oh how they grow.

[mlededee]

it wasn't so long ago that my leachie, spud, could sit on my thumb, and wasn't much bigger than it himself. here he is, back when i got him in october 2005:




and here is my man now, weighing in at a nice 172 grams :









we look forward to the day that his little girlfriend is big enough to live with him and make some baby giants. got about another 2 years or so to go though before she's ready. oooh the agony of waiting...

[jglass38]

Holy crap! I had no idea they got that big. Awesome!

[joyful girl]

great pictures.. he's a beauty!

[tigerlily]

Awww, he's gotten so big, and what a handsome fella he's become. I love that second to last pic. How's his temperment?

[frankykeno]

Oh all that wrinkly skin...he's a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon's dream patient! LOL What a cutie!

[AzureN1ght]

Is he a gecko? I've never seen one that big--or one who looks like him. -Really- neat.

[mlededee]

spud is a giant gecko, specifically a rhacodactylus leachianus leachianus x rhacodactylus leachianus henkeli (in case any of the other rhac nerds out there are wondering ).

he has a pretty good temperment--can be skittish at times which at his size is quite a handful. when he was younger i had to get him out and hold him in a wad of paper towels for a minute or so until he realized he was being held and should freak out--at which time he would launch a nice huge poop at me (and i do mean launch!). he has calmed down a bit since he has matured which i appreciate.

he has never growled (they can growl, bark, squeak, etc. and are considered the most vocal of all the geckos) or bitten or made any aggressive movements toward me. when he gets wound up or panicky (ready to go back home and into a hide) his nails/claws can be scratchy, so i usually keep a towel or old shirt nearby when i hold him in case this happens. then i just scoop him up in it and place him back in his home, avoiding the frenzied climbing geckos nails. (i do have kind of sensitive skin though that scratches easily so i'd imagine for a lot of people this wouldn't even be an issue.)

[AzureN1ght]

That's so neat! Are his housing requirements hard to maintain?

[snakedude56]

Aside from the projectile bowel movements that is one awesome gecko!

[mlededee]

That's so neat! Are his housing requirements hard to maintain?

no actually, their requirements are very similar to those of crested geckos, just on a larger scale. they tend to like a little more humidity i think than cresteds so i just mist him extra and keep a dish of water for him at all times. he has a part screen, part acrylic cage, with pvc pipes running horizontally for perches and fake vines twisted around them. i also use some egg crates and paper towel rolls on the bottom of the cage--inside the paper towel roll is his favorite spot to hide and sleep though he barely fits inside it anymore! i think i am going to get some large pvc pipe and cut it in half so that i can fix it to the sides of the enclosure for vertical hiding spaces. in the wide they sleep in hollows in trees, so something to emulate that is what i'm going for.

Aside from the projectile bowel movements that is one awesome gecko!

thanks! luckily he has calmed down quite a bit in the projectile area.