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Post by Deleted on Feb 22, 2016 15:38:44 GMT -5
These are leopard geckos, aka my dorky darlings.  They are currently in a 27.5 gallon terrarium (It must have been custom-made. It's such a weird size), but are going to move into a 40 gallon by August. The 40 gallon setup will look roughly like this...I have already put stuff in it to see how I want it to look, so yes this is my tank (giggle) .  Famine is the one who is less spotty/more yellow - she's a hypo tangerine leopard gecko. She is now eight years old. She's my goofy gal who can be held by anybody and not make a fuss.      Vian is..I'm not sure. Some days she just looks like a normal morph, other days I am convinced she's a mack snow. Whatever she is, I've had this girl since she was just a few weeks (I got Famine when she was already an adult). So, I have progression shots!  Late March 2014. Note the presence of bands, not spots.  Late April 2014. Spots and eyeshadow!   Early November 2014...is this the same baby?  August 2015. She is now rivaling Famine in size.  January 2016. Known around the house as the beast.  A close-up of her face so you can see the glimmer of mischief. Lastly, both of them together so you can see that they do get along. Mostly.  I kept green anoles for about five to six years before I kept leopard geckos, and while both of them are lovely species I definitely prefer the geckos...I love putting my hand in the tank and getting kisses! Anyone else keep leopard geckos, or any reptile species? |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 22, 2016 15:50:36 GMT -5
Years and years ago (ok, decades actually) I had an iguana named Sigmund and a Burmese python named cuddles. This was way way back in my young years. Sigmund fared well but I had to donate cuddles because she got bigger than I could handle. When I purchased her she was sold to me as a ball-python which of course doesn't get very big. She got HUGE and I am small I just couldn't handle her anymore.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 22, 2016 15:56:24 GMT -5
I wish you lived near me! I have barely used, like new forty gallon tanks with lids I'm trying to give away. I've always wanted bearded dragons but my ferrets keep me too busy.  |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 22, 2016 16:02:07 GMT -5
@libbyw
Oh my goodness, I adore both of the names! That's sadly why I had to give up the idea of a BP as well; I don't think I could afford to feed one, and I'd hate if they got loose and hurt themselves or another pet. My mom actually had an iguana, named Sleestak! Unfortunately, he was kept in the 27.5 gallon I have now. She was not very well-educated on their care. He ultimately died of complications of a broken leg while she was on vacation.
@ferretfanatic
It's probably good that I don't, because we're already overrun with tanks and I don't need to start thinking of new ideas to fit more in our living space! (shy) I too have wanted to give beardies a try, but I'm in love with the leopard geckos and the tank requirements for the beardies are a little too large for apartment life. I'm also secretly really glad I don't have to spend money on veggies for my pets.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 22, 2016 16:06:38 GMT -5
They're gorgeous!  |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 22, 2016 16:14:54 GMT -5
I love geckos, well most reptiles Is it me or do they always look like they're smiling? |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 22, 2016 16:21:48 GMT -5
Thanks to you both! They appreciate the compliments, I'm sure. I love geckos, well most reptiles Is it me or do they always look like they're smiling? I'm a huge reptile nerd. I'd be completely into taking our university's herpetology course if it counted towards my major (it'd be four credits!!), but alas it will not so I'll resign to obsessing over them and not getting graded for it.  Maybe it's just because I've always been around Vian since she was a baby, and know her to be a bit curt in her affections, but I definitely see Famine are more "smiley" than her. The structure of many reptiles' jaws and skulls does make them look oh-so adorable (you just have to be the right person to appreciate it, as my dad says)! |
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Post by Corvidophile on Feb 29, 2016 14:26:42 GMT -5
Very cute geckos, I have a huge soft spot for lizards and such. I've often wished I had a big squishy calm one, but the stress of making sure the environment is just right always stops me. And yes, they DO always look like they're smiling!
I almost constantly had both brown (cuban) anoles and green (carolina) anoles as a kid from 6-12, but not from stores. I lived in south Florida and just caught them in the backyard, kept them for a week or two in my screened in patio, feeding them bugs that rested on the screen that I caught by literally just slap-stunning them with my hand and then poking the anoles in the mouth with the bug. They'd threaten me by opening their mouths in a display, and then I'd just put the bug in there and they'd learn that I was a source of free bugs and let me hold them. When I caught another lizard, I released the current one.
The neighborhood kids and subsequently their parents knew me as a lizard tamer, so one day I got a knock on the door asking for help because someone found an "iguana" in their yard. It turned out to be a knight anole, and while I did catch it (how could I resist, I thought I was the croc hunter), it bit the &@$$!! out of me multiple times and drew blood. Gorgeous!! A truly challenging specimen to tame. I unfortunately killed the poor thing due to simply being an uneducated child. I knew I couldn't sustain it on flies, jumping spiders and gnats, and it was a rare treat to catch roaches, so I searched on the Internet and someone said to feed it dog kibble. I don't know what it died of- blockage, bacteria overload from wet kibble in the stomach, who knows. But I felt terrible and it was very much a watershed moment in pet care for me.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 29, 2016 15:28:26 GMT -5
Aww, it's actually not that difficult for certain species! The leopard geckos are far easier than the anoles were. Their lights are set on 12 hour times using a simple Christmas light timer, and there's a heat pad under their tank that can get up to about 120°F, though obviously you don't want it that high. You can buy these thermostats that they sell to gardeners to keep their soil a certain temperature, and plug that into the heat pad and set the thermostat to a certain temperature; that way I know their temperature is about 93°F on the warm side. Anoles were harder since they don't thermoregulate as much using the belly heat the heat pad provides, but rather through basking. That's originally why I had the heat lamps, but their wattage was double what I use now. But, point being that the leopard gecko tank can essentially regulate itself, in stark contrast to the anole tank. Quite nice for vacations! I actually had a similar experience, but we lived in LA! There was much improper care in my case as well, as I was very young and, as I mentioned, anoles are actually very challenging to keep in a tank. The knight anoles are terrifying, I'm very impressed you caught it! I always kept the little green ones, though I did buy a Cuban once. I wish I still had pictures of what their tank looked like, because I know I had about 16 feet of fake ivy in there. It's so cute how you kept them on a patio! What a fun childhood. We had tadpoles in our ditch, so we'd go out with butterfly nets and catch hundreds of them and raise them in buckets in the backyard. Of course now we can look back and realize we could have been much better caretakers, I think just having those experiences in the first place can inspire people to become better caretakers, if that makes sense! |
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