Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ok, i've decided to give crickets another go. jst bought a fresh box there, and they have a supply of calcium dust (with no D3 etc, jst 99% pure calcium)and tropical fish food (to eat, its 50% protein . i also spray the box every day so they got somethign to drink as i noticed whenever i put some crix in the cage, the go straight for the water bowl. if any of this so far is wrong plz say. i also bought a infra red spot lamp, which has replaced the ordinary 60W bulb i had before. the temp on the side opposite the UTH is about 90° now, is this too high?...i noticed last night aswell, he is quite active when things go quiet, and he sits on his coconut, looking towards the cage lid lol. but when i approach to look at what he's doing, he'll hide in his coconut, and when i go away, he goes back to his toilet corner...which hasnt been used since i changed the sub. if anyone can offer good pointers i'd be glad to hear them. also, im making a scenery for him as soon as i get the glass tank, which should be this weekend, so hopefully will be finished by this time next week ^^

Don't put too much stuff in clutter just makes hiding spots for crickets. Also there should be a dish of pure clacuim in the tank but you can dust with D3 they are to have d3 in their diet just not excessive amounts like newbies tend to do because they don't know any better. You should also have a vitamins dust to dust them as well. Yes the temps are to be 85-90 hot side and 70-75 cool side.

i dont really have many hides for the crickets, but as im puttin the little ones in to see if it will tease his appetite, they can get in many places. the warmth has made the paper towels shrink a bit from when i have been misting the cage and gecko. when i mean i was restarting i meant i was going to start again with the crickets and do everything i could to gut load them. the petshop i went to today didnt have any vitamin suppliments so im going to try others in a few towns to see if i can find anything. the cold side of the terra isnt as low as 70,, i have to have the lamp about 5-6 inches away from the cage to stop it melting, as the 60w bulb gets quite hot, so the thermometer's surface gets a little heated, meaning the temp might be a bit lower than what it says. i revised how to use IR lamps properly and probly wont use it until i get the glass tank. my gecko has been doing somethign quite odd aswell...it constantly wants to be in the corner its toilet is (the cool side)....although he does move about from time to time but tends to stay in the cool sides corners..even if i try and block the corner with a hide, he wriggles himself in so i have to move the hide back out. he only has 2 hides as it is a small terra, 1 humid box that is filled with wet toilet paper, also toilet paper on the top as its a transparent box, so that stops some of the light. the other is half of a coconut which is on the cool side.

even as i watch now, he just patrols the cool sides wall, going from the back corner to the front. and back again...is this activity normal...he never ventures to the warm side either..or vary rarely does. anythign is that he isnt on a rigid platform, he's on a chest of drawers that easily sways, but wont topple, and if my dog runs in my room, he bangs the door open which knocks the drawers...will this effect him in any way?

What are your temperatures like? I'm having this problem with a rescue I obtained about a month and a half ago (who hasn't eaten since) All he does it hang out on the cool side of his tank. His last home had no belly heat for him, and only used a 50w lamp, so as far as I know, he grew his whole life with very little heat.

well your gecko sounds stressed and it sounds like there may be to much light. when they are handled more then once a day they can get stressed and walk around like they dont know what to do, trying to climb walls, squeeze into strange spots and positions. for your humid hide, it is probably still not dark enough for him to want to hide in it. try getting some black or any dark color duck tape and tape around the sides and the lid. obviously dont tape the lid down though becuase you wont be able to change the paper towels. that is what i use. next thing STOP bugging your gecko! only take it out to feed it its flagyl, unless you feel its life is in danger for some reason then do what ever you have to do. i would say dont handle your gecko anymore then you have to until a few days after you stop treating it. or if you want to try feeding it baby food or ensure. dont keep changing your cage around either unless nesicary. does your cage have any type of backrounds at all right now or is it clear walls all the way around? if it is clear walls all the way around get a towel or some paper and tape it to 3 of the 4 sides. or you can tape it to only 2 of the sides and put a dark cover over half the terrerium. depending on how tall the cage is, if i ever have one (i use racks now), i will just drape a kitchen towel over the top and down two sides. this gives them a feeling of security and most of mine after a day or so get use to me walking around and just sit in the middle of their cage and watch me. i keep my adopties seperate in the kitchen/dining room away from my breeders becuase i wouldnt want anything to happen to my entire group. anyhow you should also maybe turn your coconut in towards the middle of the cage so that not as much light shines through the hole. kind of think of this all as making a cave out of your cage and caves inside the cage. i know this was hard to fallow and im sorry. but anyhow once again good luck and i really have to get back to writing my essay. haha.

oh yeah....i think u said u smoked? i definatly would not do it in the house or at least in with your gecko and try to keep smoke out of the room and maybe air the room out once a day with a window or something. no offense but i have friends who smoke inside and when you smoke you dont relize how bad it really does stink. my throat always hurts for a week after i see them so i dont go there anymore. hehe.

thanks about the picture that was some of my hatchlings from last easter i thought it was somewhat apropriate because of the time of year.

Sounds like he is trying to get somewhere to regulate temps and it sounds like he can't that it is not cool enough for him on that side to actually cool down. I also agree with fattie that you need to leave it alone for a long while or you will just keep stressing it out.

One thing i must note here. I smoke and i have all of my herps in my bedroom. Sorry but i just open the window, all my herps are fine and healthy and i have no issues at all with smoking in the same room. Unless you have proof of studies that have been done about smoke killing and lessining life spans for leos (which i want to see the proof) then i will still continue to smoke in my room. As I said i do keep the window open when i smoke so it's not too much smoke but, there still is some. That one i will disagree with fatties on!

well no offense to either of you at all but if its not good for you, and not good for the people around you, do you really think it is good for a little tiny gecko that has lungs maybe the size of your little toe? if the windows open and air is flowing freely it cant be awful but im sure its still not not the best thing. and im sure when it is cold or hot your not gunna want to go outside and smoke and your not gunna want to open your window, so i only suggest just try to do it in another room or something and leave the gecko room closed.
(i am not so worried about mary jane as i am cigarets) while there are not studies on geckos specifically that i know of there are several thousands on second hand smoking. im sure if you really want you can find those on your own. to each his own and i am not tring to be mean about smoking its just i know i get somewhat ill from second hand smoke inside houses and im sure its much worse on a gecko. by the way last time i checked geckos cant talk so they cant tell you if it smells, hurts or, if they would like a drag too. just seriously instead of getting offended by this think about it logically instead.

heh, LeoLady420, i guessed you smoked (will cannabis smoke effect it much..?) and i also have my herp iin my room, but i have a window open most of the time now seeing as its starting to get quite warm, so i open another one. i think i'll try that towel thing to block half of the light coming into his terra, seems quite logical. also, i am refraining from picking him up now, and am only picking him up to treat him. bad news is, because im using paper towels as a substrate, he went to the toilet twice since friday night, and my mother being afraid of whats in the cage, didnt bother to change his substrate, so i gotta do that now. i mean i might put him back onto the calci sand, and i know alot of you are going to yell at me for saying so, but he wasnt impacted before. but i guess i'll jst mull it over.

as for the surface temp, im not sure what it is exactly. i think my heating matt is 6" x 11", suitable for a 10-20(gallon or litre, im not sure which one terra's work in) but for some reason, t-rex havent put the heat output on the box. :S

my dad suprised me with a visit to my uncles 50th, and that was about 400 miles away, so i got my mum to look after him whlie i was away (it was saturday morning and i got back at 6pm tonight) but i was out from friday night. my mum said she managed to get him to eat a bit of cucumber, and suprisingly, can get vanilla ensure from her work place (she's a care nurse) so hopefully he'll like that. hasnt eaten a mealie yet, but i think he might have eaten a little cricket i left in there on friday night as it seems to have gone missing, and one of the 2 stools looks fairly healthy, but still doesnt have much structure to it. im gonna try cucumber, maybe a bit of apple and banana, n see if he'll be interested in a cricket again.

colour has starting developing down his tail now, a very virbant orange coming through, but his feet are looking slightly grey. hope this is just the way his colour is. or is it related to any kind of illness..?

well, im going to have to change his substrate, cant have old stools left in there. but the worrying thing is, he seems to want to sit in his toilet corner, before it was the back corner (his old toilet site) and now its the front corner, which he's now sitting on 2 stools. he isnt dehydrated either, him and a cricket have been drinking out of the water bowl, with no interest in eating it...

thanks

i also forgot to add that the vet weighed him at 13g's, seems a bit low to my liking, but after the fasting he's been doing i cant expect more really..

420, its coming up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes second hand smoke is not good for anyone but there is more the 50 % of people who own herps smoke, in their houses and don't have extra rooms or "special" reptile rooms. Sorry neither do I. I have 17 herps and all in one room which i have to live in as well. As i do live with my parents, so there is no reptiles elsewhere but my bedroom. So they have to live with the smoke as i live with all of them and there poops and everything else. It's life and the way things have to work out sometimes...Yes 4/20 is coming up.

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