Monday, March 19, 2012

Just another update, with a little Repashy on the side

Well, I've been out and about for a little while now, what with our household getting HD cable (including Oasis! Yay!), friends about to leave town, and St-Paddy's Day, but now it's high time I got back to posting.

Well, Rocza's still proving to be fairly shy and reclusive (guess the pets reflect the master after all...), but he seems to be in good health. I've noticed fairly regular bowel movements around the habitat, which is definitely a good sign. Cricket feeding is now about three to four times a week; four crickets on Tuesdays and Saturdays, one cricket one Sunday and Thursday.

After having spoke with Emily about how hard it was for her to ween her gecko off crickets and get him eating Repashy, I was pretty worried. As it turns out, Rocza loves the stuff. I offered him some with a popsicle stick for something a little softer than the steel tongs and he ate it right up. Unfortunately, I'm not sure he's finding his elevated food dish which contains the Repashy. I get the feeling the little guy is slightly agoraphobic. 

So, to give him a better sense of privacy, I've started putting up a shroud around his habitat at night to cut back on the ambient light he's getting (like from my computer and the light on the Monsoon RS 400). Since then, I've actually been able to observe him moving around and exploring more, even hanging upside-down on the screen top. I've also bought him some extra foliage. I went with a second synthetic croton plant, though this one is by Zoo Med. I got to admit, it's "arms" really form a nice, leafy alcove for sleeping. I placed it on the open side of the feeding ledge to entice Rocza out onto it.
The more lush, green colour kind of contrasts my other plants, but it looks good. I also like the more rubbery feel. As it turns out, so does Rocza, I guess. He's moved out of the amapallo and taken up new residence. Hopefully he stays in that one. He's far more exposed to view and this will hopefully have him feeling more comfortable around me.

Also, though I can't be sure, since he's taken up residence, he might have also discovered his food dish. So I hope anyway. I would love to reduce his cricket consumption to twice a week, but I don't want to till I'm positive he's able to forage his own food.
As far as I can tell, he's not thinning out. In fact, after I saw some baby cresties at a another local pet store today, I think he's even growing.

Pictures of the current habitat to come tomorrow (later "today") as I don't want to take down Rocza's shroud and start shooting while he's active.

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