New gecko owner *Help*

[Knash14]

Hello,

I'm a new gecko owner and have a couple questions. I bought my leo from Petco which I've learned through deeper research isn't the smartest decision. For the past month prior to buying my own leo i "babysitted" an adult male leo who was the tamest animal I've ever been around and quickly feel in love. I came from a house where reptiles wasn't allowed so i didn't grow up with these animals so please excuse me if these questions are basic to your community. I named him/her Senshi.

1. How old can you estimate my gecko is? I bought from Petco and would estimate he is 3 inches long.

2. I gave him/her two weeks to warm up to their new environment before i went to attempt a handling. Last night he walked into my hand and we shared a moment. I felt his stomach and it felt colder than i thought it would be. I have a warm moist hide with a heating pad but is this not sufficient? At the time he was not in this area of the tank so i don't know if this is just because of that.

3. He seems to enjoy crickets more than meal worms, but the crickets are big; he still gets them down no problem and seems to enjoy them but are they too big for his little body?

4. Lastly, would there be anything you can tell me about its sex and ID from the pictures below? I thank you very much for your time and assistance!

 

[scotty08724]

I am no leopard gecko expert but here is my guesstimate,

1&4) 6 months to a year old. I believe it is still too early to tell the sex. But at some point you will either see little bulges if he is a boy, or you will find little infertile eggs around the tank if it is a girl. Those beautiful dark bands indicate that he is obviously not an adult. Once those bands break up into dark spots, then you know your on your way to becoming a teenager and soon will be able to easily sex it.
2) reptiles feeling cold is perfectly normal. The "feeling of cold" is actually heat being absorbed from you. The better the conductor of heat, the more dramatic the feeling will be(such as touching a piece of metal that is room temperature compared to touching a piece of wood at room temperature. They are both the same temperature, you just perceive one being "colder" than the other. The reptile is a great conductor of heat.

As long as yout tank temps has a nice thermal gradient, the gecko will move to where ever he is comfortable. If you never leaves the hot side, that is a good indicator that you need to make some adjustment.

3) those crickets are way to big for that little gecko. Geckos do not chew like we do. They essentially bite the insect a few times to kill it and them swallow it whole. Think of trying to eat a foot long sub with out chewing it. Part of it will be in your stomach but a good portion will still be lodged in your throat. Not to mention A lot of the cricket exoskeleton never gets broken down in the stomach and is just passed on through its tiny intestine full of twists and turns,andeventualy comes out its itty bitty anus. Insects to large do a fair amount of internal damage. Next time you go to petco, pick up some calciworms(aka pheonix worms), a calciworm at full size is just right for your little gecko plus they are supper nutritious and they will eat anything you give them(for gut loading

 

[Knash14]

Thank you for the help!

How often do you change chance your tank liner? I've been using reptile carpet and was wondering how often do you buy new for your gecko?

 

[acpart]

In order to keep the repti carpet cleaner, figure out where you gecko poops and put a bathroom tile in that spot. Then the mess gets on the tile and not on the carpet and you can lift the tile out and brush off the poop.

WHen I was using repti carpet (I'm now using tile) I would wash it when it started looking dirty. I had 2 pieces of carpet, so I would take the dirty one out and replace it with the clean one. Then I'd wash the dirty one in the sink with dish liquid soap, rinse it out, put it on the "spin" cycle of the washing maching to get extra water out and drape it over the tub till it dried.

ALiza

 

[congener329]

Tiles are just so much easier, I am so glad I took the advice from here and changed from sand to tile.