Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've seen some questions about bad sheds and stress, and several other issues which may not be covered in general literature.
I keep snakes, and I've told my daughter that its much easier to keep reptiles on paper, but she won't have it.

My more specific questions are as follows:
1. What's the best substrate
(It has to be affordable, as she must pay for all expenses from her allowance of about $3 a week.)
2. How should we keep humidity up? Will the substrate do this well enough, or should we partially cover the enclosure?
3. For an individual gecko, is a male or female preferable?
4. It seems that hardly anyone is doing normals anymore, and its difficult for a novice to tell the difference between some of these morphs (for instance, many geckos that I've seen listed for several hundred dollars seem very similar to ones under $50)
My daughter is partial to Bell albinos, but these may be out of our price range. -All the albinos look hypo to me except for the red eyes-.
Is there a morph around with the light brown blotches that is affordable for a child?

For tolerating these questions, and for any answers,
Thanks
-Jack
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Austin Herp. Soc.

For my geckos, I use a piece of repti-carpet. It's easy to clean, cheap, and effective.

For humidity, just take an old margerine container or something, cut a hole in the lid, and put some damp moss in it. The gecko will use it.

All geckos have their own personality, and it doesn't matter which sex you get. I do find males tend to be a bit calmer, and more outgoing, though.

You might be able to find a Bell on the cheap side, and there are a lot of dark trempers out there for cheap too. She might like Rainwaters too.

Thanks.
Moist hides are the same for my snakes.
Now my daughter is surfing the net eyeballing the high-end morphs.
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Austin Herp. Soc.

Best book to get (and a steal at $5) is The Leopard Gecko Manual. It has all the info you need on care, feeding, morphs, and what to look for in signs of sickness. Really, even us "old timers" wouldn't do without it.

Best substrate is papertowels. Some do tiles, but it is harder to heat them and you have to get lead free tiles, which I've found isn't as easy as it sounds if you want something that looks nice. (ie, not red clay) The problem with anything else, namely sand, is the gecko may/will eat some and it can cause impaction and that is vet time. Some people feel comfortable moving to sand once the gecko is an adult, but there is still a chance of impaction. We'd never take that chance, we keep everyone on papertowels their whole lives. The nice towel like all white ones look fine to me. Another advantage is you only need to remove the "bathroom" corner's towel weekly, the rest can be changed monthly.

You only need to keep the humidity up in a small enclosure, a humid hide. These are easily made from plastic food containers, cut a hole or two into the sides for entrances/exit line with paper towels (again) and then moisten those towels as needed and set the hide over the warm end. Shed problems with a moist hide are rare, and only really a huge worry if constricting the toes. We have tons of "tricks" to take care, it is much less of a problem than in snakes, at least from what my friends complain about their boas.

I've had both male and females, there isn't much difference in temperament or handling, on average males should get bigger... but then we recently grew an almost 10" female, so care comes into play too.

You should be able to find a ton of normals, but we are just entering into breeding time. The genetics will almost always produce some normals and you can get them at a great discount. Our independent herp store sells their extra normals for $19.

If you are looking for a brown gecko, tremper chocolates are easy to come by and, in my opinion, pretty cute to boot. (see below)

Please ask as many questions as you like, we love to answer everything BEFORE the gecko is brought home. I still highly suggest the book, it is straight forward and, depending on the age of the child, might even be within her reading comprehension, but really, the book is the finest reference for all of us.

Welcome and ask away!

Here is our current albino:

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0.1 Albino Leo Gecko
0.1 Crested Gecko
1.0 Dear Boyfriend
Departed: Harvey and Spock

I'm sorry, but seriously, do you own stock in that book? lol
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1.0 Hypo stripe, Het RW from JL (BJ)
1.0 HypoTang from Crested (Apricot)
1.0 Tremper Albino from Petsmart (Cloud)
0.1 Hi-Yellow Leopard gecko from Petco (Beatrice)
0.1 Stripe female (rehabilitated rescue)(Pepper)
0.1 Jungle het RW hatched by me! (Jungle Bunny)
0.1 SHCT Leopard Gecko from Petco (Brite)
0.1 Tangy Mutt Leopard Gecko from Petco (Rainbow)
0.1 RW Stripe hatched by me! (unnamed yet)
0.1 Leucistic rescue (Lucy?)
0.1 Tremper stripe from JMG (Delta)
0.1 SHCT hatched by me! (Blinky)
0.0.1 SHCTB hatched by me! (Sunny II)
0.1 Ball Pythons
1.0 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
Hatched: ~50 leos

Nah, not like I would make much at only $5-$8. No, I just really believe in it. We were given a copy by our first vet (only sorta made up for getting completely ripped off because they didn't even know how to hold a gecko, much less diagnose one... come to think of it, maybe THEY should have read it.) You've got the same authors, the same information (for the most part) and a huge difference in price tag and accessibility. I know my friend's kid could read and understand the manual, but the herp is more intense and has information not everyone really needs... interesting for sure, but for the everyday keeper the manual will tell you what to look for in an infected gecko and when to take it to the vet, the difference in the herp book is it will tell you exactly what parasite the gecko has and how to treat it (assuming you had the drugs). I think most people would have more luck just finding a good vet, sometimes too much information can be dangerous...

But I totally understand, I do sound like a broken record. Maybe they should give me royalties or something.

Just don't get me started, or I will say... "Back in my day all we had was the leopard gecko manual... and it was a purple book then... and we liked it that way."
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0.1 Albino Leo Gecko
0.1 Crested Gecko
1.0 Dear Boyfriend
Departed: Harvey and Spock

rofl- I think you should get started writing that letter- they owe you big time!
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1.0 Hypo stripe, Het RW from JL (BJ)
1.0 HypoTang from Crested (Apricot)
1.0 Tremper Albino from Petsmart (Cloud)
0.1 Hi-Yellow Leopard gecko from Petco (Beatrice)
0.1 Stripe female (rehabilitated rescue)(Pepper)
0.1 Jungle het RW hatched by me! (Jungle Bunny)
0.1 SHCT Leopard Gecko from Petco (Brite)
0.1 Tangy Mutt Leopard Gecko from Petco (Rainbow)
0.1 RW Stripe hatched by me! (unnamed yet)
0.1 Leucistic rescue (Lucy?)
0.1 Tremper stripe from JMG (Delta)
0.1 SHCT hatched by me! (Blinky)
0.0.1 SHCTB hatched by me! (Sunny II)
0.1 Ball Pythons
1.0 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
Hatched: ~50 leos

Thanks.
I don't plan on choosing any particular morph.
The trouble is that 2 geckos can look almost identical with radically different pricing.
I guess is all in the genetics, but a high-end critter is not always more attractive than a more common one. Fortunately my daughter doesn't care much about the genes, but the looks are important. If we can find a yellow animal with brown blotches, she'll be in heaven.
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Austin Herp. Soc.

The best substrate is paper towels.

Keep an appropriate sized container, in the cage, with moist vermiculite in it. The containers I use are the inexpensive ones you put left overs in. 3 for about $ 2

Males get bigger and in my collection can, sometimes, have a little more attitude. You can't keep multiple males together.

It’s true, “normals” are harder to find these days, I’m looking for some myself. Bell albinos are the least common, but it’s true, prices are all over the place. Sometimes, it’s the genetics the geckos has, sometimes it’s the combination of a morph with one of the albino genes. Remember, the 3 albino genes are not compatible genetically. If you’re not a savvy gecko buyer, I’d recommend sticking with a known breeder. I’ve seen a ton of geckos, not in the best health, being sold by people, who purchase bulk from wholesalers and resell them as what ever is priced highest in the market.
Always look for a nice fat tail.

Thanks for helping out. It will be a chore to convince my kid to stick with paper towel substrate.
We plan on buying from H.I.S.S. in May
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Austin Herp. Soc.

I would not recommend using vermiculite for a moist hide. Best would be something the gecko cannot ingest accidentally. Also, I don't know how old your daughter is, but vermiculite has been known to contain some nasty stuff, generally mercury, asbestos, etc. that you would want to keep kids far far away from.
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1.0 Hypo stripe, Het RW from JL (BJ)
1.0 HypoTang from Crested (Apricot)
1.0 Tremper Albino from Petsmart (Cloud)
0.1 Hi-Yellow Leopard gecko from Petco (Beatrice)
0.1 Stripe female (rehabilitated rescue)(Pepper)
0.1 Jungle het RW hatched by me! (Jungle Bunny)
0.1 SHCT Leopard Gecko from Petco (Brite)
0.1 Tangy Mutt Leopard Gecko from Petco (Rainbow)
0.1 RW Stripe hatched by me! (unnamed yet)
0.1 Leucistic rescue (Lucy?)
0.1 Tremper stripe from JMG (Delta)
0.1 SHCT hatched by me! (Blinky)
0.0.1 SHCTB hatched by me! (Sunny II)
0.1 Ball Pythons
1.0 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
Hatched: ~50 leos