Reptiles - Geckos, Lizards, Snakes, and Turtles!

[vencrypt]

Hello! I have a female leopard gecko who I rescued from my own sister. I have no clue how old she is and she went through a real tough time. So here is her story.

Couple of years ago, my sister begged my parents for a leopard gecko. For christmas, we each got the pets we have been asking our parents for so long. I got a fish tank (which I have gotten super invested in the fish keeping hobby), and my sister got her leopard gecko.
For the first year I believe, things went well. She was fed, her habitat was suitable, and she grew a lot! But as time went on, my sister stopped caring for her. The poor thing never had water, her daylight was missing (our house gets cold so we give her one for warmth), the tank was never cleaned, and it would be long periods of time before she was even fed.
My mom and I would get on her for not taking care of the gecko, but my sister blew it off and ignored us. Eventually, I was too mad to see the thing suffer any longer. So what did I do? I stole the thing from her room and moved the tank to the living room. I cleaned her tank thoroughly, gave her water, and fed her crickets with vitamin and calcium powder, and got her a new daylight. Now she is happy and fat! Or at least has put on weight, lol.
I still need to update her tank. At the moment I don't have a job, but I plan on getting her a new hide, more plants, and other things to make her life a lot better. I've done a lot for this gecko and I still need to improve her home, but it's so much better than starving to death in a tank and freezing.

Poor little thing! ;; Leopard geckos aren't even hard to take care of, and she couldn't bother with even that? I'm glad you decided to take charge and rescue the gecko. Oh, I'm not sure if you've already checked, but make sure she doesn't have any shed skin stuck anywhere. If she wasn't getting everything she needed, I don't imagine she had a damp hide to help with her sheds, either. If there's anything stuck (usually it will be on the tail tip or the claws), just soak the areas in room temperature or slightly warm water for a little bit, and gently try to remove the skin after about 5-10 minutes or so. You'll also want to invest in a hide that you can turn into a damp hide fairly soon. There are ones you can find at just about any pet store that come in two parts, a basin and a lid with a hole in it for your gecko to climb into. You can use that to make the damp hide with.

that's awesome! what size is her tank? You can always substitute it for a plastic enclosure. might not look fancy but it will suit her needs.. I'm so glad that you took the stand. (:

[rancidram]

Hello! I have a female leopard gecko who I rescued from my own sister. I have no clue how old she is and she went through a real tough time. So here is her story.

Couple of years ago, my sister begged my parents for a leopard gecko. For christmas, we each got the pets we have been asking our parents for so long. I got a fish tank (which I have gotten super invested in the fish keeping hobby), and my sister got her leopard gecko.
For the first year I believe, things went well. She was fed, her habitat was suitable, and she grew a lot! But as time went on, my sister stopped caring for her. The poor thing never had water, her daylight was missing (our house gets cold so we give her one for warmth), the tank was never cleaned, and it would be long periods of time before she was even fed.
My mom and I would get on her for not taking care of the gecko, but my sister blew it off and ignored us. Eventually, I was too mad to see the thing suffer any longer. So what did I do? I stole the thing from her room and moved the tank to the living room. I cleaned her tank thoroughly, gave her water, and fed her crickets with vitamin and calcium powder, and got her a new daylight. Now she is happy and fat! Or at least has put on weight, lol.
I still need to update her tank. At the moment I don't have a job, but I plan on getting her a new hide, more plants, and other things to make her life a lot better. I've done a lot for this gecko and I still need to improve her home, but it's so much better than starving to death in a tank and freezing.

Poor little thing! ;; Leopard geckos aren't even hard to take care of, and she couldn't bother with even that? I'm glad you decided to take charge and rescue the gecko. Oh, I'm not sure if you've already checked, but make sure she doesn't have any shed skin stuck anywhere. If she wasn't getting everything she needed, I don't imagine she had a damp hide to help with her sheds, either. If there's anything stuck (usually it will be on the tail tip or the claws), just soak the areas in room temperature or slightly warm water for a little bit, and gently try to remove the skin after about 5-10 minutes or so. You'll also want to invest in a hide that you can turn into a damp hide fairly soon. There are ones you can find at just about any pet store that come in two parts, a basin and a lid with a hole in it for your gecko to climb into. You can use that to make the damp hide with.

that's awesome! what size is her tank? You can always substitute it for a plastic enclosure. might not look fancy but it will suit her needs.. I'm so glad that you took the stand. (:

She's living in a 20 gallon!

[CSF]

She's living in a 20 gallon!

Glad you rescued her ^-^! It sounds like she's much better off.

A few more tips you may or may not know about - She actually shouldn't need a light, and if she is an albino lights are worse. Ambient light would be sufficient. Also, you should get an under tank heater and thermostat if you don't have one already since they need belly heat to properly digest food :) And make sure any loose substrate is removed due to risk of impaction.

I also got mine from a poor living situation. She was originally my friend's who got her from someone who thought she wasn't going to make it, but then my friend realized it wasn't their type of pet so I gladly took her in. That was at a few months old. Now she's 3 and a half and doing great ^-^ Do you know her morph? Mine is a super hypo tangerine carrot tail baldy lol

[Skysuits]

Buying my crested gecko from Pangea tomorrow and hopefully it will arrive this weekend!!

[Mimu]

About yesterday i found out a log in my snakes cage (from a friends) was infected with mites.
I tried my BEST to clean out the whole cage to get rid of them and hopefully it worked. I'm sure there
is another way to clean them. my corn snake luckily didn't have them around his cage, but my ball python
did. I checked around his eyes, underbelly and his tail if any of them got under his scales, luckily I've not
found any yet. if theirs any possible way to get rid of them more, i would like to know...

[vencrypt]

About yesterday i found out a log in my snakes cage (from a friends) was infected with mites.
I tried my BEST to clean out the whole cage to get rid of them and hopefully it worked. I'm sure there
is another way to clean them. my corn snake luckily didn't have them around his cage, but my ball python
did. I checked around his eyes, underbelly and his tail if any of them got under his scales, luckily I've not
found any yet. if theirs any possible way to get rid of them more, i would like to know...

there are mite sprays you can use and you can also soak them in Luke warm water for around 15 minutes for a few times a week. you should also quarantine your reptile as well especially. just have a simple enclosure setup with all their necessities and put paper towels for the substrate. this will let you keep track of them easier.

---

besides this, I just got another sand boa and super happy ! her name will be bubblegum as I have an anery who's name is Marcy (adventure time references (;; )

[Sixx O'Clock]

About yesterday i found out a log in my snakes cage (from a friends) was infected with mites.
I tried my BEST to clean out the whole cage to get rid of them and hopefully it worked. I'm sure there
is another way to clean them. my corn snake luckily didn't have them around his cage, but my ball python
did. I checked around his eyes, underbelly and his tail if any of them got under his scales, luckily I've not
found any yet. if theirs any possible way to get rid of them more, i would like to know...

Like vencrypt said, there are mite sprays you can get. I dealt with a similar issue when I had my ball python, I bought the Zoo Med mite off spray and it worked pretty well, in addition to regular soaks until the mites were gone.

[Skysuits]

I got my crested gecko on tuesday! I love him already, he's super active at night ( I kept hearing him jumping around and moving) I started handling for about 3 minutes and he does super well, he even licks food off my finger

[sullivanish]

We're thinking about getting a ball python. Does anyone have advice as far as the ball python in specific? Thanks.

[Sixx O'Clock]

Has anyone else had issues getting their leopard gecko to eat food from tongs? My gecko, Sobek, has poor vision, so he struggles catching his food on his own. I bought a pair of tongs yesterday and tried to feed him with them, but he wouldn't grab the food while it was in the tongs. I've tried feeding him both a cricket and a meal worm this way, but he wouldn't take either one unless I dropped them in front of him. I'm not sure if it's because his vision is mostly movement-based at this point, or what. The tongs are bright red in color for some reason, maybe the color might be putting him off? I'm kind of grabbing at straws at this point, any help is very much appreciated. ;u;