HCA: Hermit Crab Association

do they only et *live* critters? or is there something that can be bought and stored?

Depends on species. My fat-tailed gecko wont touch anything not moving, but my understanding is that crested geckos take a mix.

I watched a coworkers geckos for two weeks about a year ago. I fed them baby food and bugs. They were really cool. Super soft creatures. I think the baby food was a fruit.

ok so what kind of substrate? I picked them up - and all she used ever was paper towels on the bottom of the tank....

A few years back my sister had a leopard gecko and I remember her using this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FKBLTTA/re ... B00FKBFYG4
I know real sand is a no-no since it can cause impaction which is very dangerous.

bullshop wrote:ok so what kind of substrate? I picked them up - and all she used ever was paper towels on the bottom of the tank....

What kind of gecko is it? You can make informed choices about what to use if you know what you have.

from my understanding they are leopard geckos -- I bought some stuff today - but I don't think she was doing very good for them.. and need more help to make a habitat great for them... they are in a 50 gal set up so that is a plus

My coworker had banana geckos and crested geckos. She used eco earth.

Edit: They were breeder pairs too! They were so cute and soft...

Okay - leopards are closely related to fat tails, like mine. Like mine, yours have eyelids, which most geckos don't. It is super-cute. Also, you can see through their heads if you look in their ears, which I think is crazy-cakes.

I know they don't need humidity to be as high, but I believe they do need live food, like crickets & assorted caterpillars, dusted with calcium powder - if, like mine, your gecko is nocturnal, you'll want a calcium powder that contains vitamin D3 so they can digest stuff good. Variety of diet is good for your pet, so try to find a pet store that sells not just crickets (whick will be your staple food), but silkworms, butterworms, hornworms, and the occasional superworm ) You want to 'gut load' the insects with healthy foods (carrot, greens, yam, other stuff) well before you feed them. I keep my crickets in a special box for this purpose, a largish plastic box with egg carton & air holes.

As an aside, crickets are smelly and noisy, and I love all bugs generally, but I do not love crickets any more.

Not all calcium powders are created equal... some contain higher levels of phosphorus than are really desirable. Too much phosphorus in the diet will inhibit the animal's body from absorbing calcium, which is why you dust in the first place. I think I use the ZooMed brand... I know I bought one once that, when I actually did the math, turned out to have a calcium to phosphorus ratio that was twice as much phos. as it ought to have been. It's a multivitamin, so I use it in tandem with the calcium D3,and only occasionally.

Here's a page that contains info about the phos. levels of different bugs (it's for beardies, but the info is still good - look at the column for Ca:P ratios, and the comments for different kinds of bugs... ignore the veggies lol, I think leopards are pretty hard-core insectivors).

http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutritionframeset.html

This is a random leopard gecko page I pulled up that covers giving them hides & setting up their home.

http://www.leopardgecko.com/leopard-gecko-care

Oh - and if your guy is like my fat tail, calcium sand is a no-go because it can cause intestinal compaction, which can cause death. Moss, larger hides, UTHs and fine coco fiber are all gecko-crab cross-over products.

Edit- sorry I took so long to respond, I habed a bad code this week. Also, now I like this information site better:

http://www.reptilesmagazine.com/Care-Sh ... ard-Gecko/

This site has annoying adds, but also background info on the species, like where they're from, and pictures to help with sexing the animal.

http://www.thebeardeddragon.org/leopard ... -gecko.php

Okay, I'll stop now. I think I need to go harass poor Quince... I trained him to come out of his hide when I rub the side of it and climb onto my hand. By holding a butterworm (his fave, but a very fatty caterpillar that he shouldn't have all the time) at the entrance of his hide, then gradually making him come further & further afield for the treat, I eventually got him to crawl on my hand in the tank in expectation of the worm. But now I lift him out and we chill... which I think he doesn't like so much... pretty much the only things he likes are eating and sleeping in his smallest hide (he has three but he only ever uses one of them).

Well tough luck, lizard! - if I'd known what a lazy pet you were going to be, I'd have bought a beardie!
(Aw, I take it back.)

We have a crested gecko, which has different care requirements than your leopard, so I don't have any good advice for you there.

You can always look for a gecko group on Facebook

I know this is an old post, but I wanted to add my 2 cents.
My friend has a leopard gecko and she feeds it not only live foods. She gives him two or three crickets a month and the rest of the time feeds him reptile powder. I'm not sure if that is the proper way though. Like the Kritter keeper set up for hermies, but I'm sure you've figured it out by now...