Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey! I got a leo about 6 months ago, it was a month old when I got him. Now he's about 10 cm long from nose to tail, is this healthy? I only feed it crix, and I have a dish of vitamin stuff in the terrarium. I use a ceramic heater, its usually about 80 degrees F in there. Is it old enough to sex yet?
Thanks, I'm a young first time owner and I wanna make sure I do things right!!

Yes, this is a fine gecko. And a gecko is old enough after it is 4 mths old.

Good Luck

Thanks so much!! I think its a girl, tho!

If your Leo is only 10 cm long and is truly 6-7 months old, then it is extremely small. Most Leos are that big at 1 month old. Hopefully you are wrong about the age. As for your heating method, you need to be monitoring the substrate (floor) temperature on the warm side. Your Leo needs "belly" heat to digest it's food properly. The warm side needs to have a substrate temp between 88-92 degrees. Undertank heaters (UTH) are the best type of heat to use for Leos.

You mentioned you have a dish of "vitamin stuff" in with your Leo. Instead of that you need a dish of plain calcium (no D3 or phosphorus added). Only use the vitamin supplement once or twice a week by dusting your crickets with it prior to feeding to your Leo. The other days you should be dusting them with the pure calcium, but still always leave the dish of calcium in with it.

As for sexing a Leo, some can be accurately sexed very young. But on average most you can't readily tell until they are 6-9 months old.

gee, thanks... what size should it be then? what am i doing so wrong?

Are you measuring your Leo's "body" length or is the 10 cm the length from nose to the end of it's tail? If that is just the body length they it is fine, if that is the length from it's nose to the end of the tail, then it is way too small.

Without knowing your whole setup it's hard to make suggestions. Suchas, what substrate are you using, how many hides do you have, do you have a humid hide, what size is the tank, how much & how often do you feed your Leo, etc.

I did list a couple of things in my other response about your temps and supplementation that you needed to check. The only other thing I could have suggested was offering other feeders along with the crickets, variety is always best. Other good feeders are mealworms, appropriately sized superworms, roaches, and silkworms.

Ok, here's my setup:
-10 gallon terrarium (label says DO NOT FILL WITH WATER) It's a Critter Cage (i think thats what its called, it's specifically for reptiles and insects)
-Substrate: Ground walnut shells (do not impact)
-2 hide boxes, one with wet paper towel
-water bowl
-calcium dish
-rock
-thermometer
-i'm gonna get an uth asap, as soon as I've got the money.

Uh, that size was an estimate, I did not actually have the gecko with me right next to the computer. i should go check.
Gator hatched may 6, 2005. I got him/her @ a reptile expo, from the only table with baby leos @ it. for 30 bucks, i got a good deal. he/she's a normal phase, but they had 2 albinoes for 40 $ ea.

I don't go with mealies because last time i bought some, I didn't have a mealie bowl so i was waiting till i had one, when i went back & checked on them they were all beetles, so now i have like this phobia of them. lol
I get 3 week old crix.

Gator poops well, they are fairly large and have the whitish urates and the darker part, also. Nice fat tail, uses all limbs properly, jaw aligns, no bug-eye, tail has never dropped, hunts well, comes out @ night, etc. it's just this size thing that I'm worried about. I'm not wanting to breed or anything, btw. I would post a pic in the photo galllery, but all my pics are too big.

I have a book "the leopard gecko manual", it says the temp should be approx. 70-80 degrees f. I recently bought a new lightbulb (ceramic), 150 watts. i can't get it any hotter in there without a UTH. Also, I live in high elevation so it's pretty dry here.

that's about it, ssl! if you need anything more... reply to this pls!! Oh yeah, I'm still trying to convince my mom to let me take Gator to a herp vet for a checkup...

Oh yeah, I usually feed gator 7ish crix every 3-4 days, they're always all gone by the next morning.

uh... gator is approx. 13 cm, or 5". I don't know how big he should be?