Custom Leo Vivarium

[Phantasy]

**Audio slightly edited and description changed based on information revealed in this thread **

Hey all!

It has been a long time since I've posted a thread in the forums, haha. I've since moved to New Zealand, and so got to choose between leopard geckos and leopard geckos if I wanted to keep geckos here that are non-native (and you have to jump through hoops to keep natives). I still missed building vivariums, so I went ahead and made something I haven't before, a non-tropical vivarium. I'd really appreciate some feedback! Sorry for the length of the video; feel free to watch as much or as little as you want--there are some unique features discussed later in the video that I think are kind of neat. Thanks again all!

Kind regards,
-Matt

 

[Zux]

Hi Matt,

You did an excellent job with this, it looks great and I commend you on the thought that clearly went into its construction.

There is a few things which I would not be comfortable with personally, such as housing 4 individuals in the same enclosure, or the Geckos seemingly not having much sense of security; considering the open sided hides aswell as all sides of the enclosure being open. But these choices are of course, yours to make.

Certainly worth noting however, is that light of any kind be that red, blue or any other colour, is very much visible to the Geckos and it is a common misconception that while in the presence of red light, they somehow perceive darkness, this is not the case.

It is also extremely important for the Geckos mental well being to have an extended period of absolute darkness at night, so if the red lights are on for any longer than you use them to see inside the Geckos hiding spots, I would recommend changing that right away.


Thanks for posting this for us and thanks for such an in-depth look, congratulations on the build !

 

[Phantasy]

Good to know about the red lights still being visible! I may just record a new video tomorrow to replace this one, as I don't want to propagate any misinformation. I definitely never intended for the lights to stay on longer than I was observing them, so at least there are no worries there!

I was also considering their daytime sense of security this evening, so I've also already fastened some covers for the viewing ports on the sides of the tank with velcro and a bit of extra foam board, that way I can remove the board just when I want to observe what's going on in the hides. Definitely seems like the best possible compromise, and definitely something I immediately thought when the first gecko crawled down into one of the boxes.

That's interesting about colony housing, I always thought it was pretty common in the hobby for this species, as long as sufficient space requirements were met of course. I have a unique setup for the male, and introduce him to the colony during the breeding season for a short while, then remove him again, repeating until the season is over. The three females I've spent time introducing to each other for colony housing (they were obviously all quarantined and in unique housing prior to this). They never seem to bother each other, and I've never noticed any bullying or reluctance of any of the animals to eat or thermoregulate normally (i.e. sharing warm hides peacefully). Is colony housing in this way generally frowned upon? I'm never one to be stubborn about the health and comfort of my animals, haha, so I'm totally willing to consider changing my setup to suit.

Thanks for the comprehensive reply, the feedback and critique is kindly welcomed! Good to see people take extra effort to inform people in the interest of happy animals !

Kind regards,
-Matt

 

[Zux]

Hi Matt,


The changes you made sound excellent and the covers you can place on the hides does indeed sound like an excellent compromise.

Regarding the cohabitation, in truth it is a complex issue. I think the degree to which it is frowned upon varies depending on the situation, if the male were with the female group at all times, I couldn't condone that honestly. But if he lives apart from them for the rest of the year and the three females live in the enclosure together, you are much less likely to run into any major issues with that in my view, though all Geckos regardless of gender, tend to thrive better when housed alone.

You are absolutely correct in saying such cohabs are commonplace in the hobby, unfortunately much of the reason for that is the animals, as you can see, do so violence free and there is often no outward aggression. The reality of these situations is that one individual will always be the dominant female and they will establish a hierarchy amongst the group. The hierarchy will determine who eats first, who sleeps where and so on, this is just their nature.

Behaviors such as stacking in hides and following one another around are often characterized as friendship by us as keepers but this is actually the Geckos means of establishing and maintaining that order of dominance. Depending on the size of the enclosure and thereby the ability of the submissive Gecko/s to move away, this can prove very stressful in the long term and result in one or more individuals being in worse health than the dominant individual.

I am not suggesting for a moment that you need to separate the females, but I would encourage vigilance on your part, watch out for sleeping on top of one another and certain individuals being blocked from hides by the others for example, if you see this sort of behavior it will be important to keep an eye on the general health and activity of the submissive Gecko/s from that point on.


Hopefully that was some small help, if you have any more questions, do not hesitate to ask, I'd be happy to help where I can.


Kind Regards,
Shane

 

[Hanzo]

Looks very good, one of the reasons I went with a crested gecko was because most of the leo vivariums I saw was sand with a couple og hids. This makes for a rather boring display in a room, had more people made equally pleasing setups as this, I might have gone leo instead

 

[Phantasy]

I slightly edited the audio and updated the description to remove misinformation and keep people thinking about good husbandry practices. Thanks again y'all !

Kind regards,
-Matt