Addopted Leopard Gecko

I got the leopard gecko this afternoon. He's a very charming animal, fairly bulky, with a real mild temper.

I'm writing this now because, quite frankly, I've been busying myself fixing up his vivarium as best I could since I got him home at 4:30. But before launching into my mini-tirade, a picture.

In light of his girth and physical size, I've decided to call him something burlier; Bronka (I kind of fabricated the name, not knowing it was actually a small Polish village).

Bronka's is a long story of moving from place to place, like a drifter. He began as the pet of a college student who, due to housing issues, was no longer able to keep him. Bronka found a new home with an acquaintance of mine, who took him in, loved him, cared for him, but ultimately had to move away to Vancouver and had to leave him in her mother's care. Unfortunately, her mother had other pets to tend as well and thus had to pass Bronka along. This is where I enter the picture.

This guy has a couple scars, too.

Some of his toes no longer have claws. In fact, some tips are simply gone. This, to me, is caused by one of two things (or two of two things), the first on my list being lack of humidity during shedding. The skin doesn't slough off, gets tight, restricts blood flow, and ultimately causes amputation.It really hurts me to think of this happening to a single toe, let alone about four.
And this is something that can easily be overlooked by the uninformed hobbyist. My friend noted that this was a condition Bronka had when she got a hold of him.

The other thing which could have cost Bronka his toes is slightly less likely in my opinion, though I can't really say, having very little contact with meal worms.
I'm told meal worms can and will bite. Now, when I picked up this little guy, I noticed the husk fiber was literally writhing with worms. I also noticed a trio of over-sized crickets bouncing around. I just hope they didn't decide to start feeding on the very creature they themselves were meant to feed.

Speaking of the coco husk, after some research, I found that it's not the best environment for leopards. Too much humidity retention. Too bad though, it looks nice. It's jsut not the right stuff, unfortunately. (Not to mention it BEING ALIVE WITH FREAKING WORMS!!!!! Gah... Terrible night to have stuffed manicotti).

Also, less of an issue, his tailed has previously fallen off. I knew this going in, having talked with the previous owner some time ago before she left for Vancouver. It's no big issue, since leos have regenerative tails, though apparently not toes. Strange.

I made a judgement call not to use some of the gear that Bronka came with.

The Exo-Terra heat rock, though probably one of the better ones, is still too much of a worry to me to have it in the tank anymore. I've read  too many articles and heard too many stories of malfunctions to have peace of mind. So, I'll be picking up an under-mounted tank heater (like the one I have for Rocza, just stronger).
All in all, I ended up keeping the Exo-Terra  Medium Reptile Cave... Um, the food dish which I swapped out for a smaller one of mine and that's about it. The piece of wood that had been used as tank decore was worm-eaten, and looked kind of tall for him to climb up.

Now this is his current habitat:

 

Yeah, pretty sparse. And, with some rather unsettling financial issues I've been having, I wasn't really able to go out today and get anything better.
Here's where it's lucky to have a large basement filled with clutter of years past. I dug deep and pulled out a nice log and large flat rock from my old collard lizard habitat, just what this blah habitat needs.
I am currently soaking them for the second time in vinegar, and am about to rinse and soak for a third time before baking them both off.
As for the paper towel, unattractive though it may be, it's safe, easy to clean and keep moist, and it's readily available.

And now, more pics.

Bronka basking in his red heat lamp.

Going to rest up after a long day.

More pictures to come once I pimp out his hab a bit.

Welcome Back!

I've been on hiatus for the last month doing nothing of particular interest, though that doesn't mean I've lost my interest. In fact, I've been looking into new ways to improve my current setup, not to mention what I'd like to get for possible future pets.

Since it HAS been a while, I feel I need to organize my thoughts and experiences, so to begin, I'll give some status updates.

Rocza
He's doing well in terms of health, so far as I can see. He's noticeably bigger than when I first got him and from what I sometimes hear at night and by the droppings left strewn around his tank, he's not shying away from exploring his habitat.

Still, though, he doesn't much like being handled yet. In all fairness, the times I have handled him involved putting him in his carrying tank to clean out his habitat, so it was probably pretty stressful. I've been interacting with him when I see he's awake, so hopefully, I'll one day be able to get him out of his shell, metaphorically speaking, because he's a gecko, not a turtle.

I fed him some crickets yesterday while I had some company over, and he's just as vicious to them as he used to be (not sure if I logged this, but I had tried giving him crickets a week ago and he didn't so much as taste it). He's also going through about 1/4 teaspoon of Repashy a night, so I'm really not worried about his diet.

And lastly, I think he's molted again, and happily, his orange colour isn't dulling! I'm fairly psyched about this. Since I started looking around online, I haven't really seen many other orange harlequins, so I guess he's something of a special little guy.

Natural Habitats
I've been looking into ways of turning my future habitat into a natural one. Or, as natural as I can. What I'm worried about though is cleaning. I don't really know how i would clean out a terrarium without having to replant the fauna each time. I figure that if I find a way to compartmentalize the substrate, I could get by this problem by being able to leave the plants rooted while cleaning out the rest of the tank. I'd have to look into this a bit more before getting a decent idea.
I also thought about stacking some rocks and branches and filling in the crevices with substrate instead, but this idea leaves me nervous about weight issues. I've seen some really nice foam-based waterfalls on YouTube (that I will post a link to presently), and that principal could really be used to make some custom backdrops, and maybe even some designated planting zones with adequate drainage. I'm even trying to think about ways to incorporate natural elements like wood and stone into the foam construction to create a hybrid natural/artificial backdrop and base combo.

I should probably draw some sketches. bitches love sketches, and so do I. While I contemplate that, boom, video. The narrator and I assume creator has what I think is so far the best YouTube review/how-to voice so far. Kind of like a Southern Jeff Goldblum. Or not. The video is put up by Lizard Landscapes. I'll definitely be looking into these guys.

I also saw the first desert habitat that blew my mind. This guy made a sort of "Temple of Doom" look with a human skull as the entrance to a burrow that had a red heat lamp behind it. Sounds cheesy but it looked super cool. I'll try to find the link and post it as well. It kind of renewed my hope of getting a bearded dragon, or maybe a leopard gecko.

Now in terms of plants, I've been told pothos are great, and I'm definitely noticin Rocza favouring his amapallo over either of his croton. I'd love to get some of Exo-Terra's big, broad-leaf plants for the sterile setup, but they're just too big for my current habitat. I'd also like to add a splash of colour. I will definitely do a little digging (haha, pun) into some live plant species that I could use. Maybe stop by one of the local nurseries. I know the daughter of the owner of Harvest, maybe I'll stop in and say "hi".

Oh, and one more video. Boom.

Future Pets
Well, I've been watching Oasis HD some more. I found this awesome doc on monitor lizards. I guess they're some of the most intelligent lizards out there. They showed this amazing dragon at the London Zoo that would actually let his handler pet him and rub him. He jsut showed no signs of hostility. If I had to compare it to something, it looked liek a big scaly dog. Now don't get me wrong, I know Komodo dragons are not pets, but there are smaller monitors out there.

Not only do I find them really cool to look at, the also climb, swim, dig, and actively hunt for food rather than waiting for it to come by. All in all, they just look like a cool pet to have. Definitely something I'm considering for a the distant future (like when I have a really large amount of space to dedicate to it).

Also looking into what I want to put in my current tank once I have my new one to contend with, and though I would love some tree frogs or poison dart frogs, I also have to take into account what my current cohabitants will allow in the house. So, I'm thinking a day gecko. Not only are they diurnal, they live in very similar habitats to my cresty. They're also really nicely coloured. So far though, they're pretty hard to find around here, from what I can tell.


Miscellaneous
So I've been contemplating my future from time to time and I'm really feeling that I'd be much happier goign for something related to the environment over video game design. The same college I was planning on attending offers an environmental technician course. I think I might shift over to that.

***

Well, I think I'll call it for now, but I will come back tomorrow with a product review, the promised pictures of Rocza's current habitat, and maybe even some research into further tank-scaping techniques I might look into.

Second Feeding

First of two posts today, I think. I'm feeling like another product search is in order. But first, a bit of a status update.

I went over to Pet Depot today and spoke for a while with Emily. It's so very useful having someone who personally cares for the same animal as you do; great source of knowledge (and, in my case, reassurance).

Things I learned:
First off, it takes a couple weeks for a cresty (probably any new pet) to acclimatize themselves to their new habitat, which is fine.

Cresties are pretty darn nocturnal. Me thinks PetSmart's pamphlet may be giving false aspirations to the contrary in order to convince people they will see their gecko without a little coaxing. This might change though, who knows. No judgment here.
They're also pretty shy, and even Emily's gecko stays tucked away during the daylight hours.

Weening them off crickets can be a challenge, especially if it's all they've known. But since Rocza doesn't really seem interested in his(her?) food pellets' lack of movement, crickets have so far been the only thing I can confirm her eating. Hopefully not once the Repashy arrives, fingers crossed, some time this week. In the meanwhile, she suggested moistening them to help bring out the aroma.

The issue I was having with his skin seemingly lacking in luster might indeed have just been the UV light washing out the colours. It does that with other stuff, anyway, why not Rocza. He seems to change colours when he walks from heat lamp to UV lamp...
Still, looking into a humidifier upgrade.

***

Now, onto the business at hand; the second feeding.


I think it went really well. After trying to tweeze in the crickets last time, I invested (*sigh* more money...) into a pair of feeding tongs (more specifically, these!). These tongs are now on my essentials list. I was able to insert the cricket right into Rocza's hanging plant to entice him out without disturbing him.

I also learned that Rocza has mad hunting skills. The second he saw that cricket it was over. What's better, I let the next cricket make it's way up to him, and he took it handily. Although I must pause here and make a note that these crickets always move right up to where he's hiding... Anyway, I actually lost the third cricket in the enclosure behind the Boston fern, but Rocza found it before I could. I would have loved to have seen it unfold, but all I saw was Rocza spitting out a mouth of substrate while holding the cricket in his mouth (talented!). I just release the final cricket into the enclosure and let him wander around till Rocza nailed it.

Tried fooling around with his pellet food by sticking some to the tongs and moving it in front of his face, but he was either full or just not interested in it.