Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, my name is Wendy. I am a 34 year old mother of 3 wonderful kids. Let me give you a little history. One of my little darlings is allergic to cats and dogs and we had to get rid of our 3 precious kitties that we had before he arrived into our family. This was very hard for my hubby as he very high morals when it comes to pets being for life and you shouldn't get a pet because they are cute as babies and blablbla. Anyway we now have a fish tank, which the kids find kind of boring. My daughter has been asking for a hampter and I really don't want to go there. I had hampsters when I was a child and also two cockatils and a lap dog. Anyway we are going to a reptile place, i t's kind of a museum http://www.regalreptile.com/terms.htm And I started reading up on Leo's and I think I would like to get one, but I have a few questions before I can commit to 20 years. # 1 has anyone ever heard of being allergic to them, I know it's highly unlikely but I wanted to throw it out there. Also how are they with kids, I have read they are skiddish and brobably would only have myself and hubby getting him or her use to us for a long while before the children would be allowed to let it crawl on them. THey are REALLY good when it comes to animals. Now as far as feeding, where do you get the mealworms and crikets from? I don't want to breed them and have tons in the house, just maybe 2 weeks worth. I have read many site but I can't seem to find any of the details I am looking for.

Thanks in advance for your help, I have been look at all your pitures and you have many beautiful leo's!

Wen

First i have heard of some people being allergic but not many and how old are your kids?

8, 4 & 8 months.

Ok first off you might wanna wait a year or two before you get a leo for a 8 year old a 4 year old and a 8 month old unless you are going to be taking care of it.If you buy a leo your 8 year old might get excited and move to fast or get startled if the leo bites him then he might never wanna touch it again.

but thats just my opinion.........

And you can get crickets and mealworms at almost any pet store.

Go to google.com and search leopard gecko "care sheet" and you will find lots of info you need .

I've done that, read several as a matter of fact. I found this one to be the best I have read so far. http://www.thegeckospot.com/leocareindex.html

My 8 year old is a girl and she's kind in skiddish herself so I don't think she would be handling it for a long time. She kinda freaked yesteerday when I mentioned it and the possiblity of feeding it a small mouse on occasion and she freaked and said I would rather have a pet mouse than feed it to my pet.

Question about the cricket, a stupid one I am sure, ermmm do they make noise? I'm sorry I am so green to all this. Thank you so much for your help and time.

crickets DO make noise once they get big enough...so if that would be a problem you might want to avoid them. As far as the mice...There's no reason you would HAVE to feed pinkies...so if your daughter has a problem with it, just don't.
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Christina

1.3.1 leos
-0.1 tangerine het rainwater albino w/jungle background (Blinkers)

-0.2 jungles (Vahz & Skissor)

-0.0.1 albino (supposed Tremper)(Spitfire)

-1.0 tangerine rainwater albino (Bronx)

Yes someimtes they do but usually only if they are pretty big. I am also sorry about mistaking your daughter for a boy lol.
Oh and you know that they cant be fed mice until they are adults and that they should only have like 1 once a month right?

and please do not use heat rocks as they can short out and burn your gecko.

here are some great care sheets

www.geocities.com/geckodistrict/leopard.html
www.bright.net/~a1rep/a1leocare.html
www.rockfordreptiles.com/leopard_gecko/care_sheet.html
www.homegrownherps.com/pages/leopard.html
www.sundialreptile.com/care%20sheet--leopard.htm

I was in of hoping we could avoid the mouse thing all together unless it was something he/she really really needed on a rare occasion and something hubby could handle when the kids weren't around.

Yeah I read about the rocks!

Thanks so much for all the links!!!!!!!!!

Oh and don't worry about mistaking my daughter for a boy, I should have explained..my two little ones are boys however!!!

My two cents. I just recently aquired a gecko from a pet store. Even after doing a TON of homework I still had alot of questions after I got home. The dollars start adding up quite fast if your not prepared. Correct substrates (cheap) but getting the right temp maintained whether it be overhead or underneath. Ive bought several substrates now and several daylight bulbs one under tank heater went bad so gecko got real cold. Crickets gave my lil girl worms and she got deathly ill. Vet visit, force feeding. Have tank for crickets, not the funnest thing in the world to get out and shake and bake. etc

Please dont get me wrong I love my lil gecko alot and I will do whatever I can to keep her happy and healthy but Im at least a cpl hundred dollars into it and shes not outta the sick "woods" yet.

Starting from scratch can be hard and if they get sick, be prepared. Sand bad, walnut shells bad, mist a hide daily, dust there meals, have correct temps set before you bring new gecko home and if I were to do it again I would NOT go to the pet store for my pet no matter how clean and how much I thought I knew. This Forum right here has taught me way more than the endless nights I spent reading care sheets. (care sheets are good by the way) Im just saying these breeders and so forth have seen it all and heard it all. Many, Many care sheets say sand and things are OK... There not for a baby...period. They tromp through there water dish and get sand club feed and sand beards lol.

OK sorry for rambling...I still want more geckos even after all Ive been through in the last month heh go figure

I believe she did say she and her husband would be the only ones handling it for quite a while if the kids would be too much for it. Anyway, as far as allergies, I've never heard of anyone actually allergic to the animals...but there are some people that are allergic to some of the beddings (bed a beast, dust from sand), or the feeder beddings. You should be able to get around that if it becomes a problem though by just avoiding dusty or particulate beddings and using tiles or something instead. Mealworms and crickets can be found just at just about any petstore (crickets are probably easier to find....but make noise if they're large enough, and you can keep mealworms in the fridge for months if you have to!). Alright, the kids...now obviously the little one wouldn't be able to do anything....lol I'd probably only let the 4 year old touch it. I think your 8 year old might be ok to hold it for very short periods of time if you are closely supervising. I would keep it from the kids altogether though until it's used to handling and is calm when it's held. Anyway, that's my 2 cents! Leos are great little guys!
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Christina

1.3.1 leos
-0.1 tangerine het rainwater albino w/jungle background (Blinkers)

-0.2 jungles (Vahz & Skissor)

-0.0.1 albino (supposed Tremper)(Spitfire)

-1.0 tangerine rainwater albino (Bronx)

Do I have to use anything other than paper towels, as I have read that some pet store bedding has walnut shells and besides the fact it can be fatal to the leo, it can be fatal to me as I am HIGHLY allergic to walnuts and their shells. Also I am aware of the pet moss in the humid hide so that won't be a problem.

>You could use calci sand or repti sand it has never been a problem for me but some people dont like to use it because the sand can impact your leo

I have seen some people swear by it, but I don't understand, isn't it cold and kinda messy to clean up, maybe I haven't read enough on it and just don't understand!

That is what i use in my leos tanks its half tile half calci sand it is very easy to clean and after your leo picks the spot where it will go to the bathroom you can just put paper towls there.

Tiles are very easy to clean and it's used to avoid any risk of impaction caused by loose substrates.. I use vinyl tile in my gecko enclosure. I just have a little bit of sand in their pooping corner. The tiles aren't as cold as you might think. Heat travels fairly well through them with an under tank heater.

~Jenn
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Current
1.3.0 Leopard Geckos (Butch, Cassidy, Sundance, Nieve)
1.1.0 Doggies (Breckin & Cashew)
0.1.0 Cat (Chloe)
1.0.0 Peach-Front Conure (Gimpy)

Missing You
0.0.1 Ribbon Snake (Vincent)
1.1.0 Cockatiels (Buddy & Cuddles)

yea i agree with him its very easy

Vinyl and not ceramic?

either on will work
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My Email

There's advantages to both. Vinyl can be cut very easily, its what I use; right now I have brown construction paper at the end where I didn't get enough tile as a bathroom area. Regular tile will hold heat better, but is obviously going to be harder to fit to a tank. Either is very easy to clean and works great.
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Christina

1.3.1 leos
-0.1 tangerine het rainwater albino w/jungle background (Blinkers)

-0.2 jungles (Vahz & Skissor)

-0.0.1 albino (supposed Tremper)(Spitfire)

-1.0 tangerine rainwater albino (Bronx)

I use ceramic and the sticky tiles (i guess they are vinyl LOL) The ceramic ones fit great in a 15 or 20 gal long tank leaving only a bit of space in the 20 gal (for bathroom area) and half in the 15 gal. In that case i use the sticky tiles and place papertowels where they poop. Ceramic tiles can be cut to size if needed but most come in 12"X12" pieces. They do hold heat very well and make the tank look nice. I'll have to get some new pics of my setups....i've changed most of them around a bit

Red
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Crested Gecko Zeek:1.0, Ziggy and Zeus
LEOS: Boo: 1.0 normal , Bronx & Nala: 1.1 blizzard,
Lily: 0.1 patternless, Abby: 0.1 albino, Zoe: 0.1 reduced pattern, Dot: 0.1 hypo
New Girls: Flame, Karma, Bubbles and Bell pics coming soon
Chip: 1.0 papillion (small dog)

Well, I've never heard of anyone being allergic to a Leo, but I know they're normally good with kids.

My 2 year old daughter plays with mine all the time (well, only with I'm right there with her). But they let her pick them up, they crawl around her shoulders, etc. She loves them. hehe she's really good with the dwarf hamsters, too

A really good place to get mealworms and any other food from is http://www.grubco.com/ Grubco has them for a really good price, and I haven't noticed any dead ones.

I normally buy a couple of thousand at a time, but, back in the day when I only had one , I would only buy 1000 and that kept her for a couple of weeks. It's more cost effective, though, to buy a few thousand and start a mealworm colony - that way, when they turn into beetles, they have baby mealworms, and after awhile, it can save you some money!

~~Dusty Windom
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So Many Alleles, So Little Time...!
@
~~The Gecko Barn~~

Where do you store the mealworms? And I am not sure I understand about gutloading????

>>Where do you store the mealworms? And I am not sure I understand about gutloading????

Gut loading is when you feed your crickets/mealworms or whatever you use like fruits and nutritional stuff like that
right before you feed your gecko so they are more nutritional.

wow, this is a long thread. usually the ones this long are argumental, or debating. Its a nice change.

Mealworms, crickets, superworms etc can be mail ordered most of the time, and petstores also carry them. I'd suggest getting an full grown adult gecko and feed him superworms, you can buy 100 superworms just to keep around and don't need refrigeration. They have a very long shelf life if fed well (just need a couple carrots, potatos, or any other root type vegetable and you can keep them in a oatmeal/oatbran/wheatbran mix, though I recommend researching a gutloading recipe as you'll want to gutload most feeder insects regardless of where they came from). You can just dump them into a plastic bin and stick them into a cupboard and no one will know.

Geckos are a little bit on the fragile side, and they're slow to react and can't really defend themselves like a cat or a rodent can (cats and rodents can run away, geckos can't really do that). But that's also a plus in a way since it means they won't bite or scratch (they do bite sometimes but the damage they do is insignificant compared to what a hamster can do). I do have to say you're doing the right thing when you said no to hamsters, they're vicious little things with no brains, mice are about 10 times smarter, rats can rival the IQ of a dog.

Young children and older people have problems with salmonella when it comes to reptiles, so might want to take that into consideration before you dive in. It IS very rare though to get salmonella from a reptile pet, and sometimes I wonder if it's even possible (assuming proper hygene practices are followed, but with little kids it's hard to do sometimes) and I think the same risks are there with any other pet as well (cryptosporidium/giardia from rodents, salmonella from dogs/cats).

-Lemur 6

salmonella is also much more of a problem with reptiles like turtles that essentially live in thier own toilets...lol Even then its still no more common than getting it from eggs... Just make sure if the kids touch it that they wash thier hands afterwards and you shouldn't have any problems. I second the opinion of getting an adult or at least older juvenile leo too.
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Christina

1.3.1 leos
-0.1 tangerine het rainwater albino w/jungle background (Blinkers)

-0.2 jungles (Vahz & Skissor)

-0.0.1 albino (supposed Tremper)(Spitfire)

-1.0 tangerine rainwater albino (Bronx)

Yeah, allergies to reptiles are not unheard of, but they are uncommon. More common are allergies to feeder insects--I would keep them away from the kids (don't let them handle the feeders), so they won't be likely to develop an allergy to them, that way it's less likely to ever come up.

Even if your daughter did develop an allergy to the lizard, lizards don't spread allergens around the way mammals and birds do--no floating dander in the air. So, she would still be able to enjoy the gecko, watch it eat and bask, etc, even if she couldn't touch it directly. A great deal of the enjoyment in having a reptile comes from observing it, not from handling it. They have very engaging personalities.

Even if she is dubious now about watching a lizard eat live insects, my guess is that she'll quickly come to find it fascinating and enjoy watching the gecko's hunting behavior.

Paper towel or newspaper is perfectly fine as a substrate, you do not need anything else. The most important things to provide in terms of caging will be proper, stable heat, and a dry and moist hide.

I also recommend searching around for a gecko that you think is truly beautiful--whether it is a very inexpensive normal, or an expensive blizzard or super hypo carrottail. The gecko will be with you for as long as 10 years, so don't "settle" for a less expensive animal if your eye is caught by something a bit pricier. You'll enjoy it all the more if you choose one that you think is gorgeous even before you get it home.

Don't you love how helpful everyone is on here!...I'm just gonna try to condense a few things for ya!

You don't need to feed mice...entirely unnecessary! You can get mealworms, superworms, or crickets at petstores or online from websites like www.grubco.com (or just do a search for them...). Crickets make noise. mealworms can be kept in plastic containers in the fridge (with holes punched in them!). Superworms are big and can only be fed to large juvie or adult leos, but are better if you can find them then mealworms and can be kept at room temp. All feeders need to be gutloaded (its easiest to just buy a gutload and put the feeders in it a few hours to a day before you intend to use them), and dusted (T-rex makes a great leopard gecko dust!). Tiles make a great substrate that is very easy to clean...you just need to wipe if off with a damp paper towel, an when you do thorough cleanings you just take them out all together and clean them. Tile also holds heat very well. You'd be best to stay away from any particulate substrate, as it can cause impaction (although the risk of that isn't necessarily very high), and it can be very dusty, which can be a problem with allergies. Get an adult or older juvie that you find attractive, remembering that you may have it for upwards of ten years! You can let the kids handle it as long as its used to it, they are supervised, and they wash thier hands afterwards! Ok, I think I covered everything! Hope this helps!
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Christina

1.3.1 leos
-0.1 tangerine het rainwater albino w/jungle background (Blinkers)

-0.2 jungles (Vahz & Skissor)

-0.0.1 albino (supposed Tremper)(Spitfire)

-1.0 tangerine rainwater albino (Bronx)

How do I choose? http://www.regalreptile.com/leopard_geckos.htm THis is where we are going tomorrow. Something tells me I want that #21 that's not avaiable, but what's with the green and purple ones, will they change to yellow later? The color really doesn't matter to me.

Thank you all again for your help, my husband sounds a little leary because he says they are a lot of work (he use to keep a Chinese Water Dragon)and are worried about who will look after them when we go on vacations and such...but I will continue to work on him.

I'm throwing my two cents in since I just got home! #21 on that site it pretty, but I like #22 better (I like the green head, but that's just me) These guys are no where near the work of a water dragon. And depending on how long you are gone, it isn't an issue either. They make (and I have one) the reptile waterer's similar to dog and cat waterers where there is water stored in a bottle and goes out slowly so it will last a long time. And also you can leave a dish of mealies if you are only gone a few days. If you want them bad enough, you can do it!
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-Kristen

0.7 Leopard Gecko (Buttercup, Beaker, Beauty, Blaze, Bubbles, Blinkers, and Squiggles {yeah I broke with the B's, but her head has black squiggles on it!!!})
1.1 Fat Tail Gecko (Bell and Bowser {I've got egg!!!!})
0.1 Deformed Leopard Gecko (Gimpy)
0.1 Leopard Gecko that lives at my boyfriend's house, but whom I still pay for food...lol (Dexter)

Proud owner and operator of a Powerbook G4! Why use windows, when I can use Panther? It even sounds better.

on the differences, like what's patternless mean, and Albino's don't look albio to me, and do the green and purple ones turn yellow? I am so confused.

Patternless leos have a normal base color, but without any pattern on them; blizzards are white with dark eyes (although can also be yellowish or brownish and sometimes look like patternless, however are born without any markings on thier bodies, whereas patternless are born with a splotchy pattern that goes away as they grow up); albinos (there are 3 different strains), just lack black pigment and so still have yellows and oranges, but no black spots (some do have brown though); tangerines just have an orange base color; high yellows are just a brighter yellow than the normal base color, jungles have irregularly striped tails and usually irregularly striped bodies, abberants have irregular stripes on just the body; pastels have lighter than normal base color; snows have a white base color; and lavenders have purplish banding as opposed to grey. I think that covers everything, oh, and you can have just about any combination of the above (tangerine albino, jungle snow, etc, although some traits are harder to combine than others)...I don't know what's up with the green....my guess is that that's just the photo...and not an accurate representation of the leo. Giants are just larger than normal leos. My personal favorite morph is tangerine rainwater albino...which is what Bronx is, Rainwater's also tend to be very sweet. As far as the leos on that webpage, they all look pretty healthy, so I guess when you go just see if any really catch your eye or have a personality you really like; each one is an individual! As far as caring for them...they're SO easy!...Leos are known as the ideal starter reptile for a reason! All you have to do is feed them, water them, keep thier humid hide moist, and clean the tank...and cleaning the tank is usually as easy as cleaning up the corner they choose to go to the bathroom in, and every once in a while doing a thorough cleaning of everything. Tell your husband its no harder than a cat...and you don't have to vacuum up hair!!
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Christina

1.3.1 leos
-0.1 tangerine het rainwater albino w/jungle background (Blinkers)

-0.2 jungles (Vahz & Skissor)

-0.0.1 albino (supposed Tremper)(Spitfire)

-1.0 tangerine rainwater albino (Bronx)

Hi, here is a link to a section in my website that has pictures and descriptions of many of the different morphs/phases of leopard geckos. Seeing it visually may help you take it in faster.

www.dreamgecko.com/morphs
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~Andrea

2.8.1 Leopard geckos
0.0.1 Bearded dragon
0.0.2 Viper geckos
0.1.0 Rescued anole
2 dogs
hamsters

Check out my new website: DreamGecko.com

this is just the opinion of one person. but please consider ordering silkworms online & feeding those to your gecko. i just lost my first gecko, possibly because i fed her the diet typical of hobbyists. (see my post above.) i really didn't think it was that important until it was too late.
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marla
currently: 0.1.0 axolotls, 0.0.9 catfish, 0.1 ferrets, 1.6 leopard geckoes, 0.0.20 oriental fire-bellied toads, and 0.2.0 sugar gliders