Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all, Cleopatra has passed away, she got food poisoning and died, My boss says I was feeding her too much which is probably true, I'm sorry that she passed but now I have 2 more geckos that are blind. Crickets ate their eyes. The other employees just throw 10 or 15 in the tanks and the criks have a party. It's sad and I have complained to my boss so he has changed the way they feed now. I am resposible for checking the habitats for excessive crik populace. so I'm proud of that.
I have only worked at the pet store for 1 month.
I did set up a water bubbler system for Cleo and the 2 new geckos LOVE it. They have their very own jacuzzi. Everything in the tank is oversized. It is a 33 gallon long with a newspaper bottom. 1 oversized water bowl with bubbler for sound. 2 oversized half logs, one on each end. I do have repti-bark (moist)on a plastic cookie sheet under one log at the warm end. and dry paper towels in the other. I also put a medium size bowl in the tank with repti-vite in it. They do walk thru it at night so I guess that means they are eating it too. I have a under tank heater with a slab of slate on top and a black (nocturnal) light. do I need to have a light for daytime or is the under tank heater enough. Can I leave the black light on all day for extra heat or do I need a red one for day. also should I leave some mealies in a dish for them or just continue to hand feed. thanks for tolerating the long post. Thanks to you all for the care sheets and advice. Even though Cleo died I learned many valuable lessons on this site to help me prepare for Levi and Strauss.

W.T.F.??? almost sounds to me like you got two males... i drop my male leo in with up to 12 crickets and he swallows every one unscathed... 15 for 2 shouldn't be a problem unless you have commando crickets... i mean really what are the chances of 4 prey items getting that close to the leo's head with out conflict? and then causing both to go blind?im not an expert and im not trying to be a jerk but make sure of their sex...
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there are things known, there are things unknown. inbetween are the doors.
-jim morrison-
1.0.0 leopard geckos
0.0.2 crested geckos
0.1.0 cat

I'm not sure where you got the impression of two males but you said yourself you don't have a lot of expierence and it shows. Sometimes leos aren't hungry so they dont eat all their food and that is when the crickets are free roaming around the cage antagonizing the lizards. So how do you know your leo died of food poisoning? Did you have a vet do a necropsy to see what was the cause of death? Your leos won't over eat and if they do they will reguritate the food. I really wouldn't use the blacklight eith because that emits the most harmful UV rays than any other light.

Sounds like you are doing a lot of good things to help your new Leos As far as your black light, you do need to make sure which type it is. The ones that produce the UV rays as stated before are not good for your Leos, they will mess up the Leos day/night cycle. However, there are the black/blue bulbs that do not emit UV light, they produce a "moon light" effect, you just have to read the packaging to make sure you get the right ones. I use the "Night Glo" bulbs from Exo Terra and really like them. As far as daytime lighting, you need to monitor your substrate temps to determine if you need additional heating or not. With my UTH I do not need to use daytime lighting for extra heat, I do have lighting on each tank, I use regular 15 or 25 watt household bulbs (depending on the size of the tank), nothing overly bright.

The only thing you have that I myself would change is the repti-bark, it's really not a good substrate for them, even for just the moist hide plus it doesn't hold the moisture that well. Try some sphagnum moss, papertoweling or the compressed coconut fiber stuff that comes in a brick.

I think leaving mealies in a bowl for your Leos would be a great idea, it may take awhile but I bet they will eventually "discover" them and once they do, they'll remember where their goodies can be found Good luck and keep use posted on how they are doing !!

I know people mean well but animals shouldn't suffer from peoples stupidity. There are several books on geckos which you should read before keeping any animals. It just makes me sick how people can neglect them and then shrug it off. If it was a dog the cops would investigate.

I have been to 4 libraries in 4 different towns and got over 50 books on geckos, I have been reading this website every night for 2 weeks trying to learn, I have spoken to many people on the phone as well as thru e-mail correspondence. I am doing the best I can. I wish I had a digital camera so I could show you just what I am dealing with, Yes, I am making mistakes but I THOUGHT that I could come here for support, If you don't have anything nice to say don't respond to my posts, If I wan't criticizim I will invite my mother-in-law over for dinner.

First of all my earlier post was directed at pet stores in general. I am referencing petco or petsmart in that every time I go to one the animals there are in a sad state of affairs. The people working there dont know or really care about the animals they have. The cages are filthy, geckos are over crowded, and many are missing tails. Then when you ask them questions they just spout out whatever they heard at their two week training. If you are looking for good information on geckos read Ron Tremper's new book. You can get it on his web site if it isn't avaliable in your town. I feel it is the most factual book out. It covers everything you should need to know about your pets. Now, for comparing me to your mother-in-law I'm going to have to give you a little of that back. First of all, do not ask the guy you had to rescue them from in the first place how to care for the animals that are sick from his neglect! DE DE DE #1! Try reading one of those 50 books LOL that you got about them. It is important to know their sex because males will fight. Wich will lead to injury if not daeth. DE DE DE #2! That blue area you were looking at were its organs which you would know if you took it to a vet. DE DE DE #3! Although alot of people on here have good factual information, there are also people(myself included)that talk out of their rear. Having and breeding geckos for 7 years doesn't make me a subject matter expert. The only person you should be talking to about their health is a vet. It sounds like maybe you should try something a little bit more your speed, like a gold fish or something.

I showed her to the guy I got her from when she died and she had a bluish bulge in her belly area, he said she died because I was feeding her 3X ,1/8 teaspoon (Dusted cricks ,mealworms,jumpstart,pedalyte smoothie). They digest food slowly and so basically I killed her by feeding too much and she got food poisoning.(that's what he said). the 2 new ones I have are eating fine.
No light? some say do others say don't, they are always under it when it is on. thanks so much

you must remember these are rescues!!! I am going on what I was told. I have no experience with Gecko's hence my visit to this site to get help and learn as much as I can as quickly as I can. I have researched ALL POSTS including archives!I just want to help them have the best life they can have. I really don't care what sex they are. although I may have to as I certainly don't want babies. I am sorry for bothering you. anyone with any useful information, I could really use your help here.

as i said "not trying to be rude" but sex could easily be the issue. so could the crickets, common sense would tell me that they lost sight fighting... i got my leo with a screwed up eye from getting his a$$ kicked fighting a much larger male. (originally he was thought to be female... late bloomer)so i adopted this poor little guy. luckily his eye healed on its own. id seperate yours. it will be easier to moniter and how much they eat. at the same time you have no worry about conflict. try feeding them solo in a 5 gal. bucket so the crix have no place to go. my 2 cents. hope it helps
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there are things known, there are things unknown. inbetween are the doors.
-jim morrison-
1.0.0 leopard geckos
0.0.2 crested geckos
0.1.0 cat

DON'T FEED THEM CRICETS!! FEED THEM WORMS OR SOMETHING ELSE.
READ THIS.