Introducing myself and Gertrude our new leopard gecko.

[lindsay1126]

Hello all,
Well I have been an avid fish keeper (salt and fresh) for many years. We are military so after our last move I decided to take a break (until DH retires) and try to find something to fill the void that could come with us on our next move. So we went to the pet store (big box is the only thing we have available here) as a family. We looked at everything and all really liked the leopard gecko (DH really likes tree and dart frogs also). So I talked to associate, knowing most of what she said would be crap. I have dealt with this for years of fish keeping, I had a guy try to sell me an oscar (gets over a foot long) for a 30 gallon tank (and said he would live happily his whole life in it with other fish (he would eat anything smaller than him). So I don't have much faith in sales associates. She tried telling me we needed to get 3 geckos, a 40 gallon breeder, UV lights, red infrared for heat, and sand or walnut for bedding:yikes:. I smiled and went home found this and a few other forums and did my research. I ordered a few things, picked up a few things (petco was doing their $1 a gallon sale) and setup my 20 gallon long for our 1 new gecko. We went with a UTH, and I did use a rock mat as flooring but, no I may have to upgrade that to slate or tile later. We went to home depot and gathered a bunch of the broken pieces of rock people use outdoors and they just gave them too us, some slate tile DH broke with hammer, and we made our girls new home. We still want to add a foam 3d background but, will add that later. Any other suggestions would be great. She has about 6 hides all together with one being a moist one on the heated side. She loves her home, she is constantly climbing and exploring everything. We did make sure all the rocks are very sturdy, so she won't get hurt climbing or pushing.
We call her a girl bc my 2 daughters are determined that she is a girl and named her Gertrude. I just wanted to thank this forum for all the help they gave without even knowing. So without further ado here is our girl.



ETA: I re-posted this in the leopard gecko intro forum, so if it needs to be deleted here please do, sorry.

 

[the funky gecko]

I love it but are you feeding you gecko in there? If you are don't. When the gecko is snapping at its food it might eat some of the rocks which could kill a adult gecko and your is still young. Please replace the substrate for something like paper towels or to be natural some Excavator clay(not normal clay this is made just for reptiles).

 

[lindsay1126]

I had a feeling I would need to replace the substrate, I looked it up before buying and didn't really find any thing saying it was a big no no like sand, so I bought it knowing it was iffy. I have a bowl of meal worms for her to eat when she feels like it (should I take them out), but hadn't planned on giving her any crickets until she has been acclimated for a bit longer. I will get on the clay. When DH gets home I will have him take the substrate out and replace with paper towels until we get the clay (I thought they could eat paper towels too though?) Thanks.

 

[kholtme]

I believe that substrate has the rocks glued down. Less likely for impaction over sand, but i still dont think it is the best because the rocks can become unglued. Will be fine for a bit but I recommend switching to tile soon like we've already talked about. Lets continue this thread on the other --> http://www.geckosunlimited.com/community/leopard-geckos-general-info-intros-pics/78315-introducing-myself-gertrude-our-new-leopard-gecko-cross-posted-sorry.html

 

[Aimless]

locking for the double post. please continue the conversation on the post with the same title in the other subforum.

thanks!