Leopard Gecko Build (part 4)

After reviewing my third post on the leo build, I realize I never got around to talking tech about the methods and materials used for the foam rock cave.

Therefore, as promised, methods and material review for my rock cave!

Materials
My best advice here is to keep searching until you have exactly what you want.  I spent weeks trying to find Modge-Podge, finally settling for Liquitex, a similar product.  Ironically, I later found Modge-Podge at Wall-mart for half the price.  Now, I have to say, however, that the Liquitex seems to have worked really well.  It was the least toxic substance I could find, it was the right finish, and it is resistant to moisture.

For the paint, all I did was dig through some old (really old) arts and crafts boxes in the basement and found a decent pallet of naturalistic rock colours.  I based my pallet choice on some of the rocks I've collected to use in future tanks; rocks found along the shoreline, in fields, etc.  Rocks are one of the few things I prefer to find outside than actually buy. They aren't porous (obviously) so they're easy to disinfect and use.  Sorry, side-bar.  This is one of the parts of the build that might require a bit of an artistic background.  I've been taught colour selection and identification since I was young, so it's all fairly second nature to me.  Luckily for everyone, the rules of art are somewhat flexible.  And by that, of course, I mean it's all up to you.  It all comes down to what you're able to achieve.  Choose colours that reflect the type of habitat you want to create for your animals.  For this build, as I recall, I used the following colours; a creamy white, a deep blue, a dark grey, a mocha brown, and bit of black.

Lastly, the right tools for the right job.  I'm lucky enough to have a plethora of brushes both new and old kicking around.  I used just one brush for the majority of the painting, one sponge brush for the sealant, and one fine brush for the cave painting details.  I originally wanted to use a spray-bottle  to apply the sealant, but Liquitex specifies not to mix with water, which would have been necessary to reduce its consistency.  The sponge brush work fairly well, leaving a nice pitted texture, which I found worked better than the unnatural strokes of a course brush.

Methodes
The best way I can describe how to get a natural rocky look is to just dump on the paint.  Don't mix it on the pallet, mix on the canvas (the rock).  This makes for a blotchy, heterogenous mix of colours which looks much more natural than straight lines of different, solid colours.  Another tip is just that, the tip.  Use the tip of the brush and... just... tap it on.  Hard to explain.  Let the bristles give the rock that "sprayed on" look like that of centuries of mud and weather working on the stone.  Once you've got a nice mix of colours, don't over work it!  This will blend the colours and ruin that natural texture you've jsut spent fifteen minutes getting!
Also, don't feel rushed, but if you can establish a base over the entire build while the initial coat is still wet, you'll have a much easier time mixing the colours up just the way you want them.  If, by chance, you want a dusty look, try a little dry brush action, which I won't get into detail here.  I'll leave that up to the much artsier people of the internet.

You want to see the third phase of the leo tank?  Yeah you do.

For anyone who's followed the progression of my leo tank, much change can be observed.  Chief among them, the substrate.  Although the use of sand makes me leery, this is not your run of the mill sand.  It's Zoo-Med's Excavator Clay Burrowing Substrate.  Before I launch into it, I have to mention the following:

This is a clay-based substrate; there IS a risk of impaction.

Having said that, here's why I still chose to use it.
First of all, the clay is a great base to hold all the driftwood and stones in place, and it makes for great hills and depressions.  It also holds heat far better than the Eco-Carpet.  It's also more natural and visually appealing, though by no means should you compromise functionality for looks.  This clay sand compacts nicely and forms a fairly solid base.  It's much harder to accidentally ingest this than regular sand.  Also, in my case, the crickets usually make for the dark "safety" of the cave.  As such, the cave still makes use of the Eco-Carpet, for exactly that reason.  It becomes the feeding ground for crickets.  Another designated feeding area is the large flat stone I sunk into the clay sand just outside of the cave.  So far, it's been great.

The clay is made of sculpt burrows and tunnels, but I've heard tales of the tunnels collapsing, most likely due to poor construction.  I didn't even try this, for exactly that reason; I didn't want to risk having a tunnel collapse on my leo. 

The overall result has so far been pretty good.  The cave, thanks to the new Heat Wave Desert under-mounted tank by Exo-Terra, I'm holding a pretty cozy temperature inside the cave.  I haven't yet been able to buy the thermometer I've been eying to get an exact reading, but it's certainly around 30 °C.  Bronka spends most of his time basking half inside the cave, half outside, sleeping right under the heat lamp.  I put not a small amount of thought into the layout of this setup; the cave is both the first and second floor of a three-storey "bungalow", the third being the old piece of driftwood I've been using since I first got him.  This layout effectively creates a sort of Rete's stack, despite the fact that it's far warmer at the bottom.  The new piece, clearly visible on the right, was a great find! It's hollow, making for a very cozy natural hide out of the direct light.  I will be placing moist moss in it soon enough, finally providing the two natural hides he should have; cool and warm, dry and moist.  I've seen him out exploring much more since he's moved in.  I truly thinks he enjoys it!  The front door access has made picking him out ofthe tank much easier, allowing me to handle him much more than before!

Although I could fit a couple extra furnishings, I think I'll limit myself another rock or two, just to minimize the overall amount of open sand, effectively reducing risk of ingestion.  He has a lot to climb on as it is, and I think he appreciates the wide open spaces he now has as well.

***

Coming up in the next post, I'll talk about the creature I'm really working on acquiring, and possibly revisit some of my previous product reviews.

Some New Toys and Treats

First off, I found another place to buy some tropical plants!
The local orchard and garden center carries a variety of tropical plants, but not many of the ones I need or want. They can get some in, but that will most likely take a while. They carry gold and jade pothos, so I might mix them up and get a bit of variety. They also had a nice little cactus, one without thorns, that I though would look great in Bronka's habitat, especially once I get more rocks in.

But that's just a side note.

Surfing through cable last night, I found a special on photography of small animals with Catherine Chalmers and Rosario Dawson. It was terrific and I leave a link to Catherine's website for anyone interested in some really in-depth photography and art. The point is, I saw her Catherine photographing a leopard gecko and feeding it hornworms. I'm not sure if I mentioned before, but Stacey's Pet Depot sells hornworms, and I've been curious about them since I saw them. I've even wondered, seeing as these aren't true worms but caterpillars, if it would be a good idea to let the mgrow into their moth forms and try feeding them to Rocza. This idea seems a little ill-thought out. I guess the caterpillars can reach about 10 cm in length, so the moths are probably a decent size too. Much too big for little Rocza.
Anyway, I decided that after seeing Catherine's success with hornworms, I would try one out for Bronka, who might be having trouble catching the quick, little crickets. He absolutely devoured it. What I plan on looking into now is how many of these big guys I should consider feeding Bronka per week, as they do cost about ten crickets. They're not nearly as repulsive as meal worms though.

Image from University of Nebraska's Entomology Department

I was at Big Al's this weekend and found this awesome piece of mopani wood.

It's not small either. It's about 16 inches long and weighs about 4.5 lbs. I had to pick it up; just look at the cavity! Placed as it is in the picture, it would make a terrific natural hide. But, place it vertically and it becomes a really nice spot to plant a pothos plant or some other piece of greenery. I haven't decided who it's for yet. I think both Bronka and Rocza would enjoy it, but bronka already ahs a nice piece of mopani, whereas Rocza only has synthetic stuff for now. In any even, it's kind of big for either tank. It'll have to wait till after Christmas.

***

In other news, I haven't progressed much on my foam rock outcropping. I still need to finalize the design, but also, I need to save up a bit and get the mortar coating. I'm really thinking I'll be upgrading Bronka's habitat size in the coming year, as I feel he'd like to explore even more. Having come to that conclusion, I want to redesign some of the rock so that even if I choose to change the size of tank, it will still fit in decently.

Now, something has been troubling me for a little while now, and I feel this is the place to bring it to light.

I was in a pet store recently (not one of my local stores, fyi) and saw an African Fat-Tailed Gecko. It did not have a fat tail. It had a bony, emaciated tail, pointy ribs and boney legs. To be honest, from the way it was laying there, I'm not even sure it was still alive. And what really got me is that, surely lacking on site veterinary services, this store was most likely not going to do anything to help this little creature, as the price tag on it was only 40$. In other words, it's not worth their time.

This really got to me, but I feel like I really can't criticize them; what did I do to help this poor creature? I didn't have the money to buy it and set up a suitable habitat for it in order to attempt to nurse it back to health, but I feel that, had I approached them and asked to take it off their hands, they wouldn't of refused me. It was not their only Fat-Tail, and it was clearly on death's doorstep. Trying to appease my guilty conscience, I said to myself that I couldn't have done anything. But is that true? I have a friend who's sister is a veterinary technician. I may have been able to have her take a look at it and see if there was any simple way of improving this gecko's health. The truth is, being from a smaller city's clinic, she probably doesn't have much herpological experience, but still, this feeling nags at me.
I'm a very shy, reserved person, but that's no excuse to stand by and watch something die. At least, that's how I feel. It's quite possible this was just the end of the gecko's life, that it had lived out a decent life, but I jsut don't have that feeling. Pet stores don't necessarily have the best care for their animals, despite the fact that many do.
I think what I took from this experience is a guilt that will drive me to more the next time I see a situation like this. I just wish I had the courage to stand up more, especially for those that can't stand up for themselves.

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.

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.

Product Research 2: Magnaturals Feed/Water Ledge by Pet Tech

So I've been having concerns that Rocza isn't getting enough vitamins and what not from the crickets he's eating despite the dusting and the gut busting. It's not like I'm not providing the additional gecko diet, he's just not interested. I tried wetting it down last night, but in hind sight, that probably wasn't the best time to do it, since he had his crickets earlier in the evening. He also shed, so he had all that delicious... dried... flaky skin... to eat... *barf!* (no seriously I'm making myself nauseous thinking about in such detail, haha). 
The point is, he spends his twilight hours roaming up top of his habitat, which is in quite the oposite direction of his food dish. As a result, I've been looking into different ways I could serve up his food, especially considering that I'll soon have a third dietary option to provide him with (Repashy!).

So, here we are, looking into feeding dishes. Just food dishes for gecko diet, not live cricket feeders. The one I found stood out above all others was the...

***

Magnaturals Feed/Water Ledge
(Research Phase)

Right, so I know, Rocza's still acclimatizing and ventures out little by little, but that doesn't change the fact that he will be primarily arboreal. He's going to spend most of his days and nights chilling out high as can be (the little stoner... See it's a pun), which leads to some annoying feeding issues. I feel that, in time, he could be trained to come down for food, especially with how fast he shot down after the crickets yesterday. But, till then, he still needs food. Beside that is the fact that floor space is limited in a terrarium and at a premium. I need a nice "cricket arena" when I feed him his little snackies, but I also need that space to put up plants and other fun things. This dilemma has lead me to look into wall-mounted feeders and platforms vs food dishes.

The product I'd liek to get, but can't seem to, is the feeding and watering ledge in the Magnaturals line of products by Pet Tech. It's a nice-looking piece with a removable tray for easy cleaning and refilling. I've seen some hideaway products by these guys and they were made of this nice, lightweight foam which also had a durable-ish feel to it. To go staging any wrestling matches in it though. The coolest thing I found about this product is the mounting system. It's held in place via magnets that are placed on the outside of the glass. This just seems so handy to me, since it runs a blank spot on the walls of your terrarium into a bit more of a natural-esque nook for sunning, climbing, and in this case, feeding. This product comes in three colours: earth toned, Mojave, and granite. My personal choice is the earth tone, since it looks more like natural wood or mushroom growth than the granite. The Mojave-coloured one is this gaudy red which would look okay in a desert biome. They also provide a smiliar, gecko-related product with two compartments, but of larger size.

Despite the awesome usefulness of this type of product, I'm actually having a hard time finding any kind of alternate, both local or online.


Why I need it:
-To provide food at a higher elevation, since that is where Rocza spends his time.
-To give me more floor space to add extra scenery and toys for my gecko.
-As an easy-to-use distribution method for my incoming Repashy diet.
-It's also a great way to add extra climbing space for your little animals.


Why this product:
-This product is light-weight, with sturdy magnets for support. At least, this is based off the other products I've seen by Pet Tech.
-This dish has a nice, natural look to it.


What compares to it: 
As mentioned above, I didn't find all that much that serves the same function as this product.
-Pangea has a feeding ledge that holds two disposable cups, but it's made out of clear acrylic and is pretty much just a shelf, with absolutely no natural look. It's clean-looking, I suppose, but I think it would clash with the synthetic-natural look I'm going for. If you give Exo-Terra only one compliment, let it be that their products look good!
-To be fair, their is still the option to keep using ground feeders and train your creature to go to it. In that respect, there's a huge selection to chose from, in all shapes, colours, and sizes. My preference so far is the Exo-Terra line of dishes. Sturdy, stable and decent to look at. Exo-Terra even offers a dish specifically with omnivorous geckos in mind which has a small secondary compartment for whatever you may also be feeding your creatures. Their water dishes are made with a small ramp to avoid drowning in small animals and crickets, which is thoughtful and shows a little foresight on the designer's behalf. Again, though, this isn't exactly Exo-Terra specific. Zoo Med makes a variety of dishes too. Follow your heart!
-I found a sort of unconventional option as well, one provided by the good people at Zoo Med. The mushroom ledge they make looks very nice! In fact, in terms of esthetics, it has my up-vote. Not only that, mushrooms are also a big part of the micro-biology of tropical forests, so this seems like a logical option for people trying to recreate a natural-looking enclosure. At least, it's better than that tacky-looking reptile hammock Zoo Med puts out... Ugh. My little pretentious moment of the day: you wouldn't catch MY gecko lounging in one of THOSE things! The only drawback is that it is not magnetically affixed. It comes with a silicone adhesive. I have wondered though if it would be possible to drill small holes on it and stick some earth magnets, or even just a strip of plastic-covered metal (to avoid rust issues in a humid environment). Give it some time though, these companies are always coming out with new stuff.

Useful links and videos

Product links:
Pet Tech's Magnaturals Feed/Water Ledge
Pangea's Elevated Magnetic (and Velcro) Feeding Platforms
Zoo Med's Mushroom Ledge
Exo-Terra's Gecko Dish

Videos:
Product Demonstration for Pet Tech's Feed/Water Ledge
Hosted on Pet Tech's own channel, PetTechProducts. 

 

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.

First Clean - First Feeding

Cleaned out the terrarium earlier today. Figured that Rocza's had a couple days to settle down some. He was pretty good about it, as far as i can tell. I was pretty nervous handling him; didn't want to lose a tail or anything. After a couple seconds it was all good.

Terrarium looks a little different now, especially without the log hideout. It's too bad that wood wasn't treated for humidity. It looked nice. I kind of have a small hill in the back right corner that I put the new gecko dish on. I also changed the way the croton plant hangs, mostly to encourage him to get out more. I have it sort of draped over the jungle vine. Well, see for yourself.

On a side note, having had him out and in my hands, he's not looking thinner, though I'm fairly certain he hasn't touched his pellet food. I fed him three gut busters Saturday, and I had his pellet food in with him in the faunarium today while I cleaned out his habitat. He's almost looking... pale though. Like his colour has diminished. Maybe the UV light is just washing it out. Or maybe he's shedding. I think I'm going to go chit chat with Emily tomorrow, see if she has any advice as to why he's so reclusive and all that.

I ordered some Repashy on Amazon.com the other day as well. That should be in soon, for which I will be very grateful. It's much easier to present him with a popsicle stick of goop than to try and pitch pellets at him.

I think I'm also going to invest in some feeding tongs. The kind that are long and plastic-coated on the end to prevent injury. It's tricky getting him to notice crickets from way up the trees and I don't like just leaving them in the enclosure. Too many bad memories or rogue crickets singing long hours into the night. He really gobbled them though. I just don't want him to get hooked on them and eat nothing but. I think I'll give him some tomorrow though. Twice a week doesn't seem so bad.

Another item I think I'll be getting is some sort of wall-mounted feeding tray. If I can't get him to go to the food, I'll bring the food to him.

Prepping the Diet (cont'd)

Still waiting for word from the pet store. But, in the meantime, I've been reading up on dietary needs, since i can't seem to find a decent answer anywhere.

I did find many varying accounts though, some that actually dispute what others say and oh the twisted tales of gecko breeders! It's actually kind of humorous, almost as funny as it is aggravating.

At this point, it feels much less like a science, more of an art. The sites I found I've listed below.

JB's Crested Gecko Info
Ciliatus.com
The Gecko Spot
Geckoland Reptiles

Also found a page on About.com.

Each site a different opinion, each site a different diet, almost.
The short hand was:
-Be wary of pretty much any kind of hard bodied worms, such as  meal worms and wax worms. They're hard on the digestive track.
-Cricket size shouldn't exceed the distance between the gecko's eyes.
-Try not to overload the gecko with calcium.
-Baby food might be tasty to them, but be careful and feed it at your own risk.
There are about a zillion (no, a gorillian) other things to consider and this aspect of gecko care seems by far the most complex.

One page struck me above the others though, and that's the Diet and Nutrition page (here) of Ciliatus.com. What they say is that they offer their geckos crickets regularly. They also claim to know many other breeders who deny even using crickets, but in fact do. Not sure what the deal is here. When did crickets become contraband? The only thing I can think to do now, at this point is to go with what I feel.

Something else I will most likely look into is this dietary product called Repashy Crested Gecko Diet. It's like a water based fruit mixture that seems to work pretty well when coupled with gust buster crickets (much spiffier name than gut loaded), or even on it's own. I'll have to do some online shopping... which will ahve to wait till after I get some extra cash... Blah.

But, once I iron out a proper meal plan, I'll post it up.

After all this talk of food, there's only one thing left to post.

Prepping the Diet

Since all I need to do to finalize my terrarium is add the substrate and get a hide-away, and since I thought I'd actually have my gecko by now, I got my cricket keeper and feed a couple days back.

The tank is the small Kricket Keeper by Lee's Aquarium and Pet Supplies. I've seen other brands that come with small built-in (I think) food and water dishes, of which the Kricket Keeper had none. The Exo-Terra brand name equivalent is an example of the latter. After having done some price checks, the difference amounts to a couple dollars, so I guess it's justifiable. Besides, I didn't feel like ordering one online. I'm sure this product will work just fine (despite the Mortal Kombat style changing of "cricket" to "kricket")

For food and water, I went with Fluker's Orange Cube and  Cricket Quencher. I've read good things about the Orange Cube, but I have come across some accounts that state that the calcium enhanced Cricket Quencher may actually do the crickets too much good; I've read that the extra calcium goes straight to the cricket's exoskeleton, making them harder to digest. Since the Orange Cube contains a certain amount of moisture, I might hold off on the the Quencher till my gecko is a little older and more likely able to digest these things. I may not. I mean, I keep hearing different answers from every source, so I may just have to go with my gut. Gut-loaded crickets. Haha.

I still plan on dusting them with calcium powder before hand, but to avoid hypercalcemia, I'll probably only dust a couple crickets a week. In terms of cricket feeding frequencies, again, I find myself facing down a multitude of opinions. The young lad at PetSmart indicates I should feed crickets daily and as many as the gecko can eat withing five minutes. The literature I obtained from PetSmart says crickets 2 to 3 times a week. I'm more inclined to go with the second amount, as it matches the recommended amount listed on Pangea, yet another very helpful source of information I came across while doing my research.

I also intend to provide Fluker's Crested Gecko dietary food more or less as recommended, depending on how much my gecko will consume.

All this just makes me wonder if geckos share traits with their crocodillian and testudine (turtle) cousins, in that they continue to grow giving sufficient food and living space, like the case of Gustave. I'd love to be able to raise a monster-sized gecko!

Picture of my feeding and cleaning products