Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a bearded dragon who is sort of like a little puppy to me, but my interest in reptiles is pushing me further and making me want another reptile, so I was thinking about a leopard gecko. So here's some important questions I need answered.

-I play drums, so I practice them everyday, and have band practice about once a week. The room where the leo would live is in the second story of the house, and my drums are in the basement. In my room when someone is playing the drums it just sounds like a stereo is turned up to a moderate level, and I can make it even less loud by closing the heat duct thingy in my room. Will the noise bother him? It doesn't seem to bother my bearded dragon at all, but I was worried that a leo might be a little less happy with it. Could I gradually get the gecko used to the noise?

-Is a 10 gallon aquarium fine for one? I could possibly get a larger one eventually (in a year or two), but I would like it if he/she could live comfortably in a ten gallon at least for a little while.

-Could I house more than one leo together? I would need a bigger tank sooner, wouldn't I? Also, it would have to be 2 or 3 females if I don't want any breeding or fighting...right? Any other info you could give me on housing more than one together is happily accepted.

-Do leos brumate? My bearded is starting to slow down for winter and I was wondering if leos do too.

-Heat lamp or heat pad? I've been weighing the pros and cons here, and I'm still undecided. The heat pad would take less energy and I have heard that leopard geckos prefer tummy heat to overhead heat, but with a nocturnal heat lamp I would be able to see the little guy/girl out and about at night. If I go with a heat pad, what brand should I use? I have heard of people having big problems with the zoomed ones, what about the exoterra heat pads? I was looking at one of these at petco the other day (I know, but this petco treats their animals well, they even have humid hides in the leopard gecko cages), and they looked alright. They didn't use much electricity at all, and I think it included little feet or something to raise the tank up off the surface so heat doesn't build up underneath it. I also saw 5.5" heat domes and the nocturnal bulbs there too, and that setup cost about the same but used around 5 times as much electricity to run. I was thinking about possibly a combination of the two. Like a heat pad for heat, and then a little 15 or 25 watt nocturnal light on a dimmer mainly just to provide a tiny amount of light.

-I like to watch TV in my room at night. This doesn't even bother my beardie, and he's diurnal (so he's usually sleeping), so will it bother the nocturnal leopard gecko?

So basically from what I have gathered, this is the setup I would have:

-10 gallon tank (possibly upgraded in the future)
-heat pad and/or lamp
-screen top for the tank
-paper towels for substrate (maybe repti-carpet)
-A plastic container about 6" in diameter with damp moss in it on the hot side of the tank.
-hiding spots (at least one on the cool side, possibly one on the warm side too).
-a ceramic dish for mealworms (and crickets with pulled legs)
-a dish for water
-a dish or something for calcium

am I missing anything? I was thinking for food, if it's a baby start it out on a diet of crickets and ease it over to mealworms as it grows (supplemented with crix and the occasional waxworm). I might just feed it crickets supplemented with mealworms though, since I already am buying 100 crickets every couple weeks for my adult bearded. I heard that for babies, you should feed them somewhere around 4-5 live food items every day, and adults should be fed 4 food items every other day. What do you feed yours?

I'm sure I'll come up with more questions.

later

I think there were already responses to your question about drum noise, so i'm going to skip it (I don't have an opinion anyway).

10gal if fine for 1. 20Long-30gal seem to be the tanks of choice for 2-3 females.

Heat pad.

If you want to watch her at night, get a red light (apparently leos can't see the light). They provide some heat too. Mine is fine with a semi-dark room at night. I just keep my desk lamp on (across the room with a dimmer bulb than I'd normally use in a desk lamp) in the evenings after her bright cage light goes off. She's fine with doing things when it's semi-light (almost like moon light to her). Besides, she has all night while I'm asleep in total darkness to do her thang.

My exoterra heat pad works fine.

My tv doesn't seem to bother her. She was a little put off by my acoustic guitar the first few times I played in the evening, but she doesn't care anymore. They'll adapt. Especially if you play around her dinner time. They have a one track mind when there are mealies in the bowl, and she forgets that I'm making noise. Eventually she just got used to it. I'd say it would be less of a distraction for her at night since she's already awake. Would you rather have a roommate watching TV loudly while you were awake, or trying to sleep? Just make sure you get her on a regular feeding schedule and ritual before you start adapting her to noise during dinner. Don't want to scare a new pet off from eating their first week.

Your setup sounds good. Maybe put the humid hide in the middle, half on and half off the heat pad. And provide one cool and one warm hide plus the humid one. Make sure to mist the moss regularly to keep it moist.

Feed the young ones as much as they want. I put a dish of 5-10 good sized mealies in every night (just after my dinner. you'll want to feed in the evening right after she wakes up). She'll eat a couple, then lounge for a bit or climb, then by morning she'll have eaten her fill. Depends on how much she ate the day before/if she just shed/etc.

That's pretty much all I can answer.

Oh, and from personal experience, I'd recommend covering 2-3 sides of the tank. The back and one side (possibly the side your tv's on to reduce the glare if you're concerned about that). Mine became a lot more friendly when she felt safer by not being about to see outside a couple sides of her tank. If you don't want to do a decorative background scene, a single sheet of bristol board from the dollar store will cover 3 sides. And you get to pick your colour.

>>>>>I have a bearded dragon who is sort of like a little puppy to me, but my interest in reptiles is pushing me further and making me want another reptile, so I was thinking about a leopard gecko. So here's some important questions I need answered.

-I play drums, so I practice them everyday, and have band practice about once a week. The room where the leo would live is in the second story of the house, and my drums are in the basement. In my room when someone is playing the drums it just sounds like a stereo is turned up to a moderate level, and I can make it even less loud by closing the heat duct thingy in my room. Will the noise bother him? It doesn't seem to bother my bearded dragon at all, but I was worried that a leo might be a little less happy with it. Could I gradually get the gecko used to the noise?

-Is a 10 gallon aquarium fine for one? I could possibly get a larger one eventually (in a year or two), but I would like it if he/she could live comfortably in a ten gallon at least for a little while.

-Could I house more than one leo together? I would need a bigger tank sooner, wouldn't I? Also, it would have to be 2 or 3 females if I don't want any breeding or fighting...right? Any other info you could give me on housing more than one together is happily accepted.

-Do leos brumate? My bearded is starting to slow down for winter and I was wondering if leos do too.

-Heat lamp or heat pad? I've been weighing the pros and cons here, and I'm still undecided. The heat pad would take less energy and I have heard that leopard geckos prefer tummy heat to overhead heat, but with a nocturnal heat lamp I would be able to see the little guy/girl out and about at night. If I go with a heat pad, what brand should I use? I have heard of people having big problems with the zoomed ones, what about the exoterra heat pads? I was looking at one of these at petco the other day (I know, but this petco treats their animals well, they even have humid hides in the leopard gecko cages), and they looked alright. They didn't use much electricity at all, and I think it included little feet or something to raise the tank up off the surface so heat doesn't build up underneath it. I also saw 5.5" heat domes and the nocturnal bulbs there too, and that setup cost about the same but used around 5 times as much electricity to run. I was thinking about possibly a combination of the two. Like a heat pad for heat, and then a little 15 or 25 watt nocturnal light on a dimmer mainly just to provide a tiny amount of light.

-I like to watch TV in my room at night. This doesn't even bother my beardie, and he's diurnal (so he's usually sleeping), so will it bother the nocturnal leopard gecko?

So basically from what I have gathered, this is the setup I would have:

-10 gallon tank (possibly upgraded in the future)
-heat pad and/or lamp
-screen top for the tank
-paper towels for substrate (maybe repti-carpet)
-A plastic container about 6" in diameter with damp moss in it on the hot side of the tank.
-hiding spots (at least one on the cool side, possibly one on the warm side too).
-a ceramic dish for mealworms (and crickets with pulled legs)
-a dish for water
-a dish or something for calcium

am I missing anything? I was thinking for food, if it's a baby start it out on a diet of crickets and ease it over to mealworms as it grows (supplemented with crix and the occasional waxworm). I might just feed it crickets supplemented with mealworms though, since I already am buying 100 crickets every couple weeks for my adult bearded. I heard that for babies, you should feed them somewhere around 4-5 live food items every day, and adults should be fed 4 food items every other day. What do you feed yours?

I'm sure I'll come up with more questions.

later
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Blaine

0.0.1 HY/Patternless/Normal Leo (Echo)

"-I play drums, so I practice them everyday, and have band practice about once a week. The room where the leo would live is in the second story of the house, and my drums are in the basement. In my room when someone is playing the drums it just sounds like a stereo is turned up to a moderate level, and I can make it even less loud by closing the heat duct thingy in my room. Will the noise bother him? It doesn't seem to bother my bearded dragon at all, but I was worried that a leo might be a little less happy with it. Could I gradually get the gecko used to the noise? "

Im in the same position... I play drums constantly and im pretty loud. The gecko doesnt care at all, and he's in the room next to my drum room. I told my mom to check him out while i play to see if he spazzes out and she sed he didnt even budge or seem to care... So the drums/music isnt a big deal unless ur in a punk band, Cus geckos dont like bad music
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Lover of Albinos

and good call on the punk band thing. We play mostly original rock/folk rock/alternative music (not the kind of music you'd expect a few kids between the ages of 15 and 20 to play). Actually, we are covering a punk song right now, but that's just for a show tomorrow. We're playing with this punk band we're friends with, so we're covering one of their songs (it seemed like the funny thing to do).

later

You should leave out more than 5-10. I have juveniles that used to eat 20-25 a night when they were between 2-3 months old. Right now they've slowed down to around 15 mealworms a night, but 5-10 mealworms would never fill them up. They have bottomless stomachs, like beardies, when they're young
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thelastplace.tk

5.13 Leopard geckos: Cut, Skaq, Fido, Dino, Big Bertha the Bus, Clyde, Bernie, Stella, Cassidy, Clara, Hero, Q, Remy, KISS, Bean, Dexie, Tweek, Kitty.
0.1 Argentine B&W Tegu: Tindra
1.0 Bearded Dragon: Hobbes

How many mealworms you leave out depends on a few things. Some people feed tiny little mealies. The ones I got through the mail are full grown (1" long) and quite big around. I can't imagine my leo (3 months old, 6" long, and nice and chubby) eating any more than 7 or 8 in a day. If you look at her while she's standing in her mealie bowl picking through her dinner, there's no way that 20 of these could EVER fit in her belly.

But, if you get smaller mealies (like the ones that petsmart/petco usually sells) than she'll eat more. She was eating up to fifteen a night at 2.5 months old. She seems to like the bigger ones more. Probably more of a fight in them as they wriggle more and are much stronger. She also tends to eat more in a night if I put in white (freshly molted) mealies rather than browner ones. The softer, whiter ones are probably much more tasty and a lot less gritty.

So the moral of all this rambling is don't worry so much about following number guidelines. There are a lot of websites and caresheets that say things like "feed 9 prey items per day when they're juveniles". I find these incredible misleading and think they're being negligent. 9 tiny mealies or pinhead crickets won't do anything for your baby and if the person happens to buy pinheads at the pet store, they'll be starving their baby. 9 superworms would likely be way too much and a novice might worry that their gecko isn't eating the full 9 items.

So just feed it as much as it will eat when it's small and growing. If you're going to feed mealies, start out by putting a lot in her dish and see if they're all gone the next day. Eventually you'll figure out how many she'll eat.

I know some people have found their leos will eat relative to how many they put in. I think it was xelda who said that if she puts in 10, they'll eat 7. If she puts in 15, they'll eat 13...or something like that. I haven't found that with mine, but it's something to watch for.

How many they eat also depends on temperature conditions, if they just shed, and how many they ate the night before. If I see 12 mealies get eaten in one night, and the next night only 3 disappear, I'm not worried. It's like going out to a chinese buffet and then wondering why the next day you can't finish your usual lunch. Your leo will eat as much as it needs. Although in the first week or two you have it, it may eat less as it gets adjusted.

When she's full grown, that's a different story. But by then you'll have an understanding of how much she eats and what she needs to maintain a healthy weight.

Hope this helps.
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Blaine

0.0.1 HY/Patternless/Normal Leo (Echo)

I think it varies depending on the individual, temperatures, and how "fresh" the mealworms are. I feed large, plump 1" mealies and my juveniles still slam 15-25 a night. I replace leftover mealworms every night with fresh ones, so they'll be freshly gutloaded and wiggly. My babies grow fast and fat with this method. Just leave out a good amount for your leopard gecko every night so they could eat as much as they want. You wouldn't believe how many mealworms could fit in a little gecko's belly
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thelastplace.tk

5.13 Leopard geckos: Cut, Skaq, Fido, Dino, Big Bertha the Bus, Clyde, Bernie, Stella, Cassidy, Clara, Hero, Q, Remy, KISS, Bean, Dexie, Tweek, Kitty.
0.1 Argentine B&W Tegu: Tindra
1.0 Bearded Dragon: Hobbes

np
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chickabowwow

3.2.3 leopard geckos (Rosie, Locke, Lisa, Caesar, Tommy)

>>Will the noise bother him? It doesn't seem to bother my bearded dragon at all, but I was worried that a leo might be a little less happy with it. Could I gradually get the gecko used to the noise?
it won't bug him, and if it bothers a hatchling, he'll eventually care less. my brother also plays the drums, but instead of the garage or the basement, he does it either in his room or the living room (depending where my mom makes him put it). it gets really loud during the day, but my leo just stretches out and sleeps... even when i have my radio turned up in my bedroom, she just acts like nothing is happening so you're fine there
>>
>>-Is a 10 gallon aquarium fine for one? I could possibly get a larger one eventually (in a year or two), but I would like it if he/she could live comfortably in a ten gallon at least for a little while.
yeah, a 10 gallon should be fine for one. there are people who might suggest a bigger one, but i've read that a leo can spend its life in a 10 gallon...so that's why i have one
>>
>>-Could I house more than one leo together? I would need a bigger tank sooner, wouldn't I? Also, it would have to be 2 or 3 females if I don't want any breeding or fighting...right? Any other info you could give me on housing more than one together is happily accepted.
you can house more than one leos together, but make sure you up the gallons... so if you get up to 3 leos, you should get a 20 gal. also, make sure you do not house more than 2 males together coz they'll fight. you can have 1 male & 2 females but if you don't want breeding, females are the way 2 go!
>>
>>-Do leos brumate? My bearded is starting to slow down for winter and I was wondering if leos do too.
leos brumate in the wild, but since you're keeping one captive bred, it doesn't need to go into brumation. just keep the temps right and your leo will be all normal & gravy
>>
>>-Heat lamp or heat pad?
an under tank heater (uth) is recommended because leos need belly heat to aid in digestion. if it gets lower than 84F in the tank during the day, you might want to get a lamp as well - but you don't have to get those high voltage ones. if your temp gets lower than 76F in the night, then you might also want a low wattage red bulb to emit some heat (just dont go over 84F). it's also safe to view them at night with a red bulb since they can't see red if your average temps are pretty much between 76F - 82F at night and 84F - 88F or 90F during the day, then you won't need a lamp (just the UTH) - your leo will need some sort of light to regulate day/night schedules i use the sunlight from my window, but because it's cold, i'm using my white bulb
>>
>>-I like to watch TV in my room at night. This doesn't even bother my beardie, and he's diurnal (so he's usually sleeping), so will it bother the nocturnal leopard gecko?
nope, shouldn't bother him... my leo doesn't care when i watch TV, listen 2 the radio, or play video games at night
>>
>>
>>So basically from what I have gathered, this is the setup I would have:
>>
>>-10 gallon tank (possibly upgraded in the future)
>>-heat pad and/or lamp
>>-screen top for the tank
>>-paper towels for substrate (maybe repti-carpet)
>>-A plastic container about 6" in diameter with damp moss in it on the hot side of the tank.
>>-hiding spots (at least one on the cool side, possibly one on the warm side too).
>>-a ceramic dish for mealworms (and crickets with pulled legs)
>>-a dish for water
>>-a dish or something for calcium
you pretty much have it all covered... just the same reminders (even tho you know them..) A) gutload feeders and B) one wax worm every week/every other week to prevent addiction and refusal of other foods. and YES, if you do have other questions, you know where to go! take care & have fun good luck!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

[aimEe]
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0.1.0 Albino Leopard Gecko (Marlene)
0.0.2 Fire Bellied Toads (Norman & Forman)
0.2.0 African Dwarf Frogs (Hobo & Bobo)
1.0.0 Fighting Fish (Blue Balls)
0.0.2 Hermit Crabs (Kirby & Furby)
1.0.0 Black Lab / Pit Bull (Mikey)
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