My New Leachie

A real one this time! :)

He’s from Tailspinz Geckos, via MorphMarket. I paid for him today, picking him up at Tinley on Saturday or Sunday. Probably changing his name from Bender - he doesn’t look like an alcoholic robot to me. I’m leaning toward Cassian, the male lead in Star Wars Rogue One. Screen shot from his MorphMarket listing, also shows the parents:
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I was at our annual floodplain manager’s conference when I got the e-mail from his breeder and finalized payment, it was sooooo hard not squee-ing and bouncing in my seat. [emoji4]


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Awesome! Leachies are great!

My leachie tip: Make sure you handle it from the time it's a baby to help it not be a cage aggressive adult (doesn't always work, but it helps greatly).

Grats. I want a leachie!! I personally like the name 'Bender' lol. That robot is awesome :D

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Originally Posted by mlededee

Awesome! Leachies are great!

My leachie tip: Make sure you handle it from the time it's a baby to help it not be a cage aggressive adult (doesn't always work, but it helps greatly).

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Definitely planning to, and sounds like the breeder has been. One of the things that drew me to him was that he’s described as being outgoing and curious. I’m trying to decide if I want to put his enclosure in the living room, where we spend more time, but is noisier; or in the bedroom, which is quieter. I’ll probably ask the breeder what she thinks, and in any case moving a baby enclosure around the house is no big deal.

I need to go spelunking in our storage locker tonight and dig out one of our 12x12x12” cube Exo-Terra enclosures, which is about the same volume as what he’s been in. The breeder pointed me at a video she did of her baby tub setup, which was very helpful. My other stop at Tinley is going to be at the Pangea booth for the food he’s been eating, some cork bark, and probably a feeding ledge. I’m so excited it’s ridiculous. :)


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Well, that didn't take long...

Congratulations :)

I can't wait for updates and lots of pictures !!!

Wow, I always forget how crowded Tinley is! But we got him, and I got him food, cork bark, and a couple other things needed to finish off his enclosure. It’s a 12”x12”x12” Exo-Terra cube, 3 sides wrapped in aquarium background, a magnaturals artificial plant up high, a piece of pipe insulation running front-back (supported at the front by a magnaturals vine anchor) with the cork bark leaning on it, damp moss in a back corner, and a second length of insulation running parallel to the front - same footprint as his breeder’s enclosure, but taller, so I added the second piece of pipe insulation, otherwise I tried for an identical setup. Such a cute, soft little blob!

I pointed him at the lower piece of insulation, and he disappeared under his cork bark. :)

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Drat, lost the tip of his nose in this picture.
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The reflections are pretty bad, but I don’t want to disturb him by opening the enclosure.
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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Prognathodon

Wow, I always forget how crowded Tinley is! But we got him, and I got him food, cork bark, and a couple other things needed to finish off his enclosure. It’s a 12”x12”x12” Exo-Terra cube, 3 sides wrapped in aquarium background, a magnaturals artificial plant up high, a piece of pipe insulation running front-back (supported at the front by a magnaturals vine anchor) with the cork bark leaning on it, damp moss in a back corner, and a second length of insulation running parallel to the front - same footprint as his breeder’s enclosure, but taller, so I added the second piece of pipe insulation, otherwise I tried for an identical setup. Such a cute, soft little blob!

I pointed him at the lower piece of insulation, and he disappeared under his cork bark. :)

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...b9d47c065c.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...2f93e98c82.jpg

Drat, lost the tip of his nose in this picture.
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The reflections are pretty bad, but I don’t want to disturb him by opening the enclosure.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...0ca5bc9df2.jpg

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So awesome. What a cutie [emoji4][emoji4] nice setup too.


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Adorable, congrats on your new little one :)

Adorable! Congrats! leachies are great! Ours is a tad cage aggressive but not too bad and she's fine once out. Love their wrinkly lil faces. Congrats on the nice pick up

Thank you!

I forgot to add, I named him Chirrut Îmwe, after the blind monk in Rogue One - Cassian just wasn’t quite right.

No more pictures, since I haven’t seen him since Saturday night. I keep telling myself this is normal, this is ok, he’s just doing the normal baby thing and hiding. And it’s ok that he hasn’t eaten yet, I don’t need to go hunting for him. Yep, I’m a nervous gecko-mom! [emoji4]


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Prognathodon

Thank you!

I forgot to add, I named him Chirrut Îmwe, after the blind monk in Rogue One - Cassian just wasn’t quite right.

No more pictures, since I haven’t seen him since Saturday night. I keep telling myself this is normal, this is ok, he’s just doing the normal baby thing and hiding. And it’s ok that he hasn’t eaten yet, I don’t need to go hunting for him. Yep, I’m a nervous gecko-mom! [emoji4]


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You and me both..LOL.


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That's an awesome little leachie congrats, much better than a picture or some artwork isn't it?

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Originally Posted by Deborah

That's an awesome little leachie congrats, much better than a picture or some artwork isn't it?

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Yes, yes it is! And I saw little Chirrut last night (happy dance, happy dance!). I was moving his cork bark to check the moisture level of his sphagnum moss, and he was lurking on the far side of the bark. I immediately apologized (because yes, I talk to my critters), and put the bark back.


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His little leachie feet are just too cute for words. :bow:

Chirrut was out when I got home from work last night! Got a crummy picture through the glass, then he disappeared when I un-latched the door. Arrow pointing to his snoot so my non-reptile friends on social media could find him. [emoji846]
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Lurking Leachie is Lurking! I opened up Chirrut’s enclosure last night to give him fresh food and mist, and noticed him lurking on top of his cork bark. This was after I’d been home for a couple-three hours with the room lights on, so I think he’s getting braver. He let me get a couple pictures, this is the better one, with the exposure lightened up as far as my phone would take it:

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This morning I finally found poop and urates! Yay! It’s hard to tell if he’s eating his Pangea smoothies, other than the day he left messy footprints on the door, so I feel much better after finding his teeny-tiny little mess. There was also a dark speck in his food this morning, not sure if it was poop or dirt, but the answer is to clean out the food cup and give him fresh either way.

And now get to blame Sauzo for something. [emoji4] He mentioned the ZooMed nano bulb he uses for Pat, and I picked one up for Chirrut (although I went with the 25W CHE) and added it Sunday evening to help create a little better warm spot. I had to move the enclosure, and between different air flow and the CHE the humidity is going lower, but that’s actually good, as I wasn’t sure it was getting dry enough between the evening mistings. Now I’m misting morning and evening.

More poop this morning, I suspect Chirrut is happier with the addition of the CHE.


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Congrats on the leachie! I got mine last year and he is HUGE now, over 10x heavier than his 12 grams when I got him last year (fall 2016).

These guys are poop machines... Be warned, their first reaction is often to defensively poop all over you when handled. I wear gloves and watch for the "raised tail" lol.

Chirrut hasn’t pooped on me yet, but I’ve survived corn snake poop (the smelliest, IMO), and being simultaneously pooped, peed, *and* musked on when my Hondo was going through his juvenile delinquent phase. Thanks for the warning of what to watch for!

Lately I’ve been trying to remember to always change when I get home from work to avoid muddy paw-prints and white glue drips (bookbinding), I really need to make it a habit all of the time.


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We had entirely too much excitement this morning! I asked my husband to weigh Chirrut while I was cleaning his enclosure, and Chirrut demonstrated his jumping abilities, multiple times, then scurried under the couch!

My husband started digging under the couch, adult son wandered in and was drafted, and I was getting things out of the way. Fortunately, son decided to shake out fabric-ish things that came from under/behind the couch, and found Chirrut in a scarf.

There was much relief! Fortunately, the beagles were outside, and when the searching started the husky-mix decided it looked like cleaning and evacuated the area.


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So fabulous congratulations can not wait to see him with a little size on him also love the name you choose 😊♥️

Wow, I bet you were all frantically trying to find that little stinker !!!

They must be pretty fast after all.

Glad you found him and all is well :)

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Originally Posted by zina10

Wow, I bet you were all frantically trying to find that little stinker !!!

They must be pretty fast after all.

Glad you found him and all is well :)

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Oh yeah, even though my son regularly chants “NO NEW PETS”, he was helping search.

You look at him sitting there, pretending to be cork bark, and don’t think he’s going to be lively. Then he flings himself around, and I totally understand how Leapin’ Leachies chose their name. The adult I held at a local show climbed my arm fairly promptly, too, but wasn’t as dare-devil as Chirrut. I’m hoping he settles down as he gets bigger and off the bottom rung of the food chain. :)



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LOL. Reminds me of the time one of my gargoyle geckos decided not to cooperate with pictures and scurried underneath / behind a fridge. That was fun :/ I now do pics away from my large appliances.

My 180g boy still likes to jump... But not as often as he did when little. I honestly can't tell if working with him for a year has made much difference in his attitude to being handled.

I opened the enclosure door last night to mist and put in fresh food last night, and his little leachie face appeared. He looked like he was thinking of sneaking out the gap between the door and the wall (which opens up when you open the door), so I put my hand up to block the space. For a second I wondered if he was going to start being cage-defensive, but then he scurried along his pipe insulation branch and disappeared into his greenery.

If the attempted escape made Chirrut braver, I won’t complain.

I got tagged twice by my big (2.5+ kg) Bredli on Sunday, so I just couldn’t get worked up about a baby gecko giving me the stink eye. :)


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AAARGH! He did it again Monday night, to me this time! I was about to put Chirrut back in his enclosure, and he flung himself onto the floor and scurried under the couch. Fortunately, the curious beagle was only curious, and not in full-on hunting mode, and so he was slow. Clearly, we need to work on our leachie-handling skills. Or set up a booth with nowhere to hide. Or both.

Summoned my son, and we started pulling stuff out, moved the couch, more stuff littered about. I found Chirrut hiding in/under some soft stuff again, and deliberately left some of them as a Chirrut-trap while we were cleaning up, although I really, really don’t want another repeat.

And then he definitely ate Monday night, based on the state of the remaining gecko smoothie and the grubby little feety-prints on the glass. :) And the living room is cleaner.

Sunday husband and I went to S.E.W.E.R.Fest, in Sturtevant (Racine-ish, bit south of Milwaukee) Wisconsin. Nice show, all reptiles/herps, no imports allowed, all the vendors seemed decent (Scott Smith’s has some kinda grungy/iffy ones, IMO). Pangea was there and I picked up a second magnetic feeding cup and some fruit and bugs mix (so of course Chirrut ate the watermelon-mango Monday night), and a whole bunch of feeders for the sneks. My husband and son were chanting “no new pets” at me that morning, but it was my husband who fell in love with a rescue Hermann’s tortoise, but resisted.



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You may have to start handling him in the shower... I do that with some of my jumpy gargs...especially after that one got under the fridge. I still carry his tub into the stand-up shower (glass door, so he can't get out) before I open it and clean it lol.

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Originally Posted by artgecko

You may have to start handling him in the shower...

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I don’t think the shower curtain is going to slow this little guy down. But at least in the tub there’d be less for him to hide under. :)


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Hmm . . . we’ve got a tent somewhere in the house . . .


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Managed to get a couple decent pictures of Chirrut this morning:
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These geckos are awesome - so jealous!! Someday, I will own one :) Congrats on your new guy!!

I cleaned Chirrut’s enclosure yesterday, with *no* escape or other excitement! Yay!

He’s up to 15 grams, so he’s clearly eating more often than he leaves footprints on the doors or I can actually tell there’s CGD missing. [emoji4] I was thinking he was looking bigger, guess I wasn’t imagining it. I suspect he’s probably shed, but not that I’ve been able to tell (we’ve got a couple snakes that I only know are in shed when I find the shed skin, so I’m not fussed if Chirrut is another stealth shedder).

Debating going bio-active for his eventual grownup enclosure. I thought that was going to be an 18x24x24” tall Exo-Terra style we already own, but this weekend my husband suggested either the 55- or 75-gallon tank. The two refugee cichlids (yellow labs) from the 55 and their juvenile offspring have killed off everything else in the 75-, so we might as well consolidate all the cichlids into one or the other. The aquaria are 20 and 21 inches tall, but 48” wide, so lots more room to roam than the Exo-Terra. And already in the room I want to move Chirrut to. Anyway, have time to consider, he’s got a couple additional steps up before he’s ready for his grownup home. :)

Got a couple pictures last night before and after misting, even show his nice pinky blotches. Looks like he just had or was about to lick up some water when I took the second picture.
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Today is moving day for Chirrut. My son put the A/C units in the bedrooms this morning, so I’ll be moving Chirrut’s enclosure to my bedroom. Still not entirely sure *where*, since I had to set up a hospital bucket for a beat-up cichlid, and the best place to put the bucket was where I was going to put Chirrut...


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After moving Chirrut, I found him flat on the enclosure floor. I don’t think he approved of the earthquake.

Didn’t have any problem at all finding him Saturday night. :)

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Monday morning there was a herd of little black ants in Chirrut’s food. I took the food out, and have been only leaving food in overnight. Reading up on geckos and ants, it appears that ants can be dangerous, so I gave his enclosure a good cleaning, and moved it away from the window the ants probably came in to the spot I originally planned to put it, next to my aquarium (which had been temporarily taken up by a hospital bucket for one of my cichlids).

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Before anybody worries, Chirrut’s enclosure was well-insulated from the sun coming in the window, and there was an air-gap between the fabric blind/insulation combo and his enclosure. In a 12” x 12” x 12” cube there’s two thermostat probes and a thermometer/hygrometer probe, so he’s also well-monitored. [emoji4]

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Chirrut Does. Not. Approve. of enclosure cleanings. Not sure he’s much in favor of Repashy’s Mulberry Madness, either - prefers his Pangea Watermelon/Mango. But he’s up to 20 grams.

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Once the bio-active enclosure for my sand boa is done cycling I think I’ll upgrade Chirrut to the 16” x 16” x 12” enclosure the sand boa is currently in.

No more ants have shown up since I cleaned and moved the enclosure. Probably from the front-porch colony that we discourage from coming in the front door a couple times a summer with diatomaceous earth. Tonight/this weekend I’ll probably hit the porch pre-emptively with DE, and wipe down the area where Chirrut’s enclosure was with vinegar to help wipe out any scent trails.

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No more ants in the bedroom, yay!

When I got home Friday Chirrut was hanging out on his pipe insulation “branch”.
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Hooman! You opened my doors! Oh, fresh foods? AAARGH! NOT THE MISTER! (Disappears into the foliage)

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Now that Shai-Hulud the sand boa has moved to his bio-active enclosure, Chirrut can get Shai-Hulud’s old one. So did I get my husband or son to pull it out of the shelf where it is this weekend? No, no I did not. Silly hooman... (the old enclosure and bio-active fit nicely side-by-side on a shelf, but getting them in/out is a tricky 2-person job)


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