Critique my enclosure plans

Hi guys! This is my first post but I've been lurking for a while gathering info.

Today I got the screen cover for my 10 gallon set-up (my brother is giving me a free tank, so I'm waiting for him to bring it to me) and decided to start putting together components I have so far. I still need to buy an under-tank heater calcium D3 + multivitamin supplements and 2 thermometers, but here is my design so far (sitting on the packaged screen cover to replicated the floor-area of the tank I will be getting).

The 2 dry hides are made of paper mache painted with acrylic to look somewhat rock-like. The moist hide has since been painted to match as well.The water, mealworm and calcium powder bowls are just different-sized lids which I have thoroughly cleaned. I have since added 2 more small plants, but it isn't much more crowded because of their placement.

Does this look ok? Is there anything I should change for safety or maybe to just look better? Thanks in advance for any and all comments!

EDIT: I'm having trouble posting an image, but here's the direct link-- https://2img.net/h/i401.photobucket.com/albums/pp94/kafkabeetle/Geckos/dscn1844.jpg

I also wanted to add that this will be for a juvenile and that I will be upgrading to a 20 gallon when the gecko gets bigger.

Hi and welcome to the forum. We don't mind lurkers......means you are learning things I suppose. It sounds like a good set up but I do not see a picture. Did you intend to post a picture here? If so here are th directions to post a picture.

First you click on the icon with the picture with a disk on it. Then you select the picture you would like to use then select hosts it at the bottom of the box. Next you will come up with three lines. The second line is the code that you need. I just copy and paste the second line of code and put it in the thread where I would like to put it.
I know it sounds complicated but it really isn't once you have done it once.

Welcome to the forum and I look forward to some pictures!

Jolene

Yeah, I did intend to post a picture, but was having some difficulty so I just posted a link. I edited to do this, so you'd probably have to reload the thread to notice it.

Anyway, here it is:

It is looking really good. Now this is completely up to you but many people use their moist hide as one of their secondary hides. I use mine as my cool hide because I find that they use the warm side much more, unless they are getting ready to shed. That is just a personal choice and more a matter of leaving more floor space for exploration.

I also use all sorts of things for food, water and calcium dishes. You do not have to spend a lot of money to make your leo happy.

I think it look great and there are some others on here for sure that will be chiming in with their opinions as well I am sure.

I'd like to use the larger cool hide as the moist hide, but because it's paper mache I worry that it would be porous (even though it is painted with latex) and then it would mold. Does this sound like it would end up being an issue or not?

Also, what kind of plants are best? I've been trying to use succulents because they just seem deserty to me, lol. In addition to the aloe I'm also adding a cutting from a larger Kalanchoe plant I have. I'm thinking about maybe some jade in addition or some climbing rosemary. It doesn't seem like most people put plants in their set-ups but I'm a big botanist so I can't pass up the chance to grow plants my cat can't get to, lol.

The tank looks good so far. You can always build upwards to add more exploration space. Maybe check out the show off your tank thread for some ideas. I don't think using the paper machet hide as a moist hide would be a good idea either.it would start to desintigrate after a while which would be unsafe.

By the way welcome to the forum

Welcome to the forum!

Your tank is looking lovely. I can't wait to see some photos when its all set up and your gecko is in there

I really like the 2 hides that you have made they look nice.

Haha, yeah i've seen you lurking lol, welcome to the forum Suzanne

Yeah looks great to be honest. Love how you've set it up on the lid lol, but remember not to have it all stuck to the ceiling when you put the gecko in

The only thing i would really mention would be not to have the water calcium and food so close. The gecko will walk the through the water into the calcium and tread calcium everywhere, or he will walk through the caclium and tread it into the water, discoloring the water and making it horrible, or walk through the feeders into the water or such things like this.
Its just a thought from experience, but not a biggy i suppose.

I don't know much about plants really, but i would choose a plant that doesn't have much loose bits that will fall off, like seeds or petals or things, that the gecko may be able to swallow.
I don't really know how much research has been done into what plants are dangerous or toxic to them...

Thanks for all the comments. I'd like to set something up with pieces of slate later, but I've been trying so far to go as cheap as humanely possible with the initial set-up. I think I've accomplished that quite well, LOL.

The moist hide looks slightly nicer now because I covered the outside of it with duct tape and then painted it like the other 2 hides. I also put the aloe on top of it and another plant in its place and one more pot to the left of the cool hide.

I think I'm just going to be removing the smallest dish, since it sounds like I won't be needing to keep any in the cage if I dose properly. So that should free up some space to move the remaining two dishes farther from each other.

As for the plants, I assume if I stick with succulents and non-prickly cactus there shouldn't be any problems with leaves falling off or whatnot...unless I kill the plants, but that's another issue entirely, lol.

I had one other question though. I'm going to be going to Bonnaroo in June and will be gone for 5 days. That's probably too long for a young gecko to go without eating, right? I could wait until after the concert, I guess, but my original plan was to get the gecko in the next week or so after I made sure everything was stable and working out in the tank. (I'm getting the remaining supplies today, and my brother is bringing the tank this weekend.) Anyway, is there such a thing as an automatic feeder that disperses live food? (I know, crazy) How do you guys handle those sorts of situations? I assume most people that might be willing to catsit are unlikely to want to mess with icky worms and crickets...

hiya and welcome to the forum,

your set-up looks great, personally i've never used live plants in set-ups so i wouldn't know what to advise you to use either but some leo books do tell you what plants can be used.

with regards to going away, i would leave getting your leo until you get back or see if your pet shop to a holiday boarding service like some of ours do over here. Since getting my reptiles i havent once been away as i dont trust anyone to look after them properly for me. unfortunately i dont think they have made food dispensers for lizards yet.

I'll probably just wait until after the event to get him then.

lol, don't worry about getting your gecko now. He will be fine either way while your away.

He will be fine if you give him a meal before you go and then he will be fine without food for 5 days. He will be abit hungry when you get back, but he will be absolutely fine. Leopard gecko's can go months without food, as long as there is sufficient fat stores in the tail.
So if you left him without food he would be absolutely fine.

HOWEVER the best option to do, would be to get a bowl that mealworms can't get out of. There are plenty of commercial ones, and are wuite cheap, and just leave him plenty of mealworms in this bowl. They should last, as most gecko's are smart enough not to eat it all at once lol.

So i would say those are your two options, - Big feed before you go or - Leave a big meal with him.
Its more the water that you should be worried about. No clean water for 5 days. But again, they can last without water for quite a while too.

Feel free to invent a food dispenser though, that would probably be a neat invention for all herpetologists and animal keepers.

There is a link in the housing thread that I made that has a link to the natural environment leos come from. Living in rocky crevaces leos generally don't frequent foliated areas (areas with plants). Packed earth deserts don't sustain much plantlife aside of scrub grass. Most follage you would put in the tank would reqire some type of uv lighting or direct sunlight to photosynthasize, both of which would be very bright and stress a crepuscular leo. Natural live succulants can be hazardous to your leo with pointy spurs all over them... your leo could get scratched, poked, or otherwise hurt. If you must include some type of foilage I would either use a colorful background or artificial plants natural to a packed earth desert dweller.

Jordan, would you think a juvenile would be fine for 5 days?

Kermit, the plants I have in there now are aloe vera and kalanchoe. They might not be natural to the particular desert environment they originate from, but I assure you they do not have points. They mature plants I've taken the cuttings from were already growing under artificial light, and it was just a small compact fluorescent in a desk lamp--really not that much light at all, as you can see from the image. It hardly lights the non-planted side of the tank at all. I've been looking for nice desert backgrounds but the only one I've been able to find has red rock formations that make me think more of Utah than the middle east, lol.

Yes, they can survive fine. But it would still be ebst to leave him with a big meal.

Well that's good Suzanne... as long as they're blunt tipped foliage then that should be ok. The only other thing I would check is the ASPCA's toxic plant web site to make sure there's no toxicity issues if for some odd reason they (or the feeders left int he tank) should nibble on them. Here's a link: http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/poison-control/plants/ I figure if a plant is enough to kill a dog cat cow or horse then it certainly can't be friendly to leos. They have a great search feature for plants and is one of the most complete sites I have found for animals and toxic plants listings.

As far as plants go... things along the lines of "hens and chicks" (being in ohio I suspect you should know this plant), lamb's ears, echeveria all should be easy to find and (hopefully) safe/non-toxic.

Ok, since I found out both the succulents I had in their were poisonous to cats/dogs, I took them out and replaced them with some dried rosemary. This is non-toxic to dogs and cats, but it will probably result in leaves getting dropped onto the floor of the tank and possibly eaten. So I'm not sure if I'm going to keep it or not. Doesn't it just look so dry and scrubby, though?

I love your set-up it looks great in the tank.
And about plants.. there are loads of fake plants available for reptile tanks and they are very very nice.. They are easy to clean and look lovely ^ ^ Maybe you could use those instead.

Yeah, I might look into fake ones, but I'm going to check out the desert gardens forums Kermit linked first and try to give it a shot. I might also just go ahead and grow what I wan't just to the left and right of the tank itself so it doesn't matter if they are poisonous.

I forgot to mention something pretty cool that I'm looking into, though. I went on a trip to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon in March and got some really cool desert mountain pics. I'm going to see if I can get a large print of one of them and use it as the background. I know it's not *quite* the right habitat, but it's in the same spirit, and it'll be cool that I've actually been there.

you could print out the pages and have them laminated in a panoramic that could make a nec background

wooo thats awesome. I was thinking of doing that for my own tank.. if i had the printing resources I bet it will look lovely.

It looks wonderful...your leo will be very happy here I am sure.

I just added a small litter box out of cardboard and paper towel. I must say that people who claim a 10 gallon tank is sufficient for an adult leo are sort of insane to me. If I had to scale up the moist hide and the litter tray for an adult there would be like no floor space in there! I assume people who keep them in 10 gallons don't use any decorations or extra hides?

In other news, I haven't found an appropriate breeder yet, although I did find someone local that is looking to rehome their young leo. So I'm looking into that right now. I need to get a dimmer or thermostat for the UTH but then I should be all ready to go (leaving a few days to monitor temps, etc, of course).

I think its more breeder's that will house in less than that. A rack and tub system.

good luck, if your buying from someone, but try to avoid craigslist.