Keep Your Leopard Gecko Safe And Happy
83Comforts To Provide; Dangers To Avoid
My wife, Pam, and I have only owned 2 leopard geckos, but we have learned a LOT about what to do for them...as well as what NOT to do. In general terms, we recommend a truly outstanding leopard gecko website for study. It would take far more than a single Hub Page to cover the excellent material they have there. We won't try.
What we will do is share some specific insights we've picked up along the way. Important insights, one of which can prevent fatal injury to your pet. THAT is crucial; nothing produces guilt like accidental harm to a small creature that trusts you for affection, food, shelter, and basic security. We want to avoid that at all costs.
Pam acquired our first gecko, Buddy, when she was living in Hereford, Arizona. A teenager owned the little thing, and it was nearly starved to death. The kid just didn't pay attention to the needs of the animal. Fortunately, when Pam's adult son, Zach, rescued the scrawny reptile and brought it to his Mom, the previous owner didn't mind at all. In fact, he was simply relieved that people would no longer have reason to get on him about his severe negligence.
Animals have always been drawn to me, but even more to my wife. She is a Little Mother Of The Universe, and she took VERY good care of Buddy. He had a glass cage with a heated cave rock, good sand for substrate, [which we now realize--the sand part--is NOT a good plan; see Comments below] and all the crickets he could eat. Buddy (who turned out to be a girl) appreciated it. She would climb on Pam's hand and rest there, secure in the knowledge that THIS was a safe place. Before long, she began to fill out and grow. Her tail went from skinny to fat. Over the months, she developed into a big, healthy adult leopard gecko, beautifully colored and patterned through her frequent molts.
Two moves later, we were settled in the town of Parachute, Colorado. Our home is modest, but big enough for us. Buddy, on the other hand, had outgrown her cage for sure. We went shopping and got a bigger, beautiful cage with front-opening doors and a nice, tall storage-and-stand pedestal. She got a grand new home with beautiful, specialty sand, an extra climbing-and-cave rock...and a special hard-foam backdrop that was patterned to resemble natural rock.
Buddy went happy-nuts. She climbed and climbed and climbed. HOWEVER, she also fell and fell and fell. Only later did we figure out two things:
1. She had grown so large and heavy that her little sticky-pad-feet could not hold her indefinitely. If she had been a quarter of her massive size, she would probably never have had a problem. But she was what she was, and she fell.
2. At least one of the falls resulted in a terrible injury. We did NOT realize it at the time, even though we saw it happen: The side of her abdomen impacted the rounded but very hard edge of her ceramic water dish. She began to bleed internally, slowly but steadily.
As a result, within a couple of days she had stopped eating. Geckos do NOT always need to eat daily, but as the days began to add up, we began to worry. Then we saw her abdomen was becoming distended. It was evening. We did what we could: Gave her a warm-water bath, which she loved. After that, she moved agilely around her cage, in and out of her bath water dish, head high, as if to say, "Look, Mommy, nothing wrong with me!"
But there was. In the end, we had take her to our veterinarian to have her euthanized. It was one of the harder things we've had to do. So, as the saying goes, "I done said all that to say all this":
Never give your gecko a place to climb high unless any fall will be short, with a soft place to land.
We should not still feel guilty. How could we have known? Wild geckos climb high all the time, with total safety. But "guilt" does not depend on "should", as we're sure all of you know.
Enter Missy, a baby leopard gecko our favorite pet store operator had saved especially for us when she heard Buddy was in trouble. Missy is now about 8 months old, seems to be fully grown, even bigger and more beautiful than when we took her photos a few months back. She lives in that big, roomy cage Buddy used to have, but very much WITHOUT that fake climbing rock foam that turned out to be so deadly. Instead, we replaced that with a landscape print, taped on the outside of the glass of course, which looks climbable but of course is not.
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Now, about food: The geckos need a good calcium supplement, available water, a good substrate (we switched to paper towels after reading that the edible sand sometimes becomes impacted). For food, they CAN eat certain meal worms and such, but all they really need is a steady diet of live crickets. They will not touch road kill, so to speak. If the cricket does not move, it will not be eaten. The predatory instinct needs to be triggered. So when Missy was tiny, we fed her only tiny crickets. Now she can and does munch down fully grown six-leggeds and does very well.
For the longest time, we bought commercial cricket food from Fluker's, and they ARE good...but such expense turns out to be totally unnecessary. We now use halves of citrus fruits,either oranges or (when I purchased them by accident) ruby red grapefruit--which the little buggies also love. When I'm moving a few crickets from our cricket-farm cage to Missy's cage, I ask the crickets, "Who wants to be lunch?" Amazingly, quite often a number of them will scurry right out to see what the experience of being crunched in gecko jaws is like.
Not that she eats them beyond her capacity. If she is full, she is NOT a glutton. We've read that it can be possible to overfeed a gecko, but thankfully that has not thus far been the case with ours. So, often she goes a number of days with crickets running loose around her cage, chirping cheerfully, the whole bit.
Then, just a few days ago, I came home to discover that the pieces of egg carton which serve as cricket-hiders in Missy's cage...had been moved. The two bigger ones were actually propped up against her heated cave-rock. I asked Pam about it. She told me she WATCHED Missy decide to redecorate and take action. The little lizard moved those chunks of cardboard over to her rock by herself! Nudge, push, until she had them where she wanted them.
Quite amazing. Enough, and more than enough, to make it worth the effort of keeping your leopard gecko safe, warm, well fed...and off those dangerous climbing surfaces.
Thanks for reading,
Ghost32
In A Cage Or On The Prowl, A Leopard Gecko Is A Delight To Behold
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One Additional Thing....
This article was quite useful to me. ive been searching around the web looking for ways to keep my gecko happy because he seems to just want to escape anytime i want to pick him up and climb against the glass like he's just dreaming of getting out of his home. Im still curious if they can be socialized at all or what i can do to calm him down. Wel thanks for the info though!
Angie, thanks for your Comment. We've learned that there are essentially 3 personality gecko types when it comes to being handled: Some actually enjoy it, some are okay climbing on you but don't like being "bossed around" by being picked up by the giant human, and some really want to be left totally alone--except, of course, for being fed and watered and all that!
Our Missy, the little cutie in the photo above, is an "in-betweener". We think maybe she would have been more sociable, but the (dearly beloved) pet store owner who sold her to us...picked her up and turned her over to see if she could tell the sex when she was really small. Unfortunately, she didn't ask Missy for permission. She's now been with us for the better part of a year, and we are VERY careful never to "impose" on her personal space.
As a result, Missy has come to trust us quite a bit. She would definitely freak if we tried to pick her up, but she does the following "friendly" actions which make us feel appreciated:
1. She has come to expect that her fresh crickets will be delivered as "manna from Heaven", and will stare UP at us, waiting for the manna, while crickets actually run around under feet being ignored!
2. She no longer freaks if we put a hand into her cage--she used to, but she understands that we won't cross the line. If we carefully move a finger/hand NEAR her, and she comes into contact with it, she may startle just slightly, but not enough to retreat. And SOMETIMES her little pink tongue will give said finger a lick or even two! Wow! That's a GOOD day!
3. A few times, I've been able to rest my hand in the cage near her, and she has crawled over it. She has to know what it is she's climbing, but again, the trust is so high, she knows that I won't try to enclose her or move my hand suddenly. One day--the BEST!--she actually climbed up onto the back of my hand, rested one foot on the top of her rock cave, and from there (hand and cave-top) actually went cricket hunting! WHOA!
We also TALK to Missy quite a bit, assuring her of our good intentions and our resolve not to violate her personal space. Some folks might laugh at that one, but we know animals are Soul, too, and it seems to us that the talking has indeed helped produce positive results.
Hope this helps,
Ghost32
thats such a cute gecko!!!
hay ghost 32 can i feed my gecio any furits or vegatables its the same as yours thanx
Hi, pg-13--
Your question about fruits and vegetables is an interesting one. All I can say is that we have placed orange halves, pink grapefruit halves, broccoli, and potato slices in her cage without any problem. However, SHE does not eat them as far as we've ever seen. Instead, her "cricket farm" (the live crickets in her cage that she has not eaten) are the ones who dine regularly on the fruits and veggies.
For the longest time, we had a huge "death loss" every time we bought a new batch of crickets at the pet store. We would place them (except for those who got to be "gecko lunch" immediately) into a cage designed for their care and feeding, supplied them with plenty of cricket drink and food, but they still keeled over at a terrible rate.
However, a few months ago we tried something different: We'd put a new batch of (medium sized) crickets right into Missy's (large) cage, and supply them with food and drink in THAT environment. Now, instead of having to go to the pet store every week or two, we seem to be going every MONTH or two. And we swear Missy only eats when she's really hungry, that she considers the crickets to be her friends except when lunchtime is really necessary. The only drawback is that the crickets are REALLY happy and constantly chirping!
Later,
Ghost32
the "edible sand" is not edible and is the worst thing that you can use as substrate in a leopard gecko enclosure.
Never use fruits and veggies.
Whitney05's comment is intriguing! We've not found either the edible (inedible?) sand or fruits & veggies to be a problem in any way, and our current gecko is going on two years of age now, but we're not about to delete any viewpoint that might help keep a geck safe and happy. So, perhaps Whitney would be kind enough to elaborate as to WHY she's so sure about these items?
Or, failing that, the reader is encouraged to visit Whitney's page and ask her directly.
Thank you, this article was very helpful :)
Elaborating on the sand comment:
Leopard geckos are naturally from hard compacted dirt, clay and rocky areas in their enviroment. They do not live on sand as far as nature goes, just a few speckles of rock dust here and there.
When a leo lunges for a cricket, it also ingests a few mouthfuls of sand. Calci-Sand (and really, any other type of sand) is not disgestible, as they clump inside the intestines of your small pet and effectively impact them slowly. Grain by grain ingested, there will come a time when your little gecko will not be able to pass the amount of sand, and most likely die.
This theory has been tested time and time again, hundreds of leopard geckos suffering from paralysis and innapetence in the hind legs before their owner notice that the deal is done and something is wrong with their little darling. Autopsies of such cases reveal wads of sand lodged everywhere!
The best "naturalistic substrate" to use are untreated tile or no stick-shelf liner in a rocky pattern. You may also use paper towels, ink free news paper, butcher paper or reptile carpet. Anything solid is best for your leo!
http://www.leopardgeckocare.net/images/stories/sub
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Fruits and veggies left in the cage: should be rotated every four to six hours, as fruit san mold and spread bacteria in your gecko cage. Leaving them as long as they are rotated is fine.
My source: I'm a reptile keeper, going on steady for eleven years breeding and keeping all sorts of lizards, snakes and some amphibians. My practice is based on herpertological research and veterinary visits, I do what has worked best throughout time.
Azure Child, thanks for your Comment. If you stop by this Hub again, my wife and I would love to know how long it seems to take (months? years?) for a sand-impacted gecko to show those deadly symptoms. No doubt the time range varies widely, but is there any guideline (from your research and experience)?
Thanks,
Ghost32
It depends on how serious is the impaction. Some leos get impacted just a few weeks after being housed in loose flooring, some can live years on the substrate without showing any loss of apetite, decreasing elimination, lethargy or paralysis until it's indeed very serious. Some even might not get impacted at all, but with hundreds of cases to proove the fact, is there really any sense in risking it?
A gecko that ingests sand but has been lucky enough to pass it through should be safe as long as proper measures are taken and the sand or loose substrate is replaced with something solid as soon as posible. If your leo is showing no behavioural changes, eats and defecates regulary then simply change the substrate and monitor for any changes in diet or behaviour. If the gecko continues to appear healthy then all is well and you may continue to enjoy your geckos with peace of mind. You may request a check up for blockage from your veterinary if it helps put you at ease.
Once they begin showing symptoms its usually late enough that the gecko has a mildly serious to serious blockage that often cannot be fixed. If the gecko shows sympthoms, simply refer to the nearest Herpertological Vet available for a consult. Leopard geckos are a small lizard, and serious impaction, even treated by a vet, can still be deadly.
Thanks again! Your Comments make sense, so (after the last one) we did switch our Missy out to a solid substrate. Next step: When I'm shopping tomorrow, I need to stop by our favorite pet store to be sure our favorite pet store OWNER is educated on this subject...!
Pet store owners are seldom educated correctly. Many books still in circulation are out-dated, from the early nineties and therefore provide information that is out of practice already. These books are commonly in the shelves of stores, so it makes sense to recommend what's in them.
Thanks for making the changes, I wish your leo health and many years chasing crickets for you!
Just thought I would say I have had my leopard gecko going on 11 years and have never had a problem with the calci-sand.
Oreo, THANKS for this Comment in particular! We did switch ours out to a different substrate, due simply to FEAR after having lost our first geck as described above. But we're mighty pleased to hear about your 11-years-and-counting experience.
I WAS going to discuss the calci-sand question with our favorite pet store owner, but by the time I got there, she had (sigh) gone out of business. She and her husband had a store that was thriving in terms of content and APPARENT customers, but as far as I know never did turn a profit....
Ghost32 friest I want to say thank you so much for this post!! Me and my boyfriend just got our first leopard gecko Saturday. We have been wanting one for a while, and since his bday is Wednesday.. we went and got the last one at a local pet store. Anyway, the first day we had it, he was active. But yesterday and today he stays in his cave. He does not come out at all! We want him to be very social, so we can pick him up. I have herad of leopard geckos with personality.
Do you think he is still getting use to his new inviornment? I have put my hand in the cage, but he seems more scared then not. True, he has licked it a few times, but for the most part.. he's stand offish. Also, I have picked his cave up that way we could veiw him more too.... this to scared him. I am thinking I should leave the cave alone... Do you have any tips on how to let him know we arent going to hurt him??
Thanks again.
starinme, thanks for your cool Comment! Your gecko sounds a lot like our Missy. We believe she's quite trusting of us by now, but she never has gotten to the point of being happy about being picked up. So we don't do that--though Pam would love to--except on the rare occasion it is relatively NECESSARY, such as when we do a thorough cage-cleaning. Then I try to cup her very carefully in my two large hands before transferring her to Pam's upper left chest. Pam then cups HER hands OVER the critter, with the upper hand providing sort of a mini-cave where Missy can hide her head. If this is NOT done, she will climb right over the top of Pam and keep going, seeking high ground as it were.
But other than that, we have discovered at least one thing that turned out to be pretty cool. She doesn't hunt crickets every day, though we have turned her into the cricket farmer and there are ALWAYS crickets available in her cage. However, when she DOES hunt, my hand does NOT scare her--because she has come to understand that I will settle for the occasional hand-lick (that's WAY cool, huh) and not cross the line by trying to pick her up. So I will place one hand right close to her in her expected path of travel, hoping that she will at least climb over it on her predatory travels. And sometimes she does, even "parking" on my fingers for extended periods. Not quite the same as picking her up, but still a great experience.
You're right about leaving the cave alone. Missy hangs out in hers a lot, too. But when we started letting her "raise" her own crickets, we also added a few chunks of egg carton in one corner of her (large) cage for the crickets to use... and discovered something delightful: Missy will sometimes REARRANGE THE EGG CARTON PIECES to soon her own sense of decor! She'll move them around, turn them over, leave them leaning on the cave, even stack them! This is usually done in the middle of the night when no one is watching, but we have actually caught her in action a few times...and in the mornings, the evidence is (obviously) always there. Entertaining, to say the least.
As it happens, we do face a challenge right now: Money considerations are forcing us to move from Colordo to Arizona in mid-April, and we're facing the prospect of either (a) selling or giving her away to a good home, if we can find one, or (b) taking her with us. We don't really want to give her up, but at this moment we don't have housing secured in our new area...and THAT is scary when it comes to caring for our Little One, for sure!
Thanks for the response! :) I am proud to say that my gecko, Aries, has let us hold him! I could tell he was a little uncomfortable at first, but as soon as he realized he was safe... he lied down. It was cute! I do beleive he will be a lot like your missy... and just do the ocassional walk over my hand.
I do wish he was more active! He only comes out at night.. while we are sleeping... I would love to see him explore!
I have a friend who use to travel state to state with hisAsian lion gekco... he lived in hotels while he traveled... just thought I would share that information. (wink)
Thanks again!
Starinme, congratulations on Aries learning to trust you so quickly. My wife gets to see Missy do her thiing now and then, but only because Pam's insomnia has her up at odd hours throughout the night!
I am so excited! Areis has been, cave shy. (As I like to call it) He never leaves his cave. But last night, I went up to his home, and started moving my finger around on the glss and he came right out! I was so intriged!! So I decieded to put my hand in. He jumped right on! I was so impressed!! We took turns holding him, and when I went to put him back in his cage.. he climbed up my arm as to say no. Once he was back in, I put my hand on top of his cave.. and he crawled right on up... I have decided he is the cutest thing now! :)
Starinme, that is SO cool!
I have a question about the crickets. I have read that you should only put as many crickets as they will eat at one time in the cage, because the extra crickets bother the geckos while they are sleeping. By bother, I mean crawl on them and sometimes bite them. I also was told that if the crickets eat the lizard poop and then the lizards eat the crickets, it can kill the lizard. A vet told me that after my bearded dragon died....the vet told me that was why he died-from eating the contaminated crickets. Has anyone heard anything like that?
Just thought I'd add another comment seen as the sand one has been addressed. Miss would never have been able to climb well, whether she be ''fat'' or not, because leopard geckos do not have sticky pads on their feet, instead they have claws. This is why climbing places should always be low. Thanks.
JudyC, thanks for the info. We had not heard about a gecko dying from poop-contaminated crickets, and of course (as you read) we've gone to having a regular cricket farm right in WITH our Missy. SO FAR we've had no problem, and she appears to be healthy, active, and enjoying life. We've been doing it this way for eight months or more, and will continue simply because the crickets thrive--and even breed--this way, with much less die-off for whatever reason. And Missy actually hangs out WITH them at times!
It COULD be that our lack of problem is, at least in part, due to: (1) We keep a full container of cricket food available to the crickets at all times, (2) Missy poops ONLY in the absolute right front corner of her 18"x18" cage, and (3) We scoop the poop regularly. In any event, I've personally NEVER seen a cricket enjoying her stuff, and Pam tells me that she's only seen a cricket near that corner ONCE (and Pam checks many times a day and/or night).
In any event, this Hub is developing into a fairly extensive forum on leopard gecko care, and I'm happy to see that.
Kayleigh, THANKS for the clue! I feel like Homer Simpson, ought to slap my forehead and say, "Doh!" That is, I honestly had no idea that the LEOPARD geckos had claws instead of super-climber feet! True, their feet are petite and easy to overlook, but no excuse...:D While double verifying this valuable bit of information, though, I did come across another helpful website at http://www.lihs.org/files/caresheets/E_macularius.
Can I feed my leopard gecko crickets that I have caught from around my house?
Tonya, I don't know what the experts will say--but we do. Feed our Missy crickets we've caught, that is. The only exceptions we make are those that might have come in contact with poisons (such as ANY "garage cricket" for a full three months after spraying for dandelions) or really BIG crickets. (Some of our wild ones reach "monster size", which don't interest Missy that much and, we suspect, might also act as bullies toward the smaller crickets already in the cage. This may sound silly, but we feel a responsibility toward the cricket population as well, even if they are there to eventually become lunch!) :D
I just bought my leopard gecko....
He seems to be afraid of my girlfriend and I... and just doesnt want to be held... any advice?
Also we are using reptile carpet... the temp is in the 90's... but the humidity is between 50-60.... how do i drop it down..... we also have A/C running in the house... in his cage all there is, is one warm hide, one cold hide, one mositer hide which he spends most of his time.... (a partical wet paper towel on a hard surface (not on the reptile carpet) under heat and over... food dish, calcium dish and water dish.... humidity gage is located in the middle near his level
To New Gecko Owner:
If your new gecko doesn't want to be held, the best thing to do is to let him have space and not attempt to do any holding. We realize that's a bummer, but it's definitely best for the geck. What you CAN do is practice holding your hand NEAR (but not on) the little lizard with the idea that your pet will eventually come to trust the hand that feeds him. But that can take a long time. Our Missy was very spooked at first (we got her as a baby from a pet shop, and we believe the pet shop owner's insensitive handling ticked Missy off pretty good--no one will ever be able to convince us they don't have long memories, personalities, attitudes, and all the rest. Now (two years later) she has gotten to the point of looking up wondering where our hands might be, total trust, no fear at all--but ONLY because she KNOWS we seldom if ever pick her up without permission.
She WILL stand on or walk OVER our hands now, sometimes hunting crickets in her cage without worrying about us in the least. But it takes time, and every one (gecko) is unique.
We're not sure why the partial wet paper towel is being used--never heard of that one--and we've never even owned a humidity gauge. We have bone dry paper towels for substrate, no reptile carpet, two hides but no additional heat right now (though we did when we had working AC). Truthfully, we never even considered humidity and Missy just has to deal with whatever it is, so I don't have an answer on that one. We do have a larger water dish she can bathe in, and she loves that. Changing the wet paper towel out for dry ought to reduce the humidity somewhat, but I'm not sure by how much.
Perhaps another of our readers can help on that point.
Thank you... Also is putting a glove in his cage a good idea to get him used to a (look a like hand) to be around him... or will the smell through him off....
I also am not too too sure how much to feed... i do not want to over feed... (which i might be doing) I am told he is aorund 1 1/2 months,.... although i bought him from a bet store so who knows...
Also... he has a little peice of skin from a shed (bought him this way) on the top of his head.. he doesnt like to be held right now... as mentioned before... can i leave it till next shed? is he healthy? ... His fecal matter seems to be fine... and his skin is beautiful...
Wow. That's a really great idea--the glove, I mean. Why didn't we ever think of that? The smell shouldn't throw him off at all, at least judging by our Missy. As long as the glove is made with a nontoxic material, it can't hurt and might actually help.
I've never seen a gecko overstuff. You might want to watch yours extra carefully for a while just to be sure, but Missy eats whenever she wants and does fine with it. We know this because our cricket feeding program is unorthodox: I go buy 30 live crickets, put them in the cage all at once--she sees them as manna from Heaven, we think--and they live there until she's eaten them all.
In some cases, that has taken literally months! Other owners disagree with our approach, saying the crickets may actually bite the gecko or she may sicken from nasty cricket feces, salmonella, e. coli, whatever, that she might ingest. But at least for Missy, the way we're doing it really works. Sometimes she even lifts up the egg carton pieces we leave in her cage to give the crickets hiding places. Carries the cartons around, redecorates, even sleeps UNDER the egg carton stuff right along WITH the crickets. We suspect that during the really long lasting times, the crickets have actually raised a second generation of "young lunch: for Lady Gecko, Ruler Of The Cage.
I wouldn't worry about the piece of skin; leaving it till next shed should pose no problem except for driving you and your girlfriend nuts every time you look at it. He sounds totally healthy. I'm presuming he's got a fat tail. Pam's first gecko, Buddy, came to her with a really skinny tail because the former owner, a kid who ignored the little guy a lot, simply flat-out forgot to feed the poor thing. Pam had Buddy's tail all fattened up within a couple of weeks, and a fat tail in a leopard gecko is always a good sign.
After reading this, I got some good things out of it. I want to be able to pick my gecko up, but didn't know if it would hurt it or not. Thank you for the info on yours.
Also, if you didn't know, leopard geckos are nocturnal, that is why they seem inactive during the day. Mine always comes out right away when I turn its light off.
For New Gecko Owner:
For the little piece of skin on its head, you can pull it off without harming the gecko. It's probably better for it if you do. Especially if it doesn't come off with the next shed. What could also help is putting something in the cage that is textured enough that it can rub up against and get the skin off itself. Wood, bark, or none polished stone is good. Since it's on the head, perhaps a cave of this material would be best.
CDLovett, thanks for the Comment. We've never had a hunk of skin NOT come off our gecko's head over time, so we'll gladly bow to our experience on that one.
As to the nocturnal part, we did know that. And the past we had observed her (Missy) to be more active at night. But since we've been here in Arizona, for whatever reason, she seems to have adjusted her schedule and is up more during the day than she used to be, very much as if she wants to be included more in family activities. In fact, when I got her a fresh batch of crickets today (she'd been out for a couple of days) and put them into the cage with her, she ignored them and kept looking up to me for quite a while. FA-MI-LY! (she might as well have been shouting)....
We just bought a gecko from a breeder and we was informed not to leave crickets in his cage with him because they will turn on the geckos after a few days and start to eat on them leaving little sores that could cause infections on the geckos skin and could lead to death!! Has anyone heard of this???
I've read other opinions that say not to leave the crickets in there--your breeder's comment is not the first--but we've had no problem at all in this regard. And we dump 30 crickets at a time in there!
In fact, our gecko sometimes crawls in under the egg carton chunks we leave in the cage for the crickets to hang out, has crickets ALL around her, even sleeps there, and again, no problem to date (after 2 years of doing this). Why it seems to work for us, we have no idea. Could be the egg carton "cover" which gives the crickets a natural place to hang out, but then again, sometimes a number of them will "roost" on top of her cave rock.
We do keep cricket food and drink in the cage, too. Maybe in the problem situations, that's not done, and the gecko looks like something to eat--no idea.
In any event, one thing we do know: Your own experience is our own experience. Proceed with caution (of course) and figure out what works for you and yours; it may NOT be exactly what the rest of us do (or do not do).
Is it OK to put Fire-Bellied Toads in with a leopard gecko? I am trying to find a good species of animal to put in with him.
Yoda, I don't have a clue. We've never put any other critter in with Missy, except of course the crickets she has for lunch. I did find a page that talks about putting another gecko in as a companion at: http://www.geckoranch.com/faq.html#16
A quick search on "leopard gecko companion animals" does turn up several entries shouting that one should NEVER put a different reptile species in with a geck. I had trouble finding the full pages the posts referred to, though, so you might want to do your own research. Sometimes the "never" posters have some real experience to back up their admonitions, and sometimes they're just copy-quoting something the heard or read.
In any event, it would make sense to err on the side of caution.
Thanks Ghost
You're welcome.
Ghost32 says:
2 years ago
I meant to say just a bit more about cricket food: Crickets also love broccoli, unlike a certain former President, and the calcium in the "trees" (which is what my wife calls broccoli) helps both the crickets and the gecko who eats THEM. Our pet store friend tells us that potatoes can be used as well, but we've had enormous success so far with "green-and-orange". That is, broccili and citrus.