Critique my enclosure plans

I personally don't have a problem with craigslist, or at least not inherently. It's a medium like any other and I am very careful when using it. I have personally sold fishtanks full of fish on CL and also got my cat from there (and regularly converse with her previous owner). I will make the sure the animal is healthy and everything is legit before I make a decision. It looks like the person bought the animal on an impulse and then realized they were in over their head.

Happens a lot to be honest lol.

Yeah, i was overly harsh on craigslist, i suppose what i meant to say was 'be carefull with craigslist' rather than avoid it completely.
I have heard lots of disastrous stories about it, but i've also heard some perfectly fine stories.

Well, I went to go see the CL dude's gecko today and he/she wasn't being kept very well. He was in a 5 gallon (I think) tank with a heat rock and nothing else in the tank. I wasn't intending to take him/her home today because I wanted to watch the temperature, etc. for a few days, but given how he was being kept already I decided what small amount of instability he might experience in my new terrarium would at least be better than 5 gallons of bare tank and a scorching heat rock.

Anyway, I'll post some pictures tomorrow. The little guy's hiding in the warm hide right now and I'm just planning on letting him be for tonight so he/she can settle in. Luckily he seems active, colorful and as far as I can tell, healthy.

Ahahahaaaa I KNEW you'd take 'em. Soooo many people just can't stand seeing them in "that" situation and take the lizard. It's good and bad tho. The potential for a difficult settling in period just greatly increased. What kind of substrait in the 5 gallon? Any info on feeding schedule or feeders? Does he look of good weight?

There was no substrate. He said he was planning on getting "decorations" later. I can't believe I forgot to mention what they were feeding. It was those can 'o grasshopper things (not live food). He said he thought the gecko had been eating them but I somehow doubt that. He said he's only had him for a week though, so hopefully it isn't too dire a situation even if he wasn't actually eating.

I'm not certain how to judge his weight, but his tail does look a bit thin. Certainly no thinner than many pictures I've seen of baby leopard geckos, though. I know that's really vague, but I'll post some pics when when I can.

Are you saying that the potential for a more difficult settling in period because the terrarium's only been up and going for a short while? Because I personally think going significantly longer, possibly without food and proper temps. would be a lot worse. And the temperatures have been stable throughout the day today.

The guy gave him to me for free, by the way.

Well, I was able to get a quick vid of the gecko, but for some reason when I uploaded it it turned out super dark. So I don't know how helpful it will be in telling if he is a proper weight. But I couldn't get a clear shot of him so far.

https://www.youtube.com/user/kafkabeatle?feature=mhee

No I was meaning that the additional settling troubles as in baggage the leo bringing with jin from dudes improper care. Good god can o crickets. That's nuts. Feed him slow and steady small meals. He'll likely want to gorge on real good but resist the urge to let him do that. I think your tank will be paradise after what he's been thru.

I wouldn't have left him behind either....sigh.....I got 12 all at once the one time and had to take 2 of them to the vets and then all the hours of hand feeding to make sure they all ate but not enough to gorge themselves. It is all worth it to me though.

Yeah, I really hope everything works out with this gecko. I found him climbed all the way to the top of one of the rosemary branches a bit ago and I was so thrilled about it, lol. I was thinking they would probably just end up being decoration but it seems like I've actually created a stimulating environment which he can explore. As he grows I'm sure he won't be able to climb it anymore because he'll be too heavy, but for now it's so darn cute.

We named him? Gallifrey from Dr. Who. I don't know if we have any fans around here or not, but I thought it was a pretty cool name.

And anyway, at what age/size can you start to be able to distinguish gender? Also, is there a way for me to tell approximately how old he is?

The video was pretty dark. I can tell from the obvious banding that he is fairly young. As they grow older the bands break up and you wouldn't even recognize them. For telling gender you will have to wait until he is bigger. When they are small like that it is near impossible to tell. When it does come to sexing there are two spots to look at.



These pictures clearly show the differences between males and females. The older they are the easier it is to tell the sex. Even breeders an mislabel male and female if they are sexing too young.

He is all bands. Would you be able to give a good age range based on that? Like less than 6 months old or less than a month old, for example? I'm really just curious, is all.

He pooped! Which I assume means he's been eating (surprisingly). I moved it into his "litter box" so hopefully he'll go in there in the future and not the place in the middle of everything where he did it, lol. I went ahead and put out 2 meal worms, just in case he was hungry. I know I've read that they usually won't eat when you first get them, so I'll remove them if they're still there when I go to bed.

He is definitely less than 6 months from what I have seen. Banded like that I would say he is less than 4 months but I did not get a good look at him.

It is a good sign that he pooped. I am trying to litter train some of mine as well, hopefully it works. Now, with his age, you an put a dish of meal worms in and leave them in there at all times, just switch them out each day so that they are still gut loaded. All of mine that are less than a year have constant access to meal worms. It is supers and crickets that would give them a hard time.

Seems that my litterbox idea is a big hit hope he catches on fast.

I LOVE the idea Kel....I have one is 7 tanks so far.

Doesn't get any easier to clean than that does it? Even the wild caught mediterranean gecko that came up in an oil meter from houston to hubbys work uses one. She took right to it.

I jut put them in last night so when they pooped today on the floor I picked it up and put it in the litter box to try to get them used to it.

Yeah, the litter box is a great idea, I think, for the gecko and for the owner. I hope he catches on fast. Oh, and Gallifrey is eating!

That means he is settling right in. Just at first don't let him eat too much at a time because if he hasn't eaten in a while it will cause regurge which isn't good for them. Start off with maybe 4 meal worms and if tomorrow he is doing good give him 6 and son on until you can leave him to eat what he wants.

And again

I was able to get a couple pictures while he was out for a second.

He looks to be about a month old, maybe two but he is pretty skinny, see how his head seems to big in the second picture compared to his neck and body. I have seen worse though and the fact that he ate right away, that is a really good sign.I am thinking that he is going to be a normal, maybe a high yellow. Jordan is the expert on that area. I would feed him a few small meals a day right now. He NEEDS to be fattened up but not gorge himself. I had one similar and by feeding him say 4 meal worms four times a day he is getting a good amount without making himself sick. When I am feeding them that often I usually start by having tongs to hold the worms. I open the lid(which soon he will realize means food) and I use my tongs to hold a worm in front of his hide. If he doesn't want it within a minute or two, leave him alone. I found that by feeding in front of the hide they were less shy to take it with you standing there. I was doing that 4 times a day, then three and so on.

It wont' take long for your loving care to get him on track!

I'm glad I was able to get a picture because I thought he looked thin. But I was only judging by other images on the internet so I wasn't sure. His tail looked super skinny to me.

I'll definitely follow your advice with the frequent feedings. Now, when you say to hold the worms in front of the hide, is your goal to get them to eat directly from the tongs or just to get them to notice the feeding in the bowl? Do you just feed four worms one by one (from the tongs) if he will take them?

smsararas2 wrote:He looks to be about a month old, maybe two but he is pretty skinny

Sorry to contradict you Jolene, but with the development of those bands and spots starting to appear, i'd put it around 5 months.

He is a tiny bit skinny, but young gecko's don't really get fat tails, everything they eat goes towards growing. So when you see adults gecko's with massive tails, don't be expecting that from your gecko anytime soon. Once the tail reaches about the girth of the neck, thenits fine.


I would say high yellow definitely. Strong possibility it will be a hypo too.

Really Jordan, 5 months? Well, if you say so. LOL, we can agree that he somewhere between 2 and 5 months...lol. I am thinking I was wrong on as young as 1 but anyhow, not a big deal.

It makes me laugh that even with "rescued" gecko (so to speak) I didn't end up with a normal. It's not any biggie really. But those normals sure are hard to track down, lol. I know what you said, Jordan, about breeders not advertising their normals, but I'm pretty sure he got this gecko from a pet shop. So I thought surely it would be a normal, lol.

So he'll probably end up a brightish yellow with less black spots on the back than normal? I just looked up what high yellow and hypo meant and that's the conclusion I've come to.

You are correct. High Yellows are a pretty common leo too...normal is just a name.