Wednesday, April 25, 2012

LEOPARD GECKO SUPPLIES

Basic Leopard Gecko Supplies

The kind of leopard gecko supplies that you are going to acquire is fully under your discretion. You may provide your gecko with a simple cage that meets the minimal requirement of a good habitat, but you can also place your gecko in a luxury customized cage which is fully equipped with delicate decors to pamper your gecko. It is really up to you.

If you do not have any budget constraints you can buy all the needed supplies brand new in pet shops. But you can get those supplies in a less expensive way by making use of old or unused stuff like old aquariums, shoe boxes or Tupperware tubs. With a little creativity and modification you can get those things at work satisfactorily and look nicely too.   

However you should recognize the basic supplies that are needed to fulfill the minimum requirement to keep and maintain a healthy gecko. Here is the list:

Vivarium/tank/cage/enclosure - The comfortable volume is a 10 gallons tank or a minimum size of 24"X12"X12" per adult gecko. You may need a 15 gallons tank for a pair and 20 gallons for two pairs if you want to keep multiple geckos and plan to breed your geckos.

Wire net or screen top - This is usually included with the cage and should be made of wire net to provide good ventilation and sufficient light.

Gecko safe substrate - This substrate should be non-irritating and non-abrasive materials such as artificial grass, newspapers and paper toweling

Hide box, moist box - A hide box is where your gecko will spent most of its time. You will need 2 hide boxes. Place one at the humid and hot side, above the spot where you place the Under Tank Heater and the other box at the drier and cooler side of the tank A moist or humid box is the 3rd hide box with some sphagnum moss to maintain humidity.

Rough decors - This is the interior of the tank which includes climbing rocks or logs, wood or bark that can be used to rubbing the gecko skin when shedding and artificial plants. Live and nontoxic plants are also beneficial to create a humid environment. Make sure that those climbing accessories are tightly fixed to the tank bottom to avoid tumbling of your gecko.  

Thermometers and a thermostat - Two thermometers are needed to monitor temperature at both sides of temperature gradients, while the thermostat is for controlling the required temperature. There is a need to provide different temperature gradients to make it possible for your gecko to choose the desired body temperature.

Light and timer, dome lamp and black or red reptile bulb - These are the supplies to provide proper lighting for your gecko. This artificial lighting is not necessary if you could place your gecko tank at spots with sufficient natural light. If artificial is needed, set your timer at 12 hours on and 12 hours off.

Dishes or bowls - These are needed to place the water, mealworms and calcium powder. Select the proper size and depth. The water bowl should be easy for the gecko to soak and drink from it without getting drown

Under Tank Heater or UTH - This is an extra heat source placed under one side of the tank. The suggested temperature setting is at 80 - 85F at daytime and around 70F during night time.

Mist spray bottle to wet the moist box - This is simply a sprayer bottle that is used to spray the moist box only, not necessarily the whole tank 

Food - The common food stock for your gecko is live mealworms. Other foods that can be prepared include crickets, cockroaches and silkworms. Remember to gut-load all these live food 24 hours prior to feeding your gecko to ensure the healthiness of your lizard

Supplements - The powder form of calcium powder and vitamin D3 sprinkled on live food prior to feeding your gecko.

So, that concludes the basic supplies of caring leopard geckos. Again, those supplies are not necessary the expensive and brand new ones. As a beginner it is good to start with something simple and less expensive. An estimate to get you a nice natural looking cage with all those basic supplies will be around 100 to 150$.

Happy gecko caring!

Uno Birawan is a Leopard Gecko enthusiast and wrote a lot about caring for leopard geckos. His observation on gecko care is that about 86.5% of geckos have the chance to die within 2 years of captivity. You can obtain more information on how to properly take care of a gecko and how to save it's life at http://leopardgeckocenter.blogspot.com. Lets make your gecko healthy and live longer.

Article Source: EzineArticles.com - Basic Leopard Gecko Supplies


Tuesday, April 24, 2012

LEOPARD GECKO CAGES

Building a Perfect Leopard Gecko Cage

A leopard gecko cage can be a nice part of your home if you plan it thoughtfully. Assuming you already have all the basic gecko supplies, the cage deserves a little more attention if you want to build one that fits to the condition of your house.

Your cage as home deco.Buying a ready made cage sold at a pet store may provide you with both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that you get a ready for use cage at a reasonable price. The disadvantages may be in finding the proper spot to place it and the incompatibility with your home furnishing. It will look like a piece of a stands alone furniture that does not belong to the rest of your furniture set.

It will be fine if you wish to buy a ready made one. Many people do. But you actually have the option to design or buy a cage or multiple cages that match your home furnishing. It will cost you more, but there are people who are really after such kind of perfection. May be this is the way to express love and care to their lovely gecko. The challenge will be to find a manufacturer or a handicraftsman that can design and build one that meets your needs. 

Provides ease in caring and enjoying your geckos. Geckos are considered as small reptiles which used to stay on grounds. Even if you place the lizard into a cage, you may need to bend down to care or enjoy you gecko. To make it easier for you, you can place the cage on a stand which can be set at an eye catching level. In this way, your gecko is more manageable and makes other people easier to see and enjoy your wonderful gecko.

Such stand also serves as a place to keep other gecko supplies like food, supplements, cleaning supplies and extra dishes. You can also make use of hoods that will perfectly cover the installation of electric fixtures such as lights and the heater. Attractive stands and hoods can be purchased at stores specializing in reptile enclosures      

Secures safety of your geckos. The cage should be made out of safe materials and provide safety as well. Wood and glass or acrylic panels are the perfect materials for a gecko cage. Geckos are not able to climb or stick on smooth surfaces of glass or acrylic, hence preventing them to climb and escape through the top of the cage.

Keeping your gecko insides its cage is of most important. Imagine your gecko succeed to escape and accidentally stepped on by you or the other members of your family and get hurt. Wow, this is really a problem for you and your gecko. To avoid this happening, you need to secure lock all the doors and openings of the cage. There are secure lock systems for sale if you wish to put a little assurance to the safety of your gecko.

Stackable gecko cages. This is a perfect solution if you wish to care for multiple geckos. Why not just put all your geckos in one big cage? We know that geckos do not get friendly to each other very easy. It is quite often geckos are fighting each other if put together. The solution is to place them in a separate cage. If you have space problems, there are cages available that can be easily and nicely stacked up to 6 cages.   

The interior of the cage, meaning all the supplies that you are going to place into the cage should match the quality of your cage. The rough decors, substrates, hiding boxes, dishes etc should be of good quality. The setting should reflect creativeness and a touch of an artistic sense.

When everything is put together perfectly, neat and clean, there will be no wonder if your geckos will appear handsome and elegant starring at you with a confident gesture. This scenery is something that you will be proud of when showing it to your friends and other gecko lovers. It is really worth to build a perfect gecko cage like that. Isn't it?

Uno Birawan is a Leopard Gecko enthusiast and wrote a lot about caring for leopard geckos. His observation on gecko care is that about 86.5% of geckos have the chance to die within 2 years of captivity. You can obtain more information on how to properly take care of a gecko and how to save it's life at http://leopardgeckocenter.blogspot.com Lets make your gecko healthy and live longer.


Sunday, April 15, 2012

BUY LEOPARD GECKO

How to Buy a Leopard Gecko

So, you have decided to care for a leopard gecko. It’s a good decision since there is a great possibility that you will succeed in caring a healthy and happy gecko for years to come. Why is that? With lot of information and easy access to supplies and everything that you need to care and raise up your gecko, make the probability to fail becomes very small. The only factor that may cause a failure lies in your self. You should really CARE for it, you and your family, seriously and persistently.

The first thing to do is to gather information on how to care for a leopard gecko. List all the things you need if you care for a single or a pair of geckos. Estimate your budget requirement. Ask the commitment of your family members to fully participate in the caring of a new member of your family, your leopard gecko. If this is settled you can proceed to buy.

Next thing to do is to look for a place or person that sells leopard geckos. There are several options. You can buy leopard geckos online, during pet exhibitions and through advertisement of gecko breeders.

You probably find some pet stores, and find some geckos among so many other pets ready for sale. There is great possibility that geckos in such pet store are not properly looked after and may get less attention compared to other more popular pets. In short, there is a great chance that you may not get the healthiest and best gecko you are looking for.

Finding a gecko breeder will be the best option to look for a healthy leopard gecko. A breeder is someone who really cares for his geckos. He is the one who knows very well how his geckos grow from a baby to a full grown and healthy gecko. He will know the behavior, uniqueness and how to handle each and every gecko very well.

Another thing, you should find the truly gecko breeder. You may meet several people that claim themselves as breeders. But you should be careful. Try to examine every gecko that he offers. If you find signs of an unhealthy gecko, or any clue for improper treatment, such us poor maintenance of his gecko habitat, unhealthy food, dirty and so on, you may conclude that this breeder is not very serious in raising his gecko. There is a great chance that you get a sick gecko that is handicapped for his whole life. Really not a happy gecko you are looking for.

Prior to buying a leopard gecko, you should know the general signs of a healthy gecko. The first sign you should attend to is the bright and clear eyes of the gecko with a fat tail. These are the signs that the gecko is being treated and fed properly. It should possess a full body and the way he walks is with his body high from the ground. He should move energetically. Watch how he eats. It should be done with enthusiasm. Another important thing in choosing a gecko is to make sure that you get a captive bred gecko. Avoid wild caught geckos since they are more difficult to handle.

After a thorough search, you finally feel attracted to one of the geckos then you can start bargaining. A gecko price depends on its morph uniqueness, general condition, size and age. There is no general price for a gecko, and price setting could be very subjective. It is often that somebody is willing to pay high for a gecko that he falls in love to for the first sight, while another person does not feel attracted to the same gecko. 


So, you have got your leopard gecko. But make sure that you have all you need to care for your lovely reptile ready in your house. A nice home should be waiting for its new member. Happy caring.

LEOPARD GECKO PETS

Leopard Gecko As One of the Favorite Pets


Have you ever heard about a leopard gecko? Well, this lizard has gain popularity in a short period of time which made them sought as one of the favorite pets. This reptile comes from the dessert regions in South Central Asia, imported to the states and breed as a wonderful captive animal. In fact geckos are easy to breed which may produce amazing offspring.

Why are they admired that much? Here are 6 good reasons why leopard geckos become one of the favorite pets in many households and families.

#1 - Gentle and tame. Geckos are known to be gentle and tame. They are not the type of pets that will endanger its keeper. You can enjoy playing with it without any fear for being hurt or bitten by this gentle lizard.

Unlike other climbing lizard, geckos do not possess toe pads that produce the ability to adhere to surfaces. As a consequence, geckos are not good climbers and tend to stay on plain surfaces or horizontal barks.

This provides you with the opportunity to keep this lizard safe in a glass enclosure where they are not able to climb on. Hence, lessen the possibility to escape from its habitat. 

#2 – Uniqueness. As mentioned before, geckos are easy to breed while in captivity. Their offspring produces beautiful and unique patterns plus their obvious appearances that are very interchangeable. Further breeding among geckos will create new specimens with more unique patterns. Gecko morphs are available in such great variability.

An extraordinary trait is the carrot tail of some geckos. This tail which is named after a carrot has plenty amount of orange pigments, hence called carrot tail. This thick carrot like tail is a deposit of fat that will be depleted during times of food shortage.

Another trait that differentiate leopard to other geckos is the presence of eyelids. Unlike other geckos that need to use their tongue to clean their eyes, a leopard just simply need to blink for eye cleaning.  

#3 - Cleanliness. Geckos are really clean animals. They do not litter much and tend to litter in a specific area of their cage. This made them easy to place and displayed at any spot of your house. Placing them in a decorative cage will create some exclusive and neat scenery to be proud of.

What you need to do is to place a paper towel or the same sort of material on spots where they choose to litter. You then can replace the paper towel periodically to keep the cage clean and neat. 

#4 - Easy to care for. Geckos need minimal care requirement. This made them perfect for beginners. All you need to do in the beginning is to set up a proper habitat for your gecko to live healthy and happy.

It is best if you could provide the gecko with a natural environment. This includes putting rocks and logs where your gecko can hide or climb. Plants, live or artificial, can be used to create more hiding places.

In short, basic supplies of a good habitat should meet the requirement for proper feeding, hiding, climbing, and shedding with the appropriate setting of temperature, lighting, humidity and scheduled cleaning

#5 - Easy to feed. Geckos are basically insectivores that prefer life insects such as crickets, cockroaches, mealworms, butter-worms, wax-worms and pinkie mice once in a while.

The ease of feeding them is in the continuous availability of food in pet stores as well as the behavior of the gecko to actively go after its live prey.

To add more nutrition value to the insects, it is best if you gut-load the insect 24 hours before feeding your gecko. Dusting the prey with calcium or vitamin D powder will be sufficient.

#6 - Long lifespan. Last but not least is the long lifespan of a gecko that can reach an average of 20 years. This means that you can enjoy your gecko for quite a long time.

All you need to do is keep them healthy, clean and happy. Keep your gecko environment clean and safe as well, away from possible hazards and other animals that could possibly endanger and hurt your wonderful lizard. 

With such 6 good reasons, I wonder whether you still hesitate to keep one and enjoy your gecko at the fullest. Happy gecko caring! 

Friday, April 13, 2012

LEOPARD GECKO HABITAT

Preparing Your Leopard Gecko Habitat

Caring for a leopard gecko seems to be easy and simple. But there is something important that you certainly have to attend to, that is the leopard gecko’s habitat. You probably know that geckos are desert reptiles. And it would be very logical that you should prepare a habitat that resembles the native desert of this reptile, where it can live healthy, safe and feel like a comfortable home

So, how does the gecko native desert look like? Do not imagine that the desert of a gecko is a sand desert. As a matter of fact the desert of Afghanistan, Pakistan or India are dry and rocky deserts, cold at night and warm during daylights. Like almost every desert, it has very short supply of vegetation and with minimal rainfall.

Having this picture in your mind, that is how you are going to set up the right habitat for your gecko. You are going to set up an enclosure, or cage or terrarium, whatever you like to call it, which should be suitable for your gecko to do its daily activities, which is: hiding, climbing, moving around and shedding. Let us look at some aspects of a habitat that meet the requirements.

Enclosure. This is the place where your gecko will be kept. It should be long and shallow, with a minimum size of 10 gallons just for one gecko. Adjust this size if you care for multiple geckos; 15 gallons for a pair, 20 gallons for two pairs and so on. Avoid wire enclosures, use the glass cage instead. Most geckos are not able to climb glass, thus avoiding them to escape or get hurt. However, the cage lid should be made of wire net to provide good ventilation and sufficient light.

Substrates. These are materials that you will use in the bottom of your terrarium. Use substrates that are non-irritating and non-abrasive, since geckos have sensitive skin. Other requirements for a good substrate: easy to clean and replace, and does not create dust of any type. Suggested substrates are artificial grass, newspapers and paper toweling. Sand should be used with caution since sand may cause some problems. Materials to avoid: pine, cedar, gravel, hardwood chips, sawdust, cat litter and corncob bedding.

Landscaping. The objective of landscaping is to provide the gecko with a natural environment. This includes putting rocks and logs where your gecko can hide or climb. Plants, live or artificial, can be used to create more hiding places. Use living plants carefully, since some maybe poisonous to your gecko. It is advisable to ask an expert or veterinarian about which safe plant to use.

Temperature. The body temperature of your gecko depends on its environment, because a gecko is not able to produce its own body temperature. It is important to provide your gecko with extra heat sources in the basking areas. If necessary you can use an under tank heater and set it at 80º – 85ºF at daytime and around 70ºF during night time. Use a thermometer to monitor the temperature.

You should provide different temperature gradients outside the basking area. This is to make it possible for your gecko to choose the desired body temperature or what is called by thermoregulation. If it needs to warm up is body temperature it will move to the warmer area and vice versa.

Light. In summer, geckos need to stay about 14 hours in daylight and 10 hours of darkness. While in winter, they are used to 12 hours daylight and darkness respectively. You can set timing with the help of an automatic timer. Remember that geckos are nocturnal creatures and do not like bright light, especially if they are exposed to white light there is a great possibility that they become tensed.

Make use of the black heat lamps and red lamps, and avoid the UV lamps. Make also sure that you place the lamps outside the enclosure and in such manner that there are some dark spots for your gecko to hide.

Humidity. This is also an important requirement, since high humidity will make your gecko more susceptible to diseases. The ideal humidity for a healthy gecko is at the level of less than 40%, which will prevent possible dehydration and facilitate proper shedding. To monitor humidity you can use a hygrometer.

Cleaning. This is a must. Several things can be done on a daily and weekly basis to maintain a healthy leopard gecko habitat. Your daily cleaning task should include removing waste, remains, dead insects and shed skin. Remove and clean all objects that are contaminated with the gecko’s feces. Water bowls should be cleaned and disinfected. Remove and replace dirty substrate

Your weekly task should include cleaning and disinfecting the whole enclosure completely, including its decorations, feeding items, water bowls as well as to replace dirty substrate. When doing this, avoid using cleaners that can be poisonous to your gecko e.g. pine scent and phenols.


Water. Your gecko needs continuous clean water supply. Water should be presented in a flat and shallow bowl and should be kept clean by changing it every day. Even if you find something spoiling the water, like feces or drowned insects or feeder you should immediately replace it with clean water. Using deep bowls will make it difficult for your gecko to reach the water, and at the same time will put your gecko into the danger of drowning. 

LEOPARD GECKO INFORMATION

Get to Know Your Leopard Gecko

Leopard gecko (Eublepharis macularius) a nocturnal reptile among a number of other geckos species is probably the most popular gecko around the world. The uniqueness of this small creature, their funny look, their colorful skin patterns and the ease for caring them are the main reasons why this gecko is liked so much. Even a novice could easy get along with this wonderful reptile.

Their attractiveness is ongoing, since breeding among geckos will result new beautiful and colorful patterns. Every time you can see another color variation with its own uniqueness. And this happens from year after year, there is always a new unique pattern that comes into view.

The beautiful patterns, which are usually called by leopard gecko morphs has plenty of names. Some of the popular leopard gecko morphs include Mack Snow, Tremper Albino Mack Snow, APTOR = Albino Patternless Tremper ORange, Super Hypo Tangerines, Rainwater Albinos, Rainwater Patternless Albino, Bell Albinos, Tremper Albinos, Tremper Giants, Rainbows, Bold Stripes, Blizzards, Jungles, Patternless, High Yellow and so fort. 

Leopard gecko is native to dry South Central Asian deserts in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India as well as in some parts of Iran. Its’ natural habitat is really the dry rocky desserts with dry grasslands. While the night temperature can be very low, below 10º Celsius, the leopard gecko takes shelter by digging underground where it semi-hibernate. At this situation the gecko lives on its fats reserve which is mainly deposited on its tail.

Leopard geckos are night creatures. During the day they can be found hiding under rocks or in holes to avoid the daytime heat, and during sunset they will come out to hunt for insects as their main prey. They feed on insects, spiders and worms. Although in captivity, a gecko prefers to hunt for food by themselves. This means that you should feed them with live prey, since they will refuse to eat dead prey. Crickets will do best.

This reptile is basically small in size. A baby gecko is of 6.5 – 8.4 cm long and 3 grams in weight. The adult can rise to 20.5 – 27.5 cm long with a weight of 45 – 65 grams. The wild gecko has a duller, darker and monotonous coloration compared to those in captivity, which has various attractive skin colors and patterns.   

A regular habit of the gecko is shedding their skin. To do this properly, geckos need a humid habitat or place where it can hide while shedding. You can provide your gecko with a shed box, which is simply a box to hide with humid spaghnum moss in it. Spaghnum moss or peat moss is a kind of soil conditioner that functions to increase the soil’s capacity in holding water or nutrients.

Another thing that you should attend to is to equip the gecko’s habitat with a light and heat source. This is by the means of a temperature gradient which s basically putting two ends, one warm side and one cool on the other side of the enclosure. In this way your gecko can make his own proper adjustment its body temperature


The only precaution of caring for leopard geckos is that they are known to be potential carriers of infectious diseases like salmonella and other virulent bacteries. You can minimize the risk for being contaminated is by keeping a hygienic environment for the leopard and for yourself. It is always best to wash your hand with an antiseptic before and after handling your lovely gecko. It is just a little prevention.