Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My son was ucky enough to have received two leopard geckos from Santa. He is absolutely thrilled! I am a little concerned about their eating and general well being. they look great and are not skinny, but neither of them has eating much over the last nine days. Maybe three meal worms and three crickets total. We have fed them at the same time everyday and offered both meal worms and crickets of different sizes. Both types with and without a dusting of calcium. I am also concerned about the humidity level in the cage. We finally have the temps just right, but the humidity level stays at about 55%. From what I read tis is too high, but I'm not sure how to lower it.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated!
J and M

I had a high humidity level problem in my apartment also. I seem to lower it when I open a window in my apartment to allow some air flow. I know it's the winter time, but I have no control over the heat in my place so it gets pretty hot sometimes and opening a window is actually a relief. I just don't open a window in the same room as my leos. I do it on the other side of the apartment.

As for your feeding time, I noticed my leos at more at feeding time when i changed it to 10 - 11 pm. I know this may be kinda late for your son, but leos are nocturnal and would naturally do their hunting at night in the dark.

I hope this helped out.
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- Jason

LEOS:
1.1 Hypos (Conan & Red Sonja)
0.0.2 Juvies (Dremel & Ryobi)

CATS:
2.0 Maine Coons (Sam & Tye)

FIANCÉE:
0.1 Tall Blonde (Christine)

Well, if it's cold around your area, leopard geckos slow down in the winter, eating less and snoozing more. It's called brumation. As long as they aren't losing weight (they store fat in their tails, so a rounded tail is a happy gecko) they should be okay. If you want to temp them with something though, try offering them waxworms, which are little moth larva which petstores sell...leos adore them, they're like twinkies...which also means you can't feed them to much of them or they get addicted. ^^

As for your humidity level...do you have the water dish right in the heated area of your cage? The water evaporating under the heat would quickly raise the humidity. Also, the type of substrate (stuff in the tank bottom) could be holding in water as well...material like wood chips and moss tend to hold in any accidental spill of liquid and slowly release it.

I hope this helps!

Thank you for your insight. It has been very cold around here. I was worried that they might be stressed since they were shipped and plopped in a new home. That makes sense about the brumation that you mentioned since they have been VERY lazy.

Santa made a cage with a slate floor and stone hides so i would have thought that it would be dry as a bone in there. We have some moss in the stone cave that we have been kepping moist so maybe we'll start using a snap seal container for a moist hide to reduce the ammount of lost moisture.

Thanks again,
J

Cage not warm enough can also cause them to not eat. Since its a new setup, its not unusual to have to adjust the heat a few times until you get it just right for them. Watch them, if they hug the hot spot it might not be warm enuf.

I have a very accurate digital thermometer that is accurate to the tenth of a degree with a small probe. I have measured the "basking spot" just off of the surface of the rocks and it is too hot. Air temp seems to be about right at both the hot and cool ends of the cage, but maybe I am measuring incorrectly. How does everyone else measure the temp?? Is this mormally done with one of those budget stick-on thermometers?

Thanks in advance, J