leopard gecko

[LISA127]

You can use commercial cricket food, sold at pet stores. Or many different types of healthy foods.

[The_Omen]

I see a long debate on this one..
D3 can actually be toxic to animals that are not depedent upon sunlight (uv) to process calcium.

Exerpt from http://www.thegeckospot.com/leocare2_2.html

"Although there is a lot of variation between the results reported from different sources, it is clear that it is not possible to provide an acceptable calcium : phosphorous ratio without supplementation of the food. Dr Klingenberg recommends that leopard geckos should not consume calcium with vitamin D, he recommends using a calcium-only powder 2 times per week and vitamin supplements every other week."


I am of the belief, that nocturnal animals have adapted to calcium absorption without the D3 that UV lighting synthesizes for them.
D3, after being produced, can create an over abundance of calcium, build up in internal organs and fatty tissues, eventually poisoning them.

D3, is often an ingredient in calcium powders, used for day walkers, that do not get a lot of natural light or UV lighting to process D3 naturally.

[Bartman]

they are probably one of the easiest lizard to own..IMO..all you need really is a heat lamp (red ones better for you, you dont need to turn it off causs they can not see it so it does not effect there sleeping habits), water dish, one or two hides..i would get 2...one on the cold side and one on the hot side..and you could use sand as your substrate but as you can see from this forum there is a lot of debate on impaction. I have kept mine on sand for a year already and its doing fine. When they are babies..1-6 months i would keep them off sand and on newspaper or toilet paper because there still small but i think when they are bigger its fine to keep them on sand. They do live on sand in the wild so i think from evolution they would have adapted to living on sand
but a very good lizard to have...i had 1, than i bought another 2 and sold 2 of them causs i didnt have anymore space for them..as dragon slave said they are VERY VERY VERY VERY addicting animals

good luck

[snake_goth]

well after a whole day of thinking i desided not to get then for 3 resons
1)the crix will have to be cept in my room and i know that thay make a kind of load nose.
2)ime more of a snake man.
3)ime not a fan of insects so it will be my mum feeding them.(lol)

[andrea1784]

Omen,
I believe that in the wild the rocks that the geckos climb around and live in have calcium and D3 naturally in them (limestone maybe?). That is probably why hey lick the ground as they walk. Most minerals can be toxic in high amounts but thats the thing, you don't give them huge amounts.

You say that you believe that since leos are nocturnal that they have evolved to not need D3, but there is nothing that proves that just like there is nothing that proves the other point either. But you could be taking a big risk with not providing D3. Even though long term studies of the effects of D3 are not available since leos are so long-lived, but breeders have great success using D3 with gravid mothers and hatchlings. the fact that it doesn't hurt them at that critical point in development shows that it can't be hurting them too much.

I supplement 2x a week with pure calcium and keep a bowl of it always available and supplement with a calcium/d3 supplement around once every 10 days. My geckos seem very healthy, so I will probably keep it that way for as long as they do well with that formula.

~Andrea

[andrea1784]

Ooops, I double posted

Sorry

[andrea1784]

Or triple posted apparently, I don't know why because i pressed submit only once, oh well, sorry again

[JeffT]

Snake Goth,

No offence but can you try and use some grammar? Its really hard to figure out what your talking about. Maby try writing in full sentences instead of constant abbreviations for every second word.

[snake_goth]

sorry ive all ways been a bad speller