The Leo Home is ready

Well I have set up the leo tank just the way I want it when the lizard comes home. I do have a question but that's at the end. Here is a list of things I have. PLEASE let me know if there is anything else I need to get, or anything I don't need.

1 29g Tank
1 Screen Top
2 Thermometers (with probes)
1 Coconut Shell Hide
1 Bag of Sphagnum Moss
1 Calcium/mealworm dish (Its a dish that has two dishes side by side)
1 Shallow Water Dish
1 Half Circle Log Hide
1 Fake Plant
1 Piece of Cage Carpet (appropriate size)
1 T-Rex Leopard Gecko Dust (for crickets and mealworms)
1 Rep-Cal Phosporous Free Calcium with Vit. D Powder
1 150w Lamp (its able to hold 150 watts.)
1 100w Bulb for Lamp

Do I have everything? My one question is about the bulb. I just read the caresheet on this forum and it says that leopard geckos need a warm side of 88. The girl at the store said they need 115. :eek: Is that too much heat? I got the lamp and bulb anyway, but someone please tell me what they really need. Right now I have one lamp for the hot side, one for the cold. The warm side bulb is a 100w (for a 29g tank) and the cold side bulb is a 50w bulb. The 50w bulb can put out enough heat to warm up one side of a 29g tank up to 80. Someone please tell me what I need to do as far as heating. The girl at the store also told me that all day-time lights (which is what both of mine are) need to go off at night. Temps drop to around 68-70 at night. Right now in my snake's cage he only has one heat source that puts his warm side up to about 85. The cool side has no lamp and is sitting at 71. I would say average temp in this room, 69-71. What do I need to do?

115 is way too high. 88 max. And the lights need to go off at night. The night time temp can drop as low as 65, but I never let it go below 72.

you want the cool side to be 78-80 and the warm side to be 88-90. it is not necessary to drop the temperatures at night. 65 is way too cold for a leo--even if you do a night drop i wouldn't let it get below 78 throughout the cage. unless you are breeding there is no reason to drop temps at night, and even when i bred i didn't drop the temps because my leos didn't require the stimulation of temp and light changes.

return the daylight bulbs and get red (infrared) or nighttime bulbs. you can use them 24-7 with no ill effect on your gecko because they cannot see the light that these bulbs emit. get one that will heat the cool side to 78-80 and one that will heat the warm side to 88-90.

I thought it was too much. When she said 115 I was like "What?"

I'll return the bulbs and get the infared ones. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

But other than that, is everything else ok?

I would go with a thermostat and undertank heater over the lamps. Leos need belly heat and I found it really hard to get consistant temps on the warm side with heat lamps.

Also, Remember they can overdose on D3. For my adult females I use Pure Calcium on feeders for two weeks and the use d3 for one feeding.

For hatchlings I use Calcium for every feeding and d3 once a weeks instead of every two weeks because they are growing still.

Then keep a dish of pure calcium in the cage.

I have a UTH, but no thermostat. I plan on getting the thermostat next month and switching over to it.

I got the right bulb and the temps are good. I went to the reptile show this morning (going back because fiance wants a snake). I got a beautiful girl. She is a hypo tangerine. Her name is Chibi.

Here are a few pics before I got her all settled in.

http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m...r/Chibi003.jpg


http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m...r/Chibi006.jpg

http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m...r/Chibi008.jpg

She's beautiful! How old is she?

Not sure how old. The man didn't give me a hatch date. Now that I think about it, I should have asked. She's chilling in her cage right now. She's not really using either of her hides. Instead she's resting outside of them. Is this a sign of stress?

Do you have an under tank heater?, belly heat is most important for leos, its helps with digestion etc.. Lights can be used as additional heating if needed but shouldnt be the main heat source for leos. Otherwise it looks like you have everything :)

she is very pretty. she looks to be about adult size in the pics but not filled out yet--not a lot of fat in her tail. i'm sure that will change quickly. :)

Oh yes. She gobbled up 3 dusted crickets last night. I didn't want to feed her too much last night with all the stress of the show and coming home. So, how many mealworms should I give her per day? With feeding mealworms, she should only get crickets 2-3 times a week, correct?

i just leave a dish of mealworms in with my leo all the time. an adult can eat a fairly good number of regularly sized mealworms in one sitting. and yes, along with feeding mealworms you can feed crickets 2-3 times per week.

She just discovered her humid hide. Since bringing her home, she's been sleeping out in the open, and only going into the cool-side hide to get away from my hand when I reach in to change the water. Well I re-misted the moss inside the humid hide and I close the cage, go back to the computer, turn around and I can't find my leo! So I take a closer look and I see this little black and white tail tip sticking out of the humid hide. She hasn't left it now that she's found it.

how cute. sounds like she is settling in. :)

I was wondering. I want to put another female in the tank (29g) this summer, but I've heard that females can be aggressive toward each other. Is this true?

I don't want to endanger Chibi by putting another leo in the tank. Chibi is really laid back and I don't think she'd be very aggressive.

most females aren't aggressive. they will generally lick and nip at eachother a little bit at first while they figure out if the other gecko is male or female and establish who's who but that usually only lasts a few minutes.

when you add a second gecko just make sure that she is the same size or very close to it and keep an eye on them for the first 24 hours. let them pick at eachother at first as long as they aren't biting hard enough to draw blood (it shouldn't come to this but if it does you should intervene). once they get through the initial getting to know eachother that first 24 hours they should be fine.

Ok. I just hate seeing animals fight so I'll be watching them like a hawk.

Chibi is settling in nicely. Tonight she ate 4 decent sized crickets and 1 mealworm. I weighed her and she weighs 27 grams. Seems a bit light. That will change now that she's here.

I had a question about calcium powder. Sorry for all the questions, but I've never had a leo and am full of questions that probably seem stupid to all of you leo owners. My question is....do they lick the calcium powder or do what? Chibi has just been stepping in hers. I see little gecko footprints in it.

no worries on the questions. that's what we're here for. :)

yes, when they want or need it they will lick the calcium from the dish. during the rest of the time they will walk through, dig in, wallow in, tip over and spread the calcium throughout their entire cage if at all possible. :P

Mmk. And I'm having a problem. The mealworms are getting out of thier dish and roaming the cage. I had to put 2 back into the dish this morning.

use a taller dish with smooth sides (anything textured they can climb) or this dish to keep mealies in: http://www.petsmart.com/global/produ...N=2030046&Ne=2

K, I'll check Petsmart tomorrow when I get my paycheck. As of right now I have no more questions, though I'm sure something will arise over the next few days.

Thanks for all your help. If it were not for all of you leo owners lending your knowledge, I would have no clue what I was doing. :D