Post by beagle on Apr 26, 2004 15:33:37 GMT -5
written by my own hand believe it or not 
This is the leo care sheet.
General - Leopard Geckos originate from Middle Eastern countries such as Pakistan. They are a sturdy gecko with weights (adult weights) ranging from 30g to over 100g, however the average adult Leo should wiegh in at about 45g to 60g. They reach a maximum length of 8 to 12 inches head to tail.
Selection - A very important part of successful Leopard Gecko husbandry is choosing the right Leo in the first place. There are certain things to look out for when buying your gecko:
- bright eyes
- test the geckos awareness of its surroundings, ask the shop keeper to place an item of food in its cage, if it does not react to this then there is probably something wrong with the Leo as most are as greedy as it goes!
- look at the Leos tail, if it is thin in comparison to the Leos body then the Leo is probably unhealthy
- look at the pet shop in general, if the other herps in there do not look healthy, the cages are full of faeces or just the general cleanliness of the shop is not suitable i would give it a miss.
Housing - There are many different types of terarriums available to you, wooden ones, glass ones, plastic ones, the list goes on. Which ever type you choose, you must get the dimensions right. For a young Leo 24"x12"x12" will be fine and will suffice for the rest of its life. If you wish to keep more than one Leo in a cage then there is a rule I have always followed, for every Leo you add, increase the cage 12". This provides them with enough space and privacy each.
Decor - For a substrate I have always used calcium carbonate however, many prefer different, for example; calci-sand made by t-rex or silica sand with calcium mixed in. You will have noted, I hope, that each type has calcium in it, this is so that when your Leo lunges at its meal if some of the substrate gets into its mouth it will get a bit of calcium down it as well. The substrate should be changed every month and faeces removed imediately. You should provide hides in your Leos terarrium, at least two, one for the hot end and one for the cool end (more on this later). If possible you should provide a third, this can act as a humid hide, place it on top of peat earth and in-between the hot and cool end. You may find your Leo spending alot of time in here, this is blaitantly obvious when your Leo is about to shed. Make sure you change the earth regularly. Now what to use for a hide, I use cork bark as it is durable, workable and safe for your leo, you could arrange rocks in a cave like structure but if these collapse and your Leo is inside, well, you don't need me to explain. You can put one or two plastic branches in you Leos terarrium but these are not really necessary.
Heating and Humidity - As a heat source you should always use a heat mat connected to a thermostat buried 1" deep in the substrate. Look to maintain day time temperatures temperatures at 80 to 90 degrees F on the GROUND. Remember these geckos are not arboreal (climbers) so it is the temperature on the ground wich matters most. If you wish you may provide a heat lamp but it is not necessary and as these geckos are nocturnal, will more likely scare them than do them good. You should always have thermometer in the cage. Realtive humidity should be maintained at 50 to 60%, I would advise getting a hygrometer. This can usually be maintained with a spray or two of water every morning.
Food and Water - A staple diet for Leos should be crickets, as a size guide for you, never feed your Leo crickets wider than its head. Another food which is accepted eagerly by Leos is mealworms, now forget stories that you may have heard about this food item for they are most probably not true. There is nothing wrong with mealworms as a staple diet even, but i would not advise it. Another tip, when selecting mealworms to feed to your Leo try to choose the whiter ones as these are freshly shed and do not contain as much chitin. Waxworms, these are like gecko candy and once you have fed your Leo too many of these you will find it very hard to get it to ever eat anything else again. DO NOT GIVE YOUR LEO TOO MANY OF THESE. Throw them in at meal times now and then but never feed in excess. Locust are another option to be trown in now and then aswell but these are no substitute for crickets. All of these insects should be gut loaded before being fed to your Leo, what in mean by that is, is that you fill the insect up with good stuff before feeding them to your Leo. I know you probably didn't expect to give your crickets or whatever a gourmet meal before feeding them to your Leo but they are just the package. Crickets, mealworms and locust can be maintained on vegetables such as carrots and a dry food such as fish food. Waxworms are ideally maintained on real honeycomb, however, if this is not to hand then you can mix up a paste with honey, wheat germ and a good pinch of yeast. This ood above should be dusted every other meal with a calcium supplement eg. cuttlefish and once a week with a vitamin supplement eg. nutrobal. Pinkies (baby mice) are another food item to be fed only to adult Leos say once a week, they are already full of goodness (the organs) so need no gut loading. If you can, get hold of live pinkies as their squirming motion is very attractive to your Leo. How often to feed your Leo depends on its age young Leos (0 to 4 months) should be fed every day, juvienille Leos (5 to 12 months) should be fed every other day and adult Leos (12+ months) should be fed two or three times a week. the feeding pattern i use is crickets-crickets-mealworms crickets-crickets-mealworms with the odd waxworm, locust and pinkie (only for adults) thrown in. If you are keeping your Leos in a single cage make sure you never have more than one male in a single cage, but also tweezer feed each Leo a few crickets and release the rest in to be hunted. The water bowl should be kept at the cool end of the cage and the water changed daily.
Breeding - Once you have mastered the day to day basics of caring for your Leo(s) I would be surprised if you did not want to breed them. So, to start with the first question is when? and the answer is February but you can't just throw a female in with a male, there is a bit more to it than that. First of all are your Leos the right age and weight? they should be at least 10 months old and 45g. If this is so then in August you have to start to decrease the photoperiod (day length) from 12 hours down to 8 hours, a good way to do this is to get a timer and drop the day length by a minute a day until it reaches 8 hours. During this time you have to decrease the amount of food offered. Then at the start of January rapidly increase the day length again by about 10 minutes a week, also increase the amount of food during this time. During the first two weeks of February offer pinkies more often to your females and increase their calcium supplementation. These are two vital musts during this time. Then in weeks three and four in February you can introduce the female to the male, the male should become suddenly attentive and chase the female. When they get together so to speak, don't be alarmed to see the male grab the females neck and "mount" the female, when they seperate remove the female from the males cage. Over the next several weeks the female should become lumpy (if you turn her over then you should be able to see two outlines of eggs) and restless. She is restless because she is in search off a place to lay her eggs. Do not be surprised to find eggs in the humid hide(s) of your Leos terarrium so check those every day. Also provide one or two more humid hides in the cage so she can pick her favourite. So, your female has provided you with a pair of eggs, now what to do with them. You need to incubate these eggs seperately to the adults, now I hear you cry "at what temperature?". Well here is something you may not have known, you can decide on the sex of your offspring! by what temperature you heat them at! At 80 degrees f they will almost always be female, at 85 degrees f they will almost always be a mix and at 90 degrees f they will almost always be male. The humidity should be maintained at 80-90%, it is crucial that this is correct as these are soft shelled eggs which means they are very sensitive to what goes on around them. They should be kept on damp spagnum moss or damp vermiculite. When they hatch, keep them in a cage of their own, the young will not eat until their first shed (which follows quickly after hatching). All through this time keep your females calcium intake high and offer pinkies frequently, give your females 3 to 6 weeks recovery before breeding them again.
This is the leo care sheet.
General - Leopard Geckos originate from Middle Eastern countries such as Pakistan. They are a sturdy gecko with weights (adult weights) ranging from 30g to over 100g, however the average adult Leo should wiegh in at about 45g to 60g. They reach a maximum length of 8 to 12 inches head to tail.
Selection - A very important part of successful Leopard Gecko husbandry is choosing the right Leo in the first place. There are certain things to look out for when buying your gecko:
- bright eyes
- test the geckos awareness of its surroundings, ask the shop keeper to place an item of food in its cage, if it does not react to this then there is probably something wrong with the Leo as most are as greedy as it goes!
- look at the Leos tail, if it is thin in comparison to the Leos body then the Leo is probably unhealthy
- look at the pet shop in general, if the other herps in there do not look healthy, the cages are full of faeces or just the general cleanliness of the shop is not suitable i would give it a miss.
Housing - There are many different types of terarriums available to you, wooden ones, glass ones, plastic ones, the list goes on. Which ever type you choose, you must get the dimensions right. For a young Leo 24"x12"x12" will be fine and will suffice for the rest of its life. If you wish to keep more than one Leo in a cage then there is a rule I have always followed, for every Leo you add, increase the cage 12". This provides them with enough space and privacy each.
Decor - For a substrate I have always used calcium carbonate however, many prefer different, for example; calci-sand made by t-rex or silica sand with calcium mixed in. You will have noted, I hope, that each type has calcium in it, this is so that when your Leo lunges at its meal if some of the substrate gets into its mouth it will get a bit of calcium down it as well. The substrate should be changed every month and faeces removed imediately. You should provide hides in your Leos terarrium, at least two, one for the hot end and one for the cool end (more on this later). If possible you should provide a third, this can act as a humid hide, place it on top of peat earth and in-between the hot and cool end. You may find your Leo spending alot of time in here, this is blaitantly obvious when your Leo is about to shed. Make sure you change the earth regularly. Now what to use for a hide, I use cork bark as it is durable, workable and safe for your leo, you could arrange rocks in a cave like structure but if these collapse and your Leo is inside, well, you don't need me to explain. You can put one or two plastic branches in you Leos terarrium but these are not really necessary.
Heating and Humidity - As a heat source you should always use a heat mat connected to a thermostat buried 1" deep in the substrate. Look to maintain day time temperatures temperatures at 80 to 90 degrees F on the GROUND. Remember these geckos are not arboreal (climbers) so it is the temperature on the ground wich matters most. If you wish you may provide a heat lamp but it is not necessary and as these geckos are nocturnal, will more likely scare them than do them good. You should always have thermometer in the cage. Realtive humidity should be maintained at 50 to 60%, I would advise getting a hygrometer. This can usually be maintained with a spray or two of water every morning.
Food and Water - A staple diet for Leos should be crickets, as a size guide for you, never feed your Leo crickets wider than its head. Another food which is accepted eagerly by Leos is mealworms, now forget stories that you may have heard about this food item for they are most probably not true. There is nothing wrong with mealworms as a staple diet even, but i would not advise it. Another tip, when selecting mealworms to feed to your Leo try to choose the whiter ones as these are freshly shed and do not contain as much chitin. Waxworms, these are like gecko candy and once you have fed your Leo too many of these you will find it very hard to get it to ever eat anything else again. DO NOT GIVE YOUR LEO TOO MANY OF THESE. Throw them in at meal times now and then but never feed in excess. Locust are another option to be trown in now and then aswell but these are no substitute for crickets. All of these insects should be gut loaded before being fed to your Leo, what in mean by that is, is that you fill the insect up with good stuff before feeding them to your Leo. I know you probably didn't expect to give your crickets or whatever a gourmet meal before feeding them to your Leo but they are just the package. Crickets, mealworms and locust can be maintained on vegetables such as carrots and a dry food such as fish food. Waxworms are ideally maintained on real honeycomb, however, if this is not to hand then you can mix up a paste with honey, wheat germ and a good pinch of yeast. This ood above should be dusted every other meal with a calcium supplement eg. cuttlefish and once a week with a vitamin supplement eg. nutrobal. Pinkies (baby mice) are another food item to be fed only to adult Leos say once a week, they are already full of goodness (the organs) so need no gut loading. If you can, get hold of live pinkies as their squirming motion is very attractive to your Leo. How often to feed your Leo depends on its age young Leos (0 to 4 months) should be fed every day, juvienille Leos (5 to 12 months) should be fed every other day and adult Leos (12+ months) should be fed two or three times a week. the feeding pattern i use is crickets-crickets-mealworms crickets-crickets-mealworms with the odd waxworm, locust and pinkie (only for adults) thrown in. If you are keeping your Leos in a single cage make sure you never have more than one male in a single cage, but also tweezer feed each Leo a few crickets and release the rest in to be hunted. The water bowl should be kept at the cool end of the cage and the water changed daily.
Breeding - Once you have mastered the day to day basics of caring for your Leo(s) I would be surprised if you did not want to breed them. So, to start with the first question is when? and the answer is February but you can't just throw a female in with a male, there is a bit more to it than that. First of all are your Leos the right age and weight? they should be at least 10 months old and 45g. If this is so then in August you have to start to decrease the photoperiod (day length) from 12 hours down to 8 hours, a good way to do this is to get a timer and drop the day length by a minute a day until it reaches 8 hours. During this time you have to decrease the amount of food offered. Then at the start of January rapidly increase the day length again by about 10 minutes a week, also increase the amount of food during this time. During the first two weeks of February offer pinkies more often to your females and increase their calcium supplementation. These are two vital musts during this time. Then in weeks three and four in February you can introduce the female to the male, the male should become suddenly attentive and chase the female. When they get together so to speak, don't be alarmed to see the male grab the females neck and "mount" the female, when they seperate remove the female from the males cage. Over the next several weeks the female should become lumpy (if you turn her over then you should be able to see two outlines of eggs) and restless. She is restless because she is in search off a place to lay her eggs. Do not be surprised to find eggs in the humid hide(s) of your Leos terarrium so check those every day. Also provide one or two more humid hides in the cage so she can pick her favourite. So, your female has provided you with a pair of eggs, now what to do with them. You need to incubate these eggs seperately to the adults, now I hear you cry "at what temperature?". Well here is something you may not have known, you can decide on the sex of your offspring! by what temperature you heat them at! At 80 degrees f they will almost always be female, at 85 degrees f they will almost always be a mix and at 90 degrees f they will almost always be male. The humidity should be maintained at 80-90%, it is crucial that this is correct as these are soft shelled eggs which means they are very sensitive to what goes on around them. They should be kept on damp spagnum moss or damp vermiculite. When they hatch, keep them in a cage of their own, the young will not eat until their first shed (which follows quickly after hatching). All through this time keep your females calcium intake high and offer pinkies frequently, give your females 3 to 6 weeks recovery before breeding them again.