Reptile & Amphibian Forums

OK heres a couple more questions that have come up. They guy at my pet store said I could feed pre-canned already dead crickets or mealworms. It this a good idea? I live a long way from the pet store or any place that sells live crickets so it would be much eaier to keep but I'm afriad it won't be good for him. Also, I keep hearin people talk about having calcium set out in the tank for them. Is this just a container with some cricket dust or is it some other type of calcium? Also, I've taken the calci sand out as most people said it was dangerous, but at 10 bucks a bag I hate to waste it. Is there some type of reptile I can get that would be able to live in calci sand with no problems? My last two questions are these. Does anyone see a problem with using a tightly woven mesh to cover that cage bottom? and How and when can I tell the gender of my leo?

Thanks,
Jackal

I haven't seen a leo that would eat anything that didn't move. If you want to try them, give it a shot but I can't say they'll eat them.
The people at the pet stores around here are always trying to sell them to me.... of course, their job is to move merchandise.

I'm not sure what you mean by cricket dust, if you're dusting them with calcium powder, then yes leave a little dish of that in the tank so he can lick it when he sees fit.

Rather than waste $10 on a bag of calci-sand, you want to buy another reptile for the sake of it being able to live on the stuff??
seriously, I'd just ditch it. It's worth $10 to have learned it isn't completely safe and not put your leo at risk.

I wouldn't go with the mesh unless it was super tight otherwise toes could get caught.

if you want something that looks good and is close to their natural environment, get some thin flat rocks and lay them around in there. Use silicone to create caves and hide spots and it will look amazing.
The only thing is with that, you'll want to feed out of a dish to keep bugs from hiding in the cracks.

It's so great to see you on here asking lots of questions and taking peoples advice seriously. I've seen people ask questions then fly off the handle at the answers they get, or some have come on too late to find that their leo died or got sick because of something simple.

best of luck!!
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4.5 Leopard Geckos
1.0 Marbled Gecko
1.1 Red Eared Sliders
0.2 Siamese Mice

Thanks, The mesh is super super tight, is the kind that is supposed to totally block sunlight. What I did was put it over the calci-sand so it is cusioned but her can't get to it to eat it. then I put all his climbing stuff back on top of the mesh. Its black so it looks realy cool, and any liquid goes right through to the calci-sand. Sound like a good idea? Also I tried paper towles and what not but the crickets kept getting under them. Theres a pic of the set up in the gallery, let me know what you think.

I can't really make out detail in the pic, but I'd say you have enough furnature in there to lay around and keep the paper towels flat to prevent crix from hiding, if not put a little piece of tape on the corners of it.

It looks like he will have fun climbing on all that stuff, just make sure it can't topple with his gargantuan weight on it

keep up the good work!

i put the pic in this post because the kingsnake search thing never works right.
Figured I'd save others the trouble of trying to search.

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4.5 Leopard Geckos
1.0 Marbled Gecko
1.1 Red Eared Sliders
0.2 Siamese Mice

Hi,

You might not want to buy much of the already dead in a can crix or worms... most leos prefer to have them alive. I've tried feeding my leo canned crix and canned fruit flies but doesnt accept them. he doesn't really even want the mealie while it doesn't move..once they start walking in the food bowl, he attacks them right away.

Calcium should have it's own bowl. Rep Cal or Repto Cal seem to be the most popular through my research, so I have that. That should be separate from the minerals that you dust your feeders with.

You can try to SELL your bags of sand if they are unopen. Try either the classifieds or www.craigslist.org - there are always some biters there - that's where i got my leo for free!

The gender of your leo can be found during the juvie years - The males have more outward pores/bumps - I'm not too sure on that, so you might want to find it somewhere in sexing in this forum - sorry!!!

Also, I use brown paper towel to line the cage floor - never tried the mesh!

Aimee
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1.0 Albino Leopard Gecko (Melvin)
1.0 Black Lab / Pitbull mix (Mikey)
1.0 Blue Fighting Fish (Blue Balls)

You could try ordering your feeders online. I don't mess with buying crickets in bulk, but it's better to order them in a smaller size, so they'll last long enough for you to use. Mealworms, however, are great to buy in bulk.
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chickabowwow

3.2 leopard geckos (Rosie, Locke, Lisa, Caesar, Tommy)
and 3 eggs a' cookin'