Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've heard a lot of people on here talk about leaving a calcium dish in their tanks. However, with my 10 gallon room is tight after the hot hide, humid hide, cool hide, corner water dish, and mealworm dish. After thinking for a while, I came upon an idea. I was thinking about leaving a small pile of calcium powder in front of each of his hides. I have paper towel as substrate so he should just be able to lick it off. If anyone has any feedback on this idea then I'd be most appreciative. The reason I don't want to put the calcium in the mealworm dish is because I already have a gutload mix on the bottom of that for the worms. Plus, as stated I simply have NO room even for the smallest dish.

I wouldn't keep the mealies in the dish for over 2 days. They start to poop everywhere and roll in their pooh and climb out of the dish and hide and die, ect. The calcium should be fine their except the gecko might track it around and it wouldn't be all that much of a pile, Im sure if he wanted some calcium he'd find it though.

ok, i'm not sure how true this is, so if it's off base, let me know. But, I don't think the gutload is able to be digested by your leo very easily. From what I understand the purpose of the mealworms and crix and other feeders is to eat the gutload and get the nutrients out of it, so the leo can eat them and get the nutrients. If the leo eats too much of the gutload, s/he may not beable to digest it easily. I could be wrong, so let me know if I am. I would suggest gutloading the mealies in another container, and placing them in the dish with the calcium. That's how I do it. And then once a week I dust them with vitamins. Hint: hold the mealies in your hand, give one small spritz of water from your spray bottle onto the mealies. Then shake n'bake, makes the vitamins stick very nicely, otherwise you'll have a heck of a time trying to get them to stick. sorry this got so long. I'm done now.

Well I have the majority of my mealies in a plastic shoe bow with my own gutload mix. The only reason I put some ESU gutload on the bottom of my mealie dish was so the mealies wouldn't die of hunger before my leo ate them. However, if impaction could become an issue I guess I'll just change the worms in the dish every day/every other day and keep the calcium powder with them instead

. . . Holy cow - just slide on the ice a little. They won't get impacted by the gutload - you don't need piles of calcium all over - just put 10 mealies in a dish - already gutloaded - shake some calcium on it - and be done with it.

BTW - how much crap do you have in your 10 gal, that you have no room?

You are going to die of worry buddy. Relax and catch the ZEN of herpetoculture. LOL
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Monte Meyer
Powergeckos
Email

No Fru-Fru morphs in the herp room

NP
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1.1 Leos(Ron and Raine), 2.1 Kitty Cats(Bubba, Angelo and Cookie) and 1.1 Rouen Ducks(Buddy and M.J.).

To reply to your comments about me being a "nervous nellie" If you read up I did not begin this post with any notion of impaction. My reply regarding that was just that, a reply to someone else who mentioned that he thought the gutload could impact my gecko. So.. yea, read up a little and you'll see that I am not "dying of worry" and what not, just wanted an answer to a simple question about calcium powder. =)

Now, about the space question, I listed all the stuff i have in my tank in my first post as well. His hot hide is a heat cavern that I bought many many years ago. Upon getting this leo I altered it a bit by removing all electrical wiring, and sanitizing it thoroughly. The cavern is just that, so its pretty big. Next to that is his humid hide, which is one of those little coconut shells you see often in the pet stores filled with some damp moss. In the opposite corner from the hot hide is an exoterra hide cave, the small version. In front of that is a corner water dish, and next to that water dish is a worm dish. Seeing as I've tried to provide paths for him to walk through to access all of his hides, me putting one more dish will block walk space a lot. All in all, I originally wanted a 20 gallon long tank.. but me and my fiance got into a scuffle about the prices so I settled on the 10 gallon. The scuffle was basically.. 40 bucks total for the 20 gallon, 8 bucks for the 10 gallon (seeing as I already had a 10 gallon screen cover). But, yea.. I eventually plan to upsize the tank as the gecko grows.

. . . I'm just having a little fun with you.

You are very conscientious - you'll do great with your leo.
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Monte Meyer
Powergeckos
Email

No Fru-Fru morphs in the herp room

Heh, no hard feelings or anything.. I was just clarifying. LoL I don't wanna come off as some overly neurotic psychopath. By the way... do you leave your windows unlocked at night?... O_o

bwah ha haa...

i have a 10 gal too, but my humid hide is used as the hot hide~

[aimEe]
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0.1.0 Albino Leopard Gecko (Marlene)
0.0.2 Fire Bellied Toads (Norman & Forman)
1.0.0 Fighting Fish (Blue Balls)
1.0.0 Black Lab / Pit Bull (Mikey)
aimee.i8.com

You can just use the cap from a film roll container for your calcium. You don't need an actual dish.
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chickabowwow

3.2.2 leopard geckos (Rosie, Locke, Lisa, Caesar, Tommy)
and 1 more egg a' cookin'

I put my calcium in the same dish as the mealworms. The leos eat the mealworms within the first night, always. Then, when they want calcium they come lick it up.
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Got hips like Cinderella / Must be having a good shame / Talking sweet about nothing / Cookie I think you're Tame