New Leopard Gecko

[Libby]

(04-05-2014, 02:21 PM)Catherine Wrote: Well done on the incubator. You are very handy when it comes to building things. If you run it a week you should have a sense of how well it is holding temperature and humidity. Most of the humidity comes from the damp peat moss that the eggs as sitting on and from the damp sphagnum moss on top of them. The lid on the egg boxes holds the moisture in. Reptile eggs are prone to molding and that is fatal to them. I always wash really well before I handle the snake eggs. Peat moss and sphagnum moss are good at inhibiting mold.

It would be great if Kate was pregnant. She probably likes her nest box just fine, but they don't feel the urge to nest until they are ready to lay eggs. Just before egg laying you might see the bulges of the eggs inside her.
Keep me posted.

So far the incubator is running too humid. I'm taking the lid off so it can dry out some. And I may be able to take the aquarium heater out and use the coil alone. For now I've turned it down as low as it can go. Before I turned it down it was running at 100% humidity and 100 degrees.

I just hope there are no eggs until I get the incubator under control. I have a few people who are very interested in any babies I get.

I have however been struggling with Kate and Claire's names. I keep calling Kate, Claire and Claire, Kate. I'm seriously thinking about swapping their names.
the SHTCT Het Blizzard, Tremper Albino, and eclipse could be good with either of my boys but I finally looked up what SHTCT stood for and it stands for Super hypo tangerine carrot tail and Jack is a carrot tail so I could get some carrot tails through their coupling. So they would still be Jack & Kate and Charlie & Claire

[Catherine]

Incubators are tricky. It sounds like you are on the right track. Too hot is as bad as too cold. Having just the heat coil might be best, especially in the summer.
Too humid is the same thing. Does the aquarium heater add to the humidity? Another reason to not use it. Usually the eggs can be kept moist enough because they are in damp peat moss in a closed box.
Use a "rubber maid" type box that does not totally seal. If it seals the eggs could run out of air. I think I posted a picture of an egg box in the Caitrin and Earl thread. My friend has been raising reptiles for years using that kind of box and peat moss.

I switch names when my brain insists on a switch. Pete was supposed to be Mike. Daniel was supposed to be David. I have a Mike and a David now. Names need to feel right.
Two carrot tails sounds like a good idea. You might be able to switch the pairs later. I don't think they bond the way some animals do. You will have to see how they are responding first.
You should have some lovely babies. You have some good genetics in the parents.
You can have two females with a Leopard Gecko male so you could keep a daughter from each breeding to place with the other male. That might be interesting. There are lots of possibilities.
I do know that you are going to have fun.

[Libby]

The aquarium heater doesn't add humidity it's just a glass tube with a heater inside. I moved some stuff around so that the lid is open more. I turned the heater up to the middle because when I turned it down the temp dropped too low. I have to turn it down some but I'm only degrees away from my mark. I need to get it around. It's around 90 now. Which isn't bad but I'm trying for females so it has to be a lower temperature. at 90 I could get males.

[Libby]

seems it's a balancing act. I turn it down and it's too low, up and it's too hot. It will take some minor fine tuning to get it right.

The girls still haven't been big eaters. I talked to the previous owner and she said they are used to crickets. So I got everyone some crickets. About 7 each altho Jack and Charlie got 8 cause there were a couple extras and they are bigger so they need more. So far I haven't seen the girls go after them but they aren't used to the noise of the lid yet and they get real startled when I open their tanks. It may be a little while before they come out of hiding. The boys could care less about the sound and go strait for the food. Charlie's stomach is a black hole hahaha.

I'm going to start getting pinkie mice every 2 weeks for Jack. So far I think he likes it. I can't wait for Charlie to get a little bigger so I can give him pinkie mice too. I'd say in another month or 2 I'll try giving him one again to see if he will eat it. It will help curb his appetite so he doesn't have to eat all the time. I gave him about 10 mealworms a day and they are gone the next day. I added some waxworms to see how they like them and he loved them. They are a little fatter. I think he might like some superworms too. But oh my gosh are they big. They creep me out. And I don't think they can be refrigerated to slow their life cycle. Meaning I'd have to get a small amount that wont change before they can be eaten. I've had a bunch of mealworms change lately. Altho it means I get to try my hand at breeding them whoo! http://www.wikihow.com/Raise-and-Breed-Mealworms
I just need bran I guess.

[Catherine]

Ah the fun of feeding lizards. Variety is a good thing. It is healthier and it keeps life interesting for the lizards.
Always keep your mealworms in a food mixture with a bit of carrot or apple peel for moisture and you will have them breeding in no time.
The super mealworms do not change to often. They seem to stay in the meal worm phase if you keep them in a group. What out for the beetles though. They bite and can seriously harm a lizard. I make sure they are all eaten. I never just leave them in a dish. My skinks love the wax worms. Some of my lizards eat the frozen blood worms(I defrost them first). I don't know if Leopard Geckos like them.

My beardie eats pinkies and so do my skinks. With the variety you can get your lizards are going to do very well and be very happy.

It takes awhile to get an incubator set up. It sounds like you are close. I am sure if you keep making adjustments you will get things to settle into the right range. Keep me posted.

[Libby]

I've got the beetles in a shoe box with oats and some baby carrots. they seem to be happy from what I can tell.

as far as the incubator. I'm going to have to step back and punt so to speak. I'm emptying out the coconut and I'm going to put one of the extra mats in. My thought process is to get it so the coil is not touching the plastic of the cooler. I don't want it to melt. if this doesn't work then I don't know what I'm going to do. maybe try a 5 gallon or 10 gallon tank. I know I can get them to hit 80 degrees.

[Catherine]

Using a tank for an incubator might be safer. My egg laying set up is a nest box in a twenty gal. tank. I have a small blue light over it and it holds pretty steady temperature and humidity. I have it in a draft free area where the temperature is fairly stable.

You can use a cracked or damaged tank. It is good enough and you could make some kind of lid that holds temp and humidity. It could be adjustable. Keep working on it. You will get it right by the time you have eggs.

Your meal worms will start multiplying right away. Remember to give them some carrot or apple peal. That will give them moisture. Is the shoe box card board? I would watch out in case they eat their way out of the box. That could get messy.

[Libby]

(04-11-2014, 02:20 PM)Catherine Wrote: Using a tank for an incubator might be safer. My egg laying set up is a nest box in a twenty gal. tank. I have a small blue light over it and it holds pretty steady temperature and humidity. I have it in a draft free area where the temperature is fairly stable.

You can use a cracked or damaged tank. It is good enough and you could make some kind of lid that holds temp and humidity. It could be adjustable. Keep working on it. You will get it right by the time you have eggs.

Your meal worms will start multiplying right away. Remember to give them some carrot or apple peal. That will give them moisture. Is the shoe box card board? I would watch out in case they eat their way out of the box. That could get messy.

It's a Rubbermaid plastic shoe box with holes in the lid. I've been giving them carrots every other day and taking the old ones out so they don't mold and get them sick. As soon as I see any of the pupates I take them out of the feeding bowl and put them in the shoe box. I used to just throw them out but when you have over 10 change in a week it just seems like a waste. so I let them live and figured now is as good a time as any to try my hand at breeding them. I have a few friends that I could sell to if there are too many. And I'm sure there will be too many.

I feel like I'm so close with the incubator. I'm about to start working on it now. I should know later today if the mat idea works. My biggest problem is the humidity sky rocketing too high. the temperature stays at 90 which isn't bad I could get boys but I want girls so I need it at 80.

[Libby]

IT WORKS!!! I still need to wait and see if it will hold steady but so far it's sitting on 80 degrees. WHOOOOO mini party

[Catherine]

Hey, congratulations.
Getting the right temperature is very important. It would be better to have more girls.
How are you doing with the humidity? Eggs do need it moist, but they can't actually be wet. Of course the eggs will be in a separate box in the incubator. You need to do that because you could have more than one set of eggs at a time, with two different hatch dates. You don't want newly hatched babies climbing over early stage eggs.

A Rubbermaid shoe box is perfect for mealworms. They breed pretty easy so you should have no trouble. The ideal is to get them breeding enough so that you do not need to buy them. Meal worms are the only thing worth breeding. Crickets are too much work and they can be tricky. I do have baby crickets in some of my tanks, but I can't catch them. They are just there as lizard snack food.