[Pastymaster]

Hello all,

As a newbie to the leopard gecko world I was hoping to get some advice for you knowledgeable people on here. I do currently own a veiled chameleon and a beardie so I have experience with reptiles.

First of all I would like to apologise as I'm sure most of these questions will have been asked hundreds of times before. I'd rather just ask than pick up bits of answers from other threads and possibly get confused.

1) I'm converting a Juwel Rio tank as seen below to hold a few leopard geckos. My plan is to have a predominantly narrow mesh lid, with a solid area covering around 50% to try and help keep a bit of heat in.

I've never used a heat mat before, and most of the stuff I read says you should put the mat under the glass tank. I'm not sure that is a good idea though, and I would prefer to have the heat mat inside under some thin slate or other flooring. I thought having it inside might also help to heat up the floor a little more and not be affected by heat dissipating out of the roof so badly.

This is the tank as it is now.

Can anybody see any potential problems with that?

2) Ideally I'd like to use a mixture of slate and sand base for the leopard geckos to live on. I've seen a lot of things written about impaction so I'm a little concerned as to what to do.

At what age is appropriate for a gecko to make the change onto sand?

PS. I know not to use Calci sand. :2thumb:

3) The only leopard geckos I've really looked at are in Pets At Home. They seem to be really well looked after in our local store to be honest, so I have no real problem buying from them. My only concern is their age and sexing them.

Does anybody know the rough age of the leopard geckos in Pets At Home, or do they tend to vary a lot?

4) Ideally I'd like to have two leopard geckos living together so that I can eventually breed them. Do you think it's possible/realistic to get two at the same time, for example from Pets At Home and have them sexed to have no trouble of fighting etc…

5) Has anybody used Heat Rocks before with any success, either instead of, or as well as a heat mat? :eek4:

I'm not rushing into buying the geckos, I'll wait until I've got the set up exactly right before I buy them. I just wanted to get an idea for keeping two and breeding. I've not even began to look at all of the morphs yet :gasp:.

Thank you all in advance for your help and tips!! :2thumb:

 

[dramen]

Hello all,

As a newbie to the leopard gecko world I was hoping to get some advice for you knowledgeable people on here. I do currently own a veiled chameleon and a beardie so I have experience with reptiles.

First of all I would like to apologise as I'm sure most of these questions will have been asked hundreds of times before. I'd rather just ask than pick up bits of answers from other threads and possibly get confused.

1) I'm converting a Juwel Rio tank as seen below to hold a few leopard geckos. My plan is to have a predominantly narrow mesh lid, with a solid area covering around 50% to try and help keep a bit of heat in.

I've never used a heat mat before, and most of the stuff I read says you should put the mat under the glass tank. I'm not sure that is a good idea though, and I would prefer to have the heat mat inside under some thin slate or other flooring. I thought having it inside might also help to heat up the floor a little more and not be affected by heat dissipating out of the roof so badly.

This is the tank as it is now.

image

Can anybody see any potential problems with that?

2) Ideally I'd like to use a mixture of slate and sand base for the leopard geckos to live on. I've seen a lot of things written about impaction so I'm a little concerned as to what to do.

At what age is appropriate for a gecko to make the change onto sand?

PS. I know not to use Calci sand. :2thumb:

3) The only leopard geckos I've really looked at are in Pets At Home. They seem to be really well looked after in our local store to be honest, so I have no real problem buying from them. My only concern is their age and sexing them.

Does anybody know the rough age of the leopard geckos in Pets At Home, or do they tend to vary a lot?

4) Ideally I'd like to have two leopard geckos living together so that I can eventually breed them. Do you think it's possible/realistic to get two at the same time, for example from Pets At Home and have them sexed to have no trouble of fighting etc…

5) Has anybody used Heat Rocks before with any success, either instead of, or as well as a heat mat? :eek4:

I'm not rushing into buying the geckos, I'll wait until I've got the set up exactly right before I buy them. I just wanted to get an idea for keeping two and breeding. I've not even began to look at all of the morphs yet :gasp:.

Thank you all in advance for your help and tips!! :2thumb:

1. Glass vivs heatmat ahs to go under the vivarium with an air gap to prevent glass shattering.

2. Avoid sand for young geckos as they miss prey a lot and eat the sand which can cause impaction.

3. Vary vastly in age. I got mine and he was huge (probably 4-6 months old 40g's and then i got my wifes and hers was 12g's last week.

4. Dont house them together, Need to house them seperately and then put them together for 2 weeks during the breeding months of feb to aug. Male will harrass female and could cuase injury and/or death

5. Heatrocks always seem to be bad and advised against. I cant off hand remember why and typing this in a rush.

Sorry if i appear a bit blunt today but got to take pain meds and have to leave for a physio appointment in less than an hour so being a bit harrassed for time.

Hope it helps

 

[iggiethegecko]

I use a converted aquarium for one of mine. I have more than 50% mesh on the lid and it hasn't caused temperature problems. It's a 2.5ft tank and the lid is a piece of contiboard with a rectangle of mesh in middle. Around 3/4s of the lid is mesh. Your tank looks nice and high too, so I can't seen heatloss being a big issue if you're using a heatmat. Dramen's spot on with the heatmat, it needs to go on the outside, if you put a sheet of polystyrene under the tank, heatmat on top then viv on top of that it will work fine.

Personally I don't use sand, but others use playsand with adult geckos without issues. A slate feeding and watering area would work well I reckon. Heatrocks I would stay away from. There used to be issues that they would overheat and cause burns to the lizard. You could always put a rock or piece of slate on the heatmat.

I don't know about PAH geckos, I would imagine the ages would vary a lot though and I don't know how much info they would be able to give on background etc. If you look on the classifieds on here or let us know your town or city someone might be able to suggest a local breeder or shop.

 

[Pastymaster]

1. Glass vivs heatmat ahs to go under the vivarium with an air gap to prevent glass shattering.

2. Avoid sand for young geckos as they miss prey a lot and eat the sand which can cause impaction.

3. Vary vastly in age. I got mine and he was huge (probably 4-6 months old 40g's and then i got my wifes and hers was 12g's last week.

4. Dont house them together, Need to house them seperately and then put them together for 2 weeks during the breeding months of feb to aug. Male will harrass female and could cuase injury and/or death

5. Heatrocks always seem to be bad and advised against. I cant off hand remember why and typing this in a rush.

Sorry if i appear a bit blunt today but got to take pain meds and have to leave for a physio appointment in less than an hour so being a bit harrassed for time.

Hope it helps

Thanks for all of the feedback dramen. I hope all went well with the physio :2thumb:.

As soon as I read your response I remembered about the males harassing females. I must have got caught in the excitement with that one so thanks for pointing it out.

I assume I'll be ok to keep a couple of females together, and then introduce a male separately with them during the months you specified?

I use a converted aquarium for one of mine. I have more than 50% mesh on the lid and it hasn't caused temperature problems. It's a 2.5ft tank and the lid is a piece of contiboard with a rectangle of mesh in middle. Around 3/4s of the lid is mesh. Your tank looks nice and high too, so I can't seen heatloss being a big issue if you're using a heatmat. Dramen's spot on with the heatmat, it needs to go on the outside, if you put a sheet of polystyrene under the tank, heatmat on top then viv on top of that it will work fine.

Personally I don't use sand, but others use playsand with adult geckos without issues. A slate feeding and watering area would work well I reckon. Heatrocks I would stay away from. There used to be issues that they would overheat and cause burns to the lizard. You could always put a rock or piece of slate on the heatmat.

I don't know about PAH geckos, I would imagine the ages would vary a lot though and I don't know how much info they would be able to give on background etc. If you look on the classifieds on here or let us know your town or city someone might be able to suggest a local breeder or shop.

Thank you as well to you iggiethegecko. It's great to have had a response from somebody that's converted an aquarium for the same reasons :2thumb:.

I'm glad to hear that you've had no temperature problems regarding the mesh. My father in law had a go at making a top for it today and came up with this design. I think there should be enough venting, there's more than in our proper viv's anyway :lol:

What do you think?

I've just got to paint it black.

How thick a piece of polystyrene have you used for under the tank? I don't suppose you have a photos of your set up have you?

I'll certainly avoid the heat rocks then. If both of you have seen bad things then it's not worth considering. I'll stick to a heat mat.

I'm based in Crewe, Cheshire if anybody knows of good pet shops.

Thank's for all of the help though guys. It's perfect info for what I'm after. Cheers :2thumb:

 

[dramen]

Thanks for all of the feedback dramen. I hope all went well with the physio :2thumb:.

As soon as I read your response I remembered about the males harassing females. I must have got caught in the excitement with that one so thanks for pointing it out.

I assume I'll be ok to keep a couple of females together, and then introduce a male separately with them during the months you specified?

To be honest i dont suggest housing any leopard geckos together as even females can fight over the best hide etc. Thats not to say it cannot be done but you need to have the setups on standby in case you need to seperate them in a hurry.
To be honest though the best person i have encountered to talk about breeding is this chap Reptile Forums - View Profile: Andy84. I am sure he wont mind you dropping him a pm about this as i have literally no experience in breeding and its all text book advice i can give.

Wish you luck though and nice job with the top on that vivarium:2thumb:

PS :- Physio wasnt too bad as its the 1st stage of an acl revision so its literally just to keep the muscles toned till the second operation. Still bloody hurt thge hip where they took the bonegraft though lol. Thanks for asking

 

[Pastymaster]

Thanks dramen.

In that case I think I'll stick with one. The last thing I want to have is any fighting. I'll just breed one pair down the line.

I'll certainly keep Andy's details so I can drop him a message nearer to the time. Thanks for the help :2thumb:

I hate physio, I've had knee problems playing rugby, but never anything as major as the cruciate luckily. Good luck with your recovery

 

[Pastymaster]

I don't suppose anybody else can help can they?

How thick does the polystyrene have to be for using a heat mat under a glass tank? I'm hoping to get everything over the weekend.