Posted by Sarah on September 24, 2008
I guess I should have seen that one coming.
All of our reptiles are kept in cages in a former bedroom, and we keep the door to the room shut to keep the dogs out, and the heat in.
Last night I decided to take Tiger out while the dogs were out.
Scrappy ran up to see what was going on and poor Tiger got scared and started holding his mouth open.
Although some people say their leopard geckos talk to them, I didn’t hear any noise coming from him.
Even after we put the dogs up Tiger was still scared - and he bit me.
Fortunately it didn’t hurt, but since he was so scared we put him back in the cage.
How do your herps react to your other pets?
Do you let them hang around, or keep them separate?
We usually put the dogs up before we take the reptiles out, but since Jeff was out I figured I’d try it.
Posted by Sarah on August 27, 2008
Isn’t he adorable?
Here’s a close up of our leopard gecko, Tiger, when we were playing with him the other day.
How often do you take your reptiles out?
Posted by Sarah on August 20, 2008
In addition to a rock hide and a food and water dish for our leopard gecko’s cage, we got a Peek a View Burrow by T-Rex Vivarium Foam Systems.
Tiger seems to like it - of course being one of our pets he likes to crawl underneath the foam system instead of crawling into the burrow, but every night he is waiting on top of the burrow for Jeff to feed him his crickets.
I love that you can mist one end of the burrow, and use it as a humid hide, so we don’t have to have a separate humid hide for Tiger- I didn’t realize that when we were first looking at the burrow, and I was wondering how I was going to fit it and another hide in his cage.
We also got Tiger some of Zoo Med’s Leopard Gecko Food,
which we haven’t used yet, Leopard Gecko Dust by T-Rex
,and a Can O’ Crickets
.
Jeff is still talking about how bad the Can O’ Crickets stank!
Tiger did eat one of the canned crickets when Jeff fed it to him using some wooden tongs, but he didn’t eat the two that Jeff left in his food dish.
Jeff said he didn’t blame him for not eating something that smelled that bad.
I guess I don’t blame him that much - and I’m not planning on opening that can of crickets any time soon.
Of course it will be nice for Tiger to be able to eat some of them if we have trouble getting crickets in the winter.
I’m not even going to try them with the chameleons since they only eat live food, but poor Tiger is going to have to try again.
What’s in your geckos cage, and what do you feed your geckos?
Leave a comment and let me know - Tiger wants to know if he’s missing out on anything!
Thanks.
Posted by Sarah on August 4, 2008
Remember a few weeks ago when I asked What makes a good reptile owner?
On Saturday I was reminded of how important it was to know where you’re going to get your reptile’s food from after I saw the most adorable leopard gecko at Petco.
The unsexed gecko had been given to Petco for adoption because it was “too far to drive to Fargo to get crickets for him.”
I have to admit that I was sad to see the results of something I had written about so recently, but at the same time I was glad that the gecko’s former owners realized that they should let someone else take care of him when they realized that they couldn’t, instead of neglecting him and not providing him with enough food.
Although geckos can eat mealworms, there haven’t been any mealworms in Petco in several months due to the mealworm’s slow breeding season - and even if there were some available there are people who love reptiles, but don’t want worms in their refrigerator.
I am one of those people, although we did have mealworms in the fridge for a few months, they are now in a dorm fridge we got at a yard sale.
Jeff and I had researched leopard geckos and crested geckos a while ago when we were considering one, so I knew that we could provide the gecko with what it needed.
We asked if the leopard gecko was still available, and we asked about the adoption process - you just had to donate some money to the Petco Foundation - in our case it was $7.00.
I do have to say that we left Petco without a new leopard gecko, and then before we were halfway home we turned around and went back to get the leopard gecko, a hide, and water and food bowls.
On the way home I jokingly said “I think we should name him Panther.” You know, because he’s a leopard gecko.
Jeff said “I was thinking Tiger,” so Tiger it is.
Tiger settled happily into his new home - one of the chameleon’s old baby cages, and climbed right up into the top right corner of the cage.
He stayed there so long that I was wondering if he was stuck 
.
I read that you could put a paper towel tube in the cage for geckos to hide in, and after I did that Tiger moved down into it.
Tiger seems happy, and he’s eating.
He’s also used to being handled, although we haven’t handled him much since we only got him two days ago.
So that’s the story of Tiger, our new leopard gecko.
If you have a leopard gecko I’d love to hear how you house him and supplement his food, and I’d love to know of any leopard gecko resources that you trust.
Although I’ve done the research before, now I realize that there is so much conflicting information about their care and requirements that I don’t know what to believe.
Any help you could give will be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
