nicolie85
New Member
About six months ago, my mom bought my twelve-year-old sister a leopard gecko. The only time the gecko's cage was cleaned in that time was on the two occasions I cleaned it out myself. Every time I go to my mom's house I cringe at the sight of the cage. The poor little guy is always covered by crickets and gives me a look of "help me" . So, yesterday I took him home and added him to my herp collection .
I know that many of you on this site own leopard geckos and I want to make sure that he is properly cared for now.
His set-up:
* Cage Type - Glass aquarium 2' long 1.5' tall 1.5' deep
* Lighting - He has no light source
* Temperature - I need to check his temps, but he has an undertank heat pad under his hiding rock that is always left on. I took away the heat pad last night just in case it is wrong for him.
* Humidity - I need to check his humidity
* Plants - One fake desert plant
* Location - The current cage location is in our living room away from any vents or the air conditioner
Gecko Info:
* My Gecko - A male (as told by the pet store) African Fat Tailed Leopard Gecko. He has only been in my care as of last night.
* Handling - My sister handled him on a regular basis and he is very sweet.
* Feeding - He was only fed large crickets. My mom would put an entire dozen into the cage with him. Last night I removed all of the crickets and plan to feed him tomorrow with only a few appropriate sized crickets. I also plan to try some wax worms with him to add variety.
* Supplements - I believe my mom was dusting some of his crickets with some kind of special gecko supplement. I have no idea if she used it much after purchase though. Also, I know for a fact that she never gut-loaded the crickets as I asked her to. I have gut-loaded crickets to feed him, but I have no idea how much or what supplements to use.
* Watering - He has a shallow dish for water that was not changed regularly and my sister used tap water after I told her not to. I thoroughly cleaned out his dish last night and put filtered water in it.
* Fecal Description - Very large light brown feces. I think maybe he had sand in his feces or something.
* History - He was purchased from a local pet store in March of this year and has been in my sister's care ever since. Recently, he was left out of his cage over night and found days later. My mom said he even bit her and her boyfriend. Now, I think he is just very tired from the whole ordeal.
* Current Problem - He seems to be healthy aside from the strange looking feces.
My main concern at this time is creating a proper supplement schedule and understanding his lighting needs. Which supplements do I use and how often? Does he require a heat lamp during the day to keep desert-like temperatures? Should he really have a heat pad? Also, should I add some real plants to the cage for humidity?
Any thoughts would be most helpful in creating a better quality of life for this little guy .
I know that many of you on this site own leopard geckos and I want to make sure that he is properly cared for now.
His set-up:
* Cage Type - Glass aquarium 2' long 1.5' tall 1.5' deep
* Lighting - He has no light source
* Temperature - I need to check his temps, but he has an undertank heat pad under his hiding rock that is always left on. I took away the heat pad last night just in case it is wrong for him.
* Humidity - I need to check his humidity
* Plants - One fake desert plant
* Location - The current cage location is in our living room away from any vents or the air conditioner
Gecko Info:
* My Gecko - A male (as told by the pet store) African Fat Tailed Leopard Gecko. He has only been in my care as of last night.
* Handling - My sister handled him on a regular basis and he is very sweet.
* Feeding - He was only fed large crickets. My mom would put an entire dozen into the cage with him. Last night I removed all of the crickets and plan to feed him tomorrow with only a few appropriate sized crickets. I also plan to try some wax worms with him to add variety.
* Supplements - I believe my mom was dusting some of his crickets with some kind of special gecko supplement. I have no idea if she used it much after purchase though. Also, I know for a fact that she never gut-loaded the crickets as I asked her to. I have gut-loaded crickets to feed him, but I have no idea how much or what supplements to use.
* Watering - He has a shallow dish for water that was not changed regularly and my sister used tap water after I told her not to. I thoroughly cleaned out his dish last night and put filtered water in it.
* Fecal Description - Very large light brown feces. I think maybe he had sand in his feces or something.
* History - He was purchased from a local pet store in March of this year and has been in my sister's care ever since. Recently, he was left out of his cage over night and found days later. My mom said he even bit her and her boyfriend. Now, I think he is just very tired from the whole ordeal.
* Current Problem - He seems to be healthy aside from the strange looking feces.
My main concern at this time is creating a proper supplement schedule and understanding his lighting needs. Which supplements do I use and how often? Does he require a heat lamp during the day to keep desert-like temperatures? Should he really have a heat pad? Also, should I add some real plants to the cage for humidity?
Any thoughts would be most helpful in creating a better quality of life for this little guy .