hide rather than a warm, moist hide. Try it and see but I still have my doubts.

You must of misunderstood what I meant by probe.

Actually, I was responding to your comment about the round thermometers and explaining how they work. I thought they were what was over-exaggerating your air temperatures.

You're suppose to go by ground temp, not air temp. So placing it high up would seem pointless to me...

Not for me. Pepe is arboreal (he's a white-lined gecko) so he hardly ever goes down to the terrarium floor. What I needed was something to measure air temperature, not ground temperature.

 

[MellowMan24]

what if i get a red heat bulb to warm the hide up and keep is warm?

 

[Sinosauropteryx]

Heating a hide with a heat bulb

That might work. Like I said, you could try it and see. I just have my doubts about wood. If you dampen the wood and it still feels cool after a few hours then it isn't doing its job as well as a hide made with a more water-resistant material could. If the wood actually gets more damp then it's definately not doing its job right and you would be better off with something else. That rock hide you showed me looks like it might do a much better job. Why don't you use it?

 

[MellowMan24]

oh yea:yikes: i completely forgot :lol: yea i'll use that instead. wont take as long

 

[MellowMan24]

GETTING A GECKO TONIGHT!!!:yahoo: i'm getting it from a breeder i should be home around 10 and will post pictures!
i broke my Hygrometer today i was putting it on the side of the tank and droped it so i'll have to get a new one tomorrow when i go to pick up some crickets.

 

[Sinosauropteryx]

You don't need a hygrometer

You don't need a hygrometer. Just remember to mist the humid hide daily and keep the rest of the terrarium dry. Oh, and congrats on getting the gecko Can't wait for those pics!

 

[MellowMan24]

hey i was wondering because i've read that tap water is bad...my parents have a salt water fish tank could i give the gecko RO water?(RO water is NOT salt water)
and thanks

 

[Sinosauropteryx]

Safe water to use

For water, unless you live in the country (like I currently do), tap water can be a bad idea. There should be tablets you can find at your local pet store or a store that specializes in reptiles. Apparently you just drop a tablet in and it purifies the water, or something like that. I have never used the tablets before so I couldn't tell you exactly how well they work but I have heard that herp keepers living in cities often use them so they can't be too bad. A better alternative, I think, would be bottled natural spring water. Don't go for just about any type of bottled water though. Make sure it says "Natural Spring Water" on the label and try not to use the bottled mineral water. I don't know why, I 've just heard from other herp keepers that there is a difference between the two and that the natural spring water is good to use while the mineral water isn't.

BTW, what does "RO" stand for? I couldn't tell you whether it is OK to use or not because I still don't know what it is.

 

[Allee Toler]

I bought a gallon of distilled water from Vons for $3... It has a pull spout. So I can fill the bowls easily. It's less of a hassle. I've also used bottled water. I've noticed they drink the distilled water more.

 

[ColdBlooded]

Do you know what's in it? Animals will voluntarily drink contaminated water or water that has a high dose of harmful chemicals. They don't always do this but it does happen more often than not.

Distilled water is supposedly void of almost all impurities via the distillation process.

 

[Allee Toler]

I think your posts are getting really critical, Sinosauropteryx. Look up information before you critique it. DISTILLED water is water that's either been sat outside in the sun to kill bacteria for over 48 hours, or boiled water which kills bacteria. Or so I was taught in science back in high school. It's suppose to be 100% pure clean water.