New reptile

[alshgs]

So my son has been working at my father in laws shop to save money to buy his first reptile. We picked him up this weekend. He is the cutest and sweetest thing. We were told it's female, but not sure how to tell. Thankfully we already had the tank so it was just the necessities he needed along with the gecko. The tank is bare right now because petsmart was out of a lot of stuff, but we are checking back this weekend. He has saved up some more money in able to get some nicer things so we are excited for him to complete his tank.

 

[Reggie]

That's awesome! Unfortunately (as you know with birds) chain stores aren't always the best sources of information on how to care for the animals they sell. I'm sure you made him do plenty of research! But here's a helpful link from an awesome YouTuber who knows everything about leopard geckos! I hope everything goes awesomely and his pet lives for a long time so he can enjoy it!

 

[Mizzely]

Cute little bugger! You usually have to wait until they are older to know the gender (6 months to 1 year), as when they are younger the sex organs aren't as pronounced and they all look like females. Here's a visual aid:


(left female, right male)

Also an idea that I use in my own gecko tank is to buy some stone tiles from Menards/Lowes/Home Depot and use that as the bottom Easy to clean and looks nice! I usually change everything around every 6 months or so but the tile is a constant. Here's what I mean:



Also, you can make a humid hide out of paper towels and a Tupperware or old food container. Lots of ways to do it, just google "homemade gecko moist hide". Here is just one example (not my gecko):

 

[Mizzely]

Also I buy a lot of my stuff for SO much cheaper through Pet Supplies | Dog & Cat Supplies, Pet Meds | DrsFosterSmith.com Pet Products Vitamins, hides, tank décor, bug food, etc! And a good reliable food source is dubiaroaches.com, they have dubias and a few types of worms.

 

[alshgs]

Wow your tank looks great! I don't have any stone tiles around, but I do have slate and vinyl sticky ones that we used to re do a bathroom. I personally want a Chinese water dragon, but am clueless on those. We've been doing research for about 2 months and it came down to a crested gecko or a leopard one and he chose a leopard one because their tails grow back. He didn't want a tailless lizard....lol.

 

[alshgs]

Also I buy a lot of my stuff for SO much cheaper through Pet Supplies | Dog & Cat Supplies, Pet Meds | DrsFosterSmith.com Pet Products Vitamins, hides, tank décor, bug food, etc! And a good reliable food source is dubiaroaches.com, they have dubias and a few types of worms.

They told us he needed crickets as the main diet so we bought those and mealworms...are there things we need to buy that I didn't get from research?

 

[alshgs]

Would these work to place in his tank? I have several bundles

 

[Mizzely]

They told us he needed crickets as the main diet so we bought those and mealworms...are there things we need to buy that I didn't get from research?

Crickets are fine, but they are messy, stinky, have a short lifespan, noisy, they jump, and aren't as nutritious as dubia roaches.

Dubias are higher in protein, calcium, and have a better calcium to phosphorus ratio. You do need to dust either with a vitamin d3/multivitamin powder.

Mealworms are also not bad as a part of the diet, but can't make up the bulk, as they are high in fat and have a large chitin to body size ratio (harder to digest). A better worm would be phoenix worms (black soldier fly larvae).

 

[Mizzely]

View attachment 236141

Would these work to place in his tank? I have several bundles

Maybe, but they would be difficult to clean between the grooves

 

[alshgs]

Maybe, but they would be difficult to clean between the grooves

I found some slate tile in the closet...but my question is does the heat mat heat through the tile?

 

[Mizzely]

I found some slate tile in the closet...but my question is does the heat mat heat through the tile?

It goes through mine just fine I use my heat mat as the sole heat source most of the day, with only a small time with a heat bulb during the high point of the day to replicate desert conditions and burn off some humidity. You don't want them directly on the glass with the heat mat as it will be too warm. You can get cheap infared (targeted) temperature pens on amazon for like $8 that will let you see exactly what the temp is in a given spot.

 

[alshgs]

 

[alshgs]

Switched things around and added the humid hide. I think it looks nice for a beginners tank. My son wants a bigger hide and some plants hanging on the side and I think it will look really nice

 

[Mizzely]

Yay! S/he will thank you

 

[expressmailtome]

Congratulations on your new addition!

 

[camelotshadow]

cute...