Hi i was just wondering if my tank is an ideal tank for a leo gecko. The warm side of the tank is around 88 degrees fahrenheit with a ceramic rock hide (i have a heat pad. The cave isnt heated) the cool side of the tank is around 78-79 degrees fahrenheit. i have a cactus for decor, i have a piece of driftwood from the petstore to climb on, i have a humid hide with moss that is sprayed daily, and a water dish. Fro lighting i just have a light. Its not a heat lamp. I have 2 geckos (its a 20 gallon tank) and they get along perfectly
Also, one of my geckos, the first night i got him, ate 6 mealworms. The next day when i tried to feed them crickets, he wasnt even interested. He has been that way up until 2 weeks ago (ive had them for about 4 weeks now) when he decided to eat a cricket. And today he had one more. I alternate between crickets and mealworms everyday and they get dusted with calcium dust, and the crickets are gut loaded. The other one has been eating perfectly. If this matters, a week after i got them, the one that wasnt eating shed, and ate most of his skin and a couple days ago he shed again and ate all his skin. The other one hasnt shed yet. And also right after i fed them their crickets today, the gecko who ate just one cricket, was trying to poop but it looked as if he was having a hard time getting it out, and he started licking it. It finally came out. It wasnt waterry or anything, but it was long. So my question about all this was
1. Why isnt he eating like the other and
2. Why did he lick his poop?
Thanks for reading all this!
Answers & Comments
Verified answer
Ignore Jacob...NO SAND. So if you have a solid substrate such as paper towel, reptile carpet, tile, etc, then you're good.
It could be that the other one is shy around the one that is eating normally, so I would recommend separating them. It's also good to separate if both are males, or one's male and the other is female, or both are of unknown genders. If a male bred with a female at too young of age, she could become egg-bound, possibly resulting in death. If you have 2 males, they will be more likely to fight.
As for licking, it's common for geckos to clean up after themselves after pooping, but in this case, he was likely licking trying to relieve himself. Even if he was eating normally, I would separate these guys in case this one is sick. You can also try soaking him in luke warm water. Do you know what kind of substrate these guys were on before? It's possible that he could be impacted.
For the hides, they should have at least 3...hot, cool, and humid. Are you dusting the food with multivitamins, as well? Does the calcium dust have vitamin d3? Other than that, it sounds like you're doing good with the care.
Do not use sand. The gecko can eat some when they eat their food. Just simply use repticarpet. It's easy to clean and can be re used a lot. It's need 3 hides: 1 on the hot spot, a moist hide, and a hide on the cool spot. And the one who isn't eating is probably doing that because the other leopard gecko is being dominant over the other. So watch out for that because the other gecko can starve to death. As for the licking, I heard they lick themselves to clean or regulate their body temp, so maybe he was cleaning himself. Oh, and get a UTH (Under Tank Heater) and put it on the hot side so the gecko can digest it's food properly. You don't necessarily need light.
A Leo gecko needs a surface like sand or I've send people use dirt. They need lots of places to hide like hollow logs and stuff they can get under. They can't climb glass but they can climb fabric so if you want you could tape some on the side if you want. And it needs to be misted at the least 4 times a day with a spray bottle. They eat crickets witch will be hard to catch so just put them In the fridge for a couple or mins to slow them down. Or you could use meal worms but you need a dish because they dig. Also don't alternate it messes with there diet:-)