New Member

Hello all,
On Friday I adopted 2 leopard geckos from a co-worker. 1 male 1 female, both normals I believe. They were neglected over the last few months and I am trying to nurse them back to health. They are eating and shedding at the moment. They are both in a 30"X12"X12" tank, I watch them closely to make sure they are not fighting and both are getting plenty of food. I posted unbelievable amounts of information about them on the kingsnake.com forum, and thought I would check this one out too. Definitely not use to the layout. Here are my posts at kingsnake.com with all the information you could ever need. I'm not new to reptiles, but I am new to leopard geckos.

First Thread:
http://forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=928432,928432
Second Thread:
http://forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=930884,930884

Tania

PS My husband has fell in love with these guys, and without him holding me back... I can see where this is going to get dangerous!

1.0 Chinese Water Dragon
1.1 Leopard Geckos
1.0 Maltese Shi Tzu Mix

Here is the picture I took the day I got them. No worries, the calci sand has been cleared out and they are looking alot better now. Will try and get some updated pics as soon as their shed is done.

http://photobucket.com/albums/y261/t...t=PA210046.jpg

Doh, sorry, one more thing... These are normals right? I am trying to learn about the different color morphs etc... I originally thought these were jungle, but someone on another forum said differently. I saw some pics of normals on Ron's site, but they were banded as these are not. What about these guys makes them not jungles, I guess I'm wondering...

Welcome to fauna, glad you found us and I think you will find alot of great info here!

And they do look like normals, looks like the flash washed them out a bit. Junlges have a broken pattern. Not the normal spotting like those have. You can look in the photo gallery or do a search and find some great jungle photos.

Do you best to bulk them up with a good variety of dusted foods and Id get a fecal just in case, since you know they were not properly cared for it would be best to house them seperate and get fecals.

Good luck with them, leos are great!

welcome to fauna! Thanks for rescuing these guys, I am sure they are in much better hands now than they were in before, judging by the picture.
These guys are normals. Jungles have broken bands in the tail, and have a more abberrant pattern to them on their backs etc.

As far as your questions on kingsnake...
you seem to be doing well, by taking the sand out and providing them with more hides. In my opinion the reason they do not use the clear hide is because of the fact that it is clear. Most leos like darker hides, that conceal them, and they come out when they feel they want to. the darkness helps them feel safe. My leos will not use a clear humid hide, so what I did is I covered it with black construction paper and that solved the problem.also there is nothing to be concerned about when it comes to them being in one hide...my male and female seem to do this too, regardless of there being other hides around as well.

As far as separating them...it is generally a good idea, so that you can monitor them better, and so that they can have less stress, however since they seem to be doing okay I would not see that as a must, as long as you can monitor feces, and how much each is eating when they are together. However, breeding season is coming up, and I really would recommend them being separate, as breeding will not help them out

I am glad they are eating for you...make sure you are properly gutloading their food before you give it to them...There is a good gutloading recipe on drgecko.com if you care to make one yourself, otherwise, you can buy commercially made gutload and use that, along with fresh fruits and veggies for the buggies as a water source.

I would not start handling them until they are a bit less stressed and are a bit healthier...they are too skinny.

oops. Hit send accidentally

But to continue what I was saying...
I would not handle them until they are more settled in and are looking healthier...if there was food in the tank with them, and they are that skinny, then that suggests to me there might be some other underlying problem other than simply not being fed...I am glad they are eating now, but that does not mean they may not still have parasites, or some other issue.

They are not going to sit still for you when you try to get their toes clear you just hold on to em tight and try your best...I wouldn't be too sure that it is unshed skin though, as it doesn't look it in the picture... I would say leave it be and see if it fades out with them just being on paper towels and not the green sand and if anything it should fade out with the next shed.
As far as testing the heat...you need to test surface temperatures, just place the probe on the floor above the UTH and check there...temps should be around 88 F or so on the hottest side, around 75 on the cool side. YOu can measure these separately with the same thermometer... it's more important to keep the surface temp of the hot side at a good temp rather than the cool side, but you must make sure they can thermorregulate.

Disinfect as soon as possible. It's better to get everything cleared out, and stress them for a bit, because it is an important step in their recovery.

I hope this answered all your questions, let us know if you have any more, we are more than willing to help!

Welcome to the leo forum.

When does breeding season start/end? So you think I should seperate them during breeding season? I'm avoiding seperating them if its not necessary, simply because we don't have the room.. and well... they've been together for years with their previous owner. We thought about, when these geckos are in great health and fully recovered, getting another female and keeping them all together if they got along. This way there wouldn't be too much stress placed on the one female. What do you think?

It would not be a bad idea to keep a male and two females together when everyone is nice and healthy, however, as I just replied to your post about the stool and regurgitation, I think for right now you are going to have to separate them, unfortunately. It doesn't sound to me like the female is doing well...and if she has been in with the male he can downfall as well...lets hope not. Your best bet right now is separate them and monitor them, and hopefully get them on the right track to recovery. Breeding season is typically in the spring, if I am not mistaken, but last year my leos decided to start early on me and began in very early december if not november. They have been known to start that early, so it is best to separate them then. I have already separated my male female pair, because I do not want any more babies as I don't have the room to keep them in, and they can get costly. My male and female do, however, spend all summer together without a problem, and when separated they are in the same tank with a divider, so it isn't a big deal...your two, however, should be fully separated, because a divider is not enough to prevent parasites from transferring. Let us know how everything goes...

Thanks for all your help folks!