new gargoyle acclimating

[rhino43grr]

i got an unsexed juvenile gargolyle gecko today at a reptile show and just wanted to make sure i'm doing things right to get it acclimated to its new home.

i have it in a large kritter keeper with paper towel as substrate. inside the kritter keeper i have:
- one exo-terra fake plant suction-cupped to the side that covers about half the floorspace
- a small, angled piece of a cork bark round partially covered with the fake plant's leaves
- a shallow water dish
- a milk jug cap with CGD in it
- a toilet paper roll

i have the kritter keeper on the kitchen counter and misted everything before i put the gecko in. i did not cover up any of the sides of the kritter keeper with anything.

i tilted the deli cup the gecko came in and kind of forced it out into the kritter keeper. in hindsight i should have just let it explore on its own, but the deli cup had shifted when i tried to put the kritter keeper lid on and i didn't want it to fall into the water or CGD.

when the gecko came out of the deli cup, it just climbed onto the fake plant and has stayed in one spot, with its back feet on one of the fake leaves and its front legs stuck to the plastic with its nose toward the lid.

i know i need to be patient and let it acclimate, but i just want to make sure i'm not missing anything i should have done.

 

[rhino43grr]

i forgot to mention:

the garg went from green/brown/red/orange (i'm color blind, so it was some combination of those colors) to light gray on the drive home and hasn't really colored back up since. i know they get "fired up" and their colors change pretty drastically, i just wanted to know if the fact that it has been staying light colors is a "good" sign (i.e. that it's not feeling stressed out)

 

[Hannibal]

Congrats! Sounds like you're oing everything right; since you on't know he age...what length is it? I've got tons of gargs, so I could probably estimate wright for you. On the color change, mine ave never changed coloring due to stress hat I am aware of. Mine are pretty much light colored (fired-down) when they are new light colored stuff (ie paper towels or light colored plants) and get dark (fired-up) when near darker stuff (dirt, dark plants, ect).

 

[rhino43grr]

ok, the color-change thing makes sense. it was darker in the display case when it was on sphagnum, light in the car in the deli cup on paper towel, light in the kritter keeper when it was sticking against the side and now it's dark laying on top of the fake plant (it took me a minute to find it).

i emailed the breeder to find out around when it hatched. i know it hatched some time in 2011 and hadn't been taken to any shows until yesterday. she'll probably get back to me relatively soon with the info, but i would estimate it to be about 4" total length.

another silly question: is there a "surefire" way to know when they're asleep? i've never had a gecko without eyelids, so i'm used to my leopard gecko just closing his eyes when he sleeps.

 

[Hannibal]

Definitely a baby....probably around 3-4g and most likey between 1-4 months of age.

When they are sleeping their eye kinda sinks in some and you can notice the difference by looking at the ring around they eye....these pics should illustrate what I'm referring to.

Awake

Asleep