A month ago my boyfriend's daughter wanted a pet lizard. We took her to Petco and she picked out a leopard gecko. We really don't know much about them. We started out using sand and then started using some coconut shell stuff to lay down at the bottom of the aquarium. We changed out that stuff every other week. We bought her Zoo Med's can o' worms at the time we bought her. Then two weeks later we bought her crickets. 40 of them to be exact and she ate them all in a in about a day. I put some more of those can o' worms out for her to eat. She hasn't eaten though not for about 2 weeks. I think it's because the worms aren't live. Today I noticed she is pale and laying with her arms spread out. My boyfriend gets paid today and we are going to get more crickets. Does anyone have any advice on how to take better care of her? Like proper bedding, food, how often things should be done, vitamines, water and so on. Thank you.
Answers:
There's a good website that you can go to...
www.repticzone.com
In there, you will find forums and care sheets for any and ALL types of reptiles, including your leopard gecko.
Here's my advice...
DON'T put your leopard on ANY kind of loose substrate. My suggestion would be to use newspaper, paper towels, or a reptile carpet that can be purchased at most pet stores. Feeding: You should use calcium/vitamins every other day when feeding your leopard, because leopards, like most lizards, will suffer horribly without the proper calcium to maintain their bones. The easiest way I have found to do this is to put a lid (such as the lids off of coke bottles) full of calcium powder into the tank with the leopard and they will eat the calcium whenever they feel it necessary. I would also put some vitamin powder into a little plastic baggy and put the crickets in the baggy and shake it up to coat the crickets with the vitamins before feeding to my leopard. Also, leopards shed usually once every month-month and a half. This is why they look pale sometimes, and then sometimes they don't. They eat their shed, as well. (It's a natural thing... just as they would do in the wild to protect themselves from predators) Leopards do not like dead foods, so I would feed them a mix of crickets and silk worms or wax worms, both of which can be bought at a petstore such as Petsmart or Petco. You should clean the cage as often as possible, but do a thorough clean once a week to ensure that no bacteria or anything grows within the cage to cause your leopard to become sick. Offer fresh water daily as well.
I hope this helps you out!!
OK you should buy sand and you need a heat lamp because it is a cold blooded animal you got to buy the small kind of crickets because the female crickets have stingers and the bigger kind of crickets have stingers and will sting your leopard gecko in the mouth and will be come really sick and you also need to buy a water bowl and a rock so it can shed i hope that help you
Paper towels are the best bedding for leos. They can injest sand and the coconut fiber and will cause impaction.
They usually only eat things that move. She should be getting crickets every day, and they should be dusted with a calcium powder every other feeding. Crickets and feeder roaches are the best foods for them. Too many mealworms can cause impaction, as they cannot digest the hard outter shell. As for the person before me that said a large cricket can sting a leo, that is not true. The appendage on the rear of female crickets is for laying eggs.
She could be pale because she is getting ready to shed. They eat their skin when they shed, so you will only know she has shed when her colors are back to normal.
She will need fresh water everyday, and misting her at least once a day.
They are nocturnal, so a basking light is pointless. You need to have an undertank heater at one end of the tank. And provide a hide box on each end. You will also need to provide her a damp place for shedding.
Your probably right about the crickets being alive. Do you have a heat lamp on it. Reptiles have to have heat. Mainly just food water and HEAT.
I keep paper towels on the bottom of my Leo鈥檚 tanks. It is easy to clean (just take it all out and put fresh in) and they can't ingest it like sand. If your Leo is young, I do not recommend sand. Baby Leos are not that good with their aim yet, and will accidentally eat sand while catching prey which can lead to impaction which is most often deadly. Adults have this problem too. Just forget the sand and go with paper towels. Also provide a few dark hiding spots since they are nocturnal, and also provide a humid box with moss on the bottom of it (this will help when it's time for her to shed). Mine love the can o' worms and the can o' crickets. When you get ready to feed your Leo, dump some vitamin powder in a plastic baggie and then drop as much food as it will eat in a few minutes in with the powder and shake it up (kinda like shake n' bake), this will give her the vitamins she needs. I feed mine every other night and change the water EVERY day. If the water dish gets gross and slimy, put it in the dishwasher and it will get clean. Don't leave live crickets in with her. I did this once and a cricket bit my Leo鈥檚 tail while she was sleeping and gave her a pretty nasty wound. Enjoy your Leo! They are sooooo cute! =)
DUMP THE SAND!! It may cause her to consume grains when she feeds, and get impacted. If so, she can't pass a poop and she will need a vet immediately.
Use repti-carpet or plain newspapers instead. It is safer for her.
DO NOT USE HEAT ROCKS. They'll burn her skin.
Make her a moist hide. Put cotton balls or perlite in a Glad or margarine bowl with an entrance hole cut out. Get the inside nice and moist. She is probably getting ready to shed and what you see is old skin that needs to be moistened to come out. She'll eat it, and she'll be OK.
NEVER PUT SAND IN A LEOPARD GECKOS TANK!! they will eat bits of it and it clogs thier digestive track. also, you do need a heat pad and lamp, and some reptile carpet. to clean it, just put it in with the laundry or something like that. it says on the pack. what you need to do is every week, buy about 20 crickets. have a small little plastic "critter keeper" tank with half a potato in it for them feed on. feed the gecko a couple crickets EVERY OTHER DAY! and i would suggest takeing the gecko in a little container (with air holes!) to petco and talk to a reptile person. they rock.
Yes you need a heat source, and play sand is fine for leos, its like 4$ for a 50 lb. bag at any hardware store. They need a shallow dish of fresh water every day, 6-10 crickets twice a day, and every other day throw in like 5-10 baby meal worms in a dish. Buy a cricket care tank! They are life savers. They come with food trays for cricket food, which you should also buy because it puts vitamines right into your leo. Also dust the crickets in calcium powder every other day.
And Im sorry makala, but you are absolutley incorrect. Those are not stingers on crickets, the ones with "stingers" are females, and those are just tubes that they will use to lay eggs when they are ready. They are not stingers and will not hurt your lizard.
ive got a leopard gecko my self ryt now and i find the best ever thing to use is newspaper or kitchen roll 4 its bedding thats the best thing and if u dont havea heat mat get one put it at one end of the tank and put a lil hide on that side too DOESNT MATTER ABOUT LIGHTING 1 reason because lizard geckos are nocturnal so they'll sleep tho the day 2 reason because ud ave the heat mat n its the best thng to get cos its providing one hot and cool area rather than having all of the tank hot n about the food i advide nt to get can o worms cos its nt thre bst thing 4 them crickets and give em about 3 a day and try puttin like carrots in wif the crickets that fills them wif nutrition which helps them grown n helps your lizard get more nutrions to grow him/her -self there is a powder you can get the one i have is called nutrobal a multivitamin supplement to help bone growth in lizards which u could jst put in a lil like bottle cap like a coke bottle cap n put the coke bottle cap in the cage n wenever he/she feels like it they'll go n lick at it n help them-selves of if your hondling him/her (wash ur hands be4 this very important) dab a lil bit on your finger n put your finger jst putside of hi mouth dependin if es carm or even wants to ell lick at it ive done this n boy he loves it! also things like putting damp kitchen roll or toiletroll in the lizards lil home is also gd 4 him means he can get warmer faster n if e shredds during the night (only takes a couple o hours for him to do it) e can do it better wif it there already :) if u need anymore advice i no quite alot my-self jst ask or e-mail me ill b happy to help GG :D
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