Making sure I'm on the right track.

[anwhit]

So ever since I brought my bp home, my sister has been getting more and more interested in reptiles to the point where we're always watching past episodes of snakebytes together. For the past several months she's been doing research on Leopard Geckos and my mom and I would like to get her one for her birthday over the summer. So of course when I go out to get my girl's rats, we've been doing some window shopping and have a few questions that we have either heard conflicting information about or are not addressed on the caresheet or FAQ

1. For the tank, we've been look at 5.5 and 10 gallon ones. Since we're going to be getting a juvenile one instead of a baby, we were wondering if a 10 gallon would be alright to start off with if we provide a lot of ground cover and cover two sides.

2. For food, we were wondering about dead vs live. Zoo Med sells canned gut loaded crickets and we were wondering if that would be a healthy alternative to live. My mom isn't crazy on the idea of having to "feed the food", but if it is nessicary I will tell her as such.

3. For the first 8 months, we're planning on using paper towels as substrate. For afterwards however, we were wondering what sand would be the safest or if it would be best to just keep it to paper towels.

Thanks in advance, guys!

[got_ballz]

I am not to keen on leopard gecko care but give this a read through hope it helps

http://www.geckosunlimited.com/commu...are-sheet.html

[anwhit]

Ah thank you! That answered 2 of the questions I had. I'm still curious about dead vs live crickets and meal worms though.

[geeko]

always live. unless you want to stand there wiggling it above their heads... they will eat nearly anything that moves though. I use crickets, and once a month he gets a pinkie mouse, but that is because he is an adult. mealworms are just fine though, but you need to have a dish they can't crawl out of and the gecko can still eat them from.

[anwhit]

Ah, thank you.

Now as far as gut loading the crickets, how often would we have to feed them what exactly do we feed them?

[BFE Pets]

as for gut loading I usually let the mealworms or crickets eat on a carrot or orange before feeding them to the gecko. if im not mistaken you can buy cricket food that is used to gut load them. I only buy crickets like once a month as a treat for my leos. the rest of the time I just keep a dish of mealies in with them.

[anwhit]

Ah, that would work excellent! Once a month when I go and get rats, I can pick up some crickets as well for a treat.

Now for the mealworms, would it be wise to put some shredded carrots at the bottom of the dish I put them in to make sure they stay gut loaded?

[MarkS]

I love these feeder dishes for Leopard Geckos. I use one for water and one for the meal worms in every cage.

http://superiorshippingsupplies.com/...orm-water-dish

I raise my mealworms on chick starter which also makes a great gut load and I use slices of oranges, apples or carrots the day before I feed them.

Also remember to include a plastic container (with a cover and an access hole) filled with damp moss or coir in the cage, they need some place humid to hide in.

I use newspaper for substrate with all my leopard geckos, it doesn't look the greatest but they also can't accidentally ingest any of it either.

[anwhit]

Yeah, after talking to more people, we're deff going to be keeping the gecko on paper towels or newspaper. Everyone is telling me sand is too much of a risk. (Although I might get carpet later on. I didn't like it at all at first, but I just recently found out you could throw them in the washing machine which makes it 10x easier).

And after understanding exactly how to keep crickets, I think I'll have my sister keep it on a mixed diet. (The debate with mealworm as a stable is a vicious one and I don't want to take any chances).

Thanks guys, you've been a huge help as always. Other people make it seem much more complicated than it really is, haha.

[MarkS]

I would caution you about carpet, when I first had geckos I used carpet but found out right away that they were constantly getting their teeth stuck in the carpet if I was feeding crickets and they missed.

Since then I've been using paper and pretty much only feeding mealworms or roaches (I quit feeding crickets at all, I hate the little buggers) As long as they're gut loaded it really doesn't matter what you feed.