Hi everyone. Well to start off with, I am a reptiles manager in 2 petstores at the moment(job transition),so I am quite experienced with reptiles. I have many at home as well including snakes,frogs and lizards,but i've aquired my first gecko. A customer brought into me a full grown bearded dragon female and a full grown leopard gecko male. Since it is unlikely these guys would sell quickly in the store, I adopted the dragon out and took the Leopard Gecko myself. He seems to be about 2 years old, and due to his body shape,i believe a male. I havent handled him much other then to test his temperment when he first came to me. I've brought him home and put him in a 15 long with hides on the cool and hot side. With a UTH and an overhead nocturnal lamp(mostly for air temp and night viewing) waterbowl on the cool side, piece of cholla for climbing, and coconut fiber background. Unfortunately, i didnt have much time to read up before i brought him home and he is on a sand/aspen bedding mix. I've only worked with babies in the store, and theyve always been on paper towels. I dont know why i didnt just use it this time around, i didnt realise theyd consume as much sand as i've been reading. I have his food in a dish for him(meal and waxworms) and have a dish of calcium supplement which ive caught him eating thus far.(ive had him 24 hours) Well i noticed today he is very light in color,and is about to shed. I popped in a humid hide for him,which he is enjoying now. Im wondering how long this shedding process is actually going to take? Im used to my snakes taking about a week to do the full shed thing- how will this go? Will he eat while hes in shed? I know he will eat his skin when its over.
Another question is this- should i wait to disturb him to switch substrates until after hes done shedding? I know it can be a stressfull time for them, especially with this guy doing so many home switches. What bedding can i use? I dont so much like the idea of tiles,as it is quite in convenient, but if i must,i must. I would stick with paper towels and newspaper, but their asthetic value is nill. What sort of safe substrates are out there? Can i make any sort of hard clay out of this sand-you know what i mean? Like ass water and some sort of glue to make it hard and clay like? Thanks alot.
