Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So I'm getting my two new Leos on Thursday, and Im still having some issues setting up the tank. Im housing the two females in a 20 Long Glass Tank and Im wondering where to put the UTH and the humid hides??? I dont want them to have to compete or anything or should i put the dry hides on the hot side Im not 100% sure what I should do

Any ideas would really help me alot!

If you have more than one gecko in the same enclosure, they compete. Maybe not enough to catch your eye, maybe not even enough to affect each other's growth, but when you house animals that use the same resources, you get competition.

What you're looking for is just a way to defray competition. A keeper who gives the animals choices is one who's acknowledging that there will be competition, but who doesn't want it to reflect poorly in the animals.

Depending on what you're using for hides, you could put two humid ones and two dry ones on the hot side, and again on the cool side. But, that's probably overkill.

Tremper mentions housing a number of hatchlings together and giving them many hide choices, heated and humidified differently all over the tank, in that newer book of his. He claims that the hatchlings accomodate/tolerate one another to get at the best hide environments. Get that book (Herpetoculture of Leopard Geckos) if you don't have it. It'll cover many of your worries as a keeper of new, expensive geckos.

To suggest on your questions, heater goes to one side of the tank, humid hides go near it since that's where they'll stay humid (so long as you re-moisten them as needed), dry hides can go anywhere/everywhere, but your geckos will grow best if they have to be warm while they hide.

>So I'm getting my two new Leos on Thursday, and Im still having some issues setting up the tank. Im housing the two females in a 20 Long Glass Tank and Im wondering where to put the UTH and the humid hides??? I dont want them to have to compete or anything or should i put the dry hides on the hot side Im not 100% sure what I should do

Any ideas would really help me alot!

Thank You So Much!

I was already thinking about having several hides, like wooden logs, little cave type things, half logs, and thngs like that. I understand animals will compete for ideal areas and so on.

What Im also really concerned about is food....Do I feed them outside the cage so they wont compete for that? I will have two water bowls and two caps for calcium so they wont compete for that either, my main concern would really be food.

I plan to offer them a variety of foods eg; crickets, mealworms, silworkms, phoenix worms, and lil bitty nymph rocahes that I have here.

>>Thank You So Much!
>>
>>I was already thinking about having several hides, like wooden logs, little cave type things, half logs, and thngs like that. I understand animals will compete for ideal areas and so on.
>>
>>What Im also really concerned about is food....Do I feed them outside the cage so they wont compete for that? I will have two water bowls and two caps for calcium so they wont compete for that either, my main concern would really be food.
>>
>>I plan to offer them a variety of foods eg; crickets, mealworms, silworkms, phoenix worms, and lil bitty nymph rocahes that I have here.

I really think two water bowls and two caps of calcium might be overkill. I don't see any problem with it, but I doubt there's any need to do it. And the hides......... it's good to give them a variety, but most likely, they'll both pile up in one humid hide on the warm side that they like the most and spend the majority of their time there. It's good that you're concerned, but just give them enough space and they'll be fine. I don't think you need more than 3 or 4 hides at the max.

Food: the easiest way to be sure that they both get plenty of food is to keep a dish of mealworms in the tank at all times. It's good to also offer other food items, but as long as you have the mealworms there, you can be sure that they both have food available.
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0.10.0 Ball Pythons
0.1.1 Leopard Geckos
0.0.1 Egyptian Tortoise

Well ok I have the final set up....lol....

I got a total of 4 Hides.

A 3-in-1 Repti Cave (Humid Hide)
A pair of half logs...
And a corner log thing....
One water bowl and one cap of calcium

The substrate is paper towel.

Now the only UTH that was available was a "Rainforest" one that has a lower wattage....does anyone think ill have a problem with this one? or should I have tried to look for a "Desert" one?????

feedback please!

BTW - Thanks Eminart

As long as you keep your temps on the UTH in the higher 80's you should be fine

Well thankfully i ordered a temp gun from the good guys at pro exotics.

I checked on the Exo-Terra website and it should be ok...here is what they have to say :

"The first type of heat wave is called "Rainforest".
In this temperate zone you will find moderately hot and very humid conditions. When this type of heater or this particular watt per square inch**, is used with this zones typical ground cover i.e... Bark, leaves, moist soil. Basically a loose type floor or bedding the heat wave will raise the floor temperature above the heat wave to around 85ºF when your ambient room temperature is 72ºF"

So we can expect that if my ambient temsp here are at 77 which is what they are normally during the day here, it would be safe to assume that the hot spot wold be in te high 80's!!!