questions about new white lined geckos

[aragin08]

Hello,
I am new to the forum and I just have a few questions about my 2 new white lined geckos. For background, I keep them in a cage with the dimensions 2'x1'x2' on top of cypress mulch with sphagnum moss as well, I have a ceramic heater on the top hooked up to a dimmer, keeping it around the mid to high 80's during the day directly under the lamp. I have the humidity from 50-90 humidity(first arboreal gecko, and first to need high humidity) and spray it twice a day and as many more as necessary to keep humidity on the high end. I also have a few branches set up along with a hide at the bottom of the tank (know I need to get another for the top section, planing on using paper towel tubes as a temp hide and get some quality hollow logs later. Since I had gotten them only a couple of days ago, last night was their first feeding, I had tested it out by using 5 crickets coated in calcium with D3 ( I was planning on using it once a week with non D3 the rest). My one concern is that they never eat in front of me, so I am not sure whether they are eating them or not, however by the next day the crickets were gone so I figured, but how can I be sure that it isn't only one of the gecko's eating them, should I try to have them eat in front of me using tongs or put them in separate tanks for feeding. I am not to sure on this subject. Also, I am almost positive they are wild caught so I know they need a fecal, However I don't have the best eyes so I was wondering is ok to put paper towel over the substrate temporarily so that I can spot the feces better. Also, can I just bring them in for just a fecal right now, or should I have them have a full check (just wondering because if they do have worms or other parasites I'll need to use whatever money available on that). Sorry for the huge post but I just want to make sure you have as much info as possible to make an answer ( along with being a little nervous and making sure I have covered all of the bases). I would appreciate any and all feedback, thank you

 

[GlobeMaster]

First of all, Hi, and welcome to the forum

I did see your first post back when you started the thread and was going to reply, but just got distracted and sidetracked.

I have had my white lined gecko for about 6 months now and he must be coming up to about 9 months old, so I dont have a massive amount of experience but I will try to help as much as I can.

So viv size sounds good, I aim for a basking temp of 90f and regularly find my gecko right up in the top of the back ground as close to the light as possible! You humidity sounds about right, I spray afew times a day and never had a problem. Have you got any photos of your set up?

These geckos are very shy, especially when you first get them, and with them being WC they will be even more shy. So dont worry about not seeing them eat. What I do is put a good few crickets in (dusted with d3) in the evening and leave them over night. I put afew chunks of veg in there for the crickets to snack on, and the geckos will hunt when they want to. If you start trying to move them to different tanks to feed them etc I imagine you will be putting them trough alot of stress and may cause them to refuse food longer and take much longer to settle.

To make sure both geckos get a good amount each, put quite afew crickets in, you put 5 in and they went, so next time try 10 if they all go then increase again until you see one of two the next morning. (and they can eat alot when they want to I would guess one could easily finish off 5 crickets in a night)

For the fecal you might just have to have eagle eyes to spot the poo, although it putting down paper towel will help you spot it then go for it. The paper towel will not affect anything (that I can think of).

Hopefully this has been of some help, and here is my set up and afew pics of the little one....

 

[Riverside Reptiles]

Welcome to GU. It's fine to put paper towel down over the current substrate. It'll certainly make finding the feces easier. If a fecal is all that you can afford to do to start, it's certainly better than nothing. And most likely will be money well spent. PVC tubes and bamboo also make for great, inexpensive, vertical hides. These geckos are nocturnal and shy by nature. So it might be a while before they're willing to eat in front of you. You say they're new, so they're going to be stressed and might not eat well for a few days (or weeks even). If they're new, I would separate them for quarantine for at least a couple of months. That will also give you the opportunity to observe if they're both eating well and obtain separate fecal samples as well. It also insures that they won't spread any funky illness between each other. It will also lower their stress levels.

 

[Riverside Reptiles]

Also, just a note, there's tons of info on these guys in this forum. Do some searching through old posts. You'll find a plethora of great info.

 

[aragin08]

thank you all so much for the excellent feedback, The geckos have so far been eating well and I did get a fecal sample yesterday and will bring it to the vet ASAP. and Ethan, for the quarantine, what size enclosure would be good for one, I know they are arboreal, but all I have at the moment is an empty 40 gallon breeder. Also if the fecal does come up positive, would it be a good idea to just have them both set up on deworming medication, and if so how much would it cost? I also added a live plant in the enclosure called a snake plant (I think, don't know plants at all) thinking I would have the humidity raise with it, but according to my meter its still dropping stupid fast, could it be a faulty meter (it is one of those dial ones). Also, I have been trying to feed them a little of other foods as well including mealworms and eventually a little non additive applesauce, is that any good? And again, thanks for the feedback, I've been reading thru these forums for several months, relying on it for a large amount of research on the little guys.

 

[aragin08]

Also, GlobeMaster, I'm using an 100watt ceramic and it rarely budges above85 at times, and even lower after I mist the tank, any suggestions

 

[GlobeMaster]

Whats your ambient humidity like? If you live in a really dry area it will make the humidity drop faster. How deep is your substrate? and where are you measuring humidity? If you measure it near the heat source its going to always be drier, try and measure somewhere in the middle.

I dont use ceramics, but I have a 60W light bulb which just reaches 90f, so I would imagine a 100W ceramic should easily get that temperature. I aim to get 90f about 6 inches away from the heat source. Are you using a thermostat to control the ceramic? If so you may need to move the probe and/or turn the dial up on the thermostat.

 

[aragin08]

Thank you for the reply, the ambient humidity is about 50 during the day but can spike up to 90 for a while after I mist, it also stays in the 90s throughout the night. Sadly I do not have it on a thermostat (I know I should , but I didn't know where to find them, I only relied on pet stores until recently) However, I do have a thermometer with a probe on it and it is about midway up the tank. so I will move it closer up and see what happens, thank you very much.

 

[Riverside Reptiles]

I don't know what your set up looks like. But assuming that you have some sort of screened or vented areas, it sounds like you might want to cover/reduce those open area some in order to retain more heat and humidity.

 

[aragin08]

yeah I thought of that as well but I also heard that its was important to keep the screen unblocked for ventilation (from that old article on White lines in Reptiles USA)

 

[GlobeMaster]

Do you have any photos of your set up? It is difficult to advise on setup without seeing it.

 

[Riverside Reptiles]

yeah I thought of that as well but I also heard that its was important to keep the screen unblocked for ventilation (from that old article on White lines in Reptiles USA)

Well certainly there is a balance that must be achieved between proper ventilation and being able to keep proper temps and humidity. All of those things are important. I agree that pictures of your set up would make it much easier to advise.

 

[aragin08]

Sorry it has taken so long to reply but I had a few things come up , anyways I will get the pictures as soon as my camera starts working for me again. But in the meantime i have also purchased a thermostat for the enclosure, it is called Zoo Med 500R, I was wondering if it was any go (I know there are better ones, but will this suffice)

 

[aragin08]

Okay pictures won't be coming for a while, totaled camera. On the bright side I took them to a vet with a stool sample, the stool sample will come back in a few days but the vet said I had been doing a pretty good job and that they was in pretty good shape for being wild caught.

 

[aragin08]

Okay so now another problem has arisen, I think there is a dominance issue that is beginning to arise, the male seems to be the only one out of the hide at a given time at night and both of the skin tone seems to be getting darker, so now I really need to quarantine them, so I was wondering what would be a good size for one white lined I was thinking 12x12x18 or 18x18x18 what do you think.

 

[aragin08]

No Worms! Yeah!

 

[target1911]

Toss the dial gauges and go to walmart or home depot and get the accurite digital.

this is why we say do NOT use the dials.

I hope everything goes well for you.
Ive had my pair of white lined for about 6 months. I too see the male much more than the female......until the last few days. I think my female is with eggs as she is budah belly now.

 

[aragin08]

thanks man, definitely will go and check that out, but another thing I have noticed recently was that after male had shed, a little piece was still stuck to his head, It isn't very big and it is only that one little hanging piece. I would try and get it off but they are sooooo skittish, I tried using the sauna trick discussed on the forum and when I tried to get my female out to put her in the small enclosure, she dropped her tail, since then I haven't tried anything else, I think they might have a little retained shed on their toe pads, but it has not affected their ability to stick to the wall, and nothing has gotten necrotic (thank god) anyways here are some pictures of my set up as well, the camera finally started to work (srry bout the quality its a piece of junk)

 

[MauricesExoticPets]

I would suggest getting a vertical conversion kit for that aquarium, your aquarium looks to be about the proper size.

I use 20XT aquariums to house mine and heat them with a single 12x11" section of flexwatt. The heat is regulated by a ranco ETC thermostat. Light is T5 fluoresent placed on top of the glass. I use a timer to set the day and night schedule.

The flexwatt produces the proper temperature gradient when placed on the top rear of the enclosure without using as much electricity as a CHE on a screen lid.

Humidity also has a slight gradient, from 97% down to 74% closest to the heat source shortly after watering. Because my enclosures are planted I allow the substrate to somewhat dry out after watering (it takes several weeks for this to happen), so the lowest humidity levels tend to be in the 74% to 50% range by the time I have to water again.

Maurice Pudlo

 

[aragin08]

Okay sorry for not replying in such a long time, had a lot going on along with very few new developments with the white lines, until now. First off, they seem to be much more active, though they are still scared to death of me. Also the male is still more active than the female. They are both eating, I have seen it, along with the fecal remnants so I dont think there is a problem there, however after looking through a few other threads I realized my male is a bit skinny, which I found odd because he is the most active, to remedy this, could I try feeding him some fattier items more often (ex superworms, waxworms) right now all i feed them is dusted crickets and mealworms. Along with that I think my female might be gravid, I am not sure though because I can only side to compare her against a skinny gecko. Along with that I have recently changed around the enclosure a little, I have added a few new vines and have replaced paper towel with coco fiber and sphagnum moss. here are some pictures of the set up and the geckos (the male is on the glass and the female is on the leaf. and also I forgot to mention that the female had dropped its tail swhile I was taking it out and moving it to a separate enclosure to clean the main one (no I did not hold it by the tail, it was right when I first got it and given it was an import very stressed as I imagine, either way I did still feel really bad about it. And finally, thank you for reading through anther one of these huge posts