Meet Ziggy Stardust

[Bilirubin]

Meet Ziggy Stardust, my new My new Rainwater Patternless Albino Carrot Tail leopard gecko. He got the name because the rainwater eye shadow reminded me of Bowie



Thanks to the folks at J&J for introducing us!

[Bilirubin]

OK, so, question time. He is 7 months old, and is eating like a monster. I mean, most guides and books recommend feeding as much as he will eat in about 15 minutes, but he will literally not stop eating--he frequently try to catch a second cricket with another already filling his mouth. We are feeding between 5-7 4 week old crickets or king worms, and he would readily take more, but I am concerned with him takign in too much. Is calorie restricting him from his preference like this ok, or because he is still young should we give him more?

Also, heat lamps. We have an under substrate heater, but it does nothing for ambient temperatures, so we have been using a halogen lamp. Ran out of those and started looking into options, and found a split decision between red lights only for leopards, to white heat lights being just fine (and some recommending regular household bulbs). Opinions? I got a whiteheat spot light for reptiles by Exoterra--will this be ok on his eyes?

[joeysgreen]

Adjust his caloric intake based on body condition. Unless there is worry of being overweight I would keep on the same feeding schedule. You mention how you feed, but not how often. For 15 minutes every day? Every second day? If he's always looking hungry, and is a good weight, then try offering more. It would be better to feed more often, rather than simply offering more food in one sitting. This also brings me to ways you can use food as a means of environmental enrichement and excercise. If feeding crickets, space them out so that they aren't all in front of the gecko at one time. Offer an enclosure that includes crevices, various hides, and breaks to line-of-sight. Since both crickets and leopard geckos are nocturnal, leaving in some prey items to hunt down or cross opportunistically is not going to be problematic. You just have to watch and look for a balance so as you arn't adding so many crickets that they become an annoyance or stressor. (Finding the odd stray cricket during cage maintainence is fine, but for the most part, they should be gone by morning.)

For temperature, if your undertank heater doesn't work well enough, you can use an overhead heating element as you have suggested. Note that overhead heating will dry out the enclosure faster than undertank heat, so be sure to offer a humid hide (I'd recommend one either way). I recommend a ceramic heat emmitter as they don't produce light. The red or blue bulbs are crap IMO. Even if gecko's can't see these colours, they can still see the difference between light and dark. Many nocturnal reptiles avoid being out on highly moonlit nights. If using a "night bulb" it should be a low wattage (= dim), which means it might not produce enough heat. Lastly, as reptiles also use need a day/night light cycle, they also can benefit from a temperature cycle. It is okay for the enclosure to cool off to the lower end of the POTZ at night. If this is the case, then you can leave your undertank heater 24/7 for a baseline temp, and use an incandescent bulb to raise air temp's during the day. Having a large heat holding rock under the basking lamp will provide natural environmental heat retention for slow cooling in the evening.

Ian

[tegu_man]

I use regular incandescent bulbs for all my lizards basking areas, no problems at all with it.

[StickyFeet.]

Do you happen to know anything about his lineage? I only ask because I was pretty sure Jim had a few geckos in from Steve @ Geckos Etc. and Geckos Etc has a 'giant' line, maybe this is one of the grand babies or something.

[Bilirubin]

Thanks all. In answer to your follow up questions: I feed every second day. I have a humid hide already in place and I definitely need to wet it more frequently now. This daylight bulb is actually a little less intense in heat and luminance than the halogen I had been using (originally recommended by Pat Wise) so I think it will work out alright. He also has a hide at both the warm and cool ends of the tank (the cool end is one of the Exo Terra--I should really get an endorsement deal from them!--reptile dens of appropriate size). I do believe he's from Geckoes Etc. but if he is 7 months I tend to doubt he's of a giant line. Since feeding him on our schedule he had developed a slight belly bulge--I was told he had been fed 5 or so crickets every other day, intentionally slightly calorie restricting.

So, since he is still growing feed him more frequently but smaller amounts or just keep going? He is definitely much much more active than my last gecko, who always seemed a little off of the descriptions I've read in guides. I guess giving one's tail for science can be stressful

[Spankenstyne]

Great name for a nice looking little gaffer.

[Bilirubin]

thank you very much!

[Bilirubin]

Anything to be concerned about a sudden change of defecation place? He has only defecated behind his warm hide but yesterday at the end of the feeding frenzy he laid a large turd in the middle of his enclosure.

His behaviour is otherwise good (looks like he is getting ready to shed) but with the sudden death of the last one we are a bit gun shy.

[SuicideAnomaly]

I wouldn't think of it to be an issue, but hopefully one of the leopard gecko experts can chime in.

Also, there's this: