A few questions.. (Reptiles)

[Ananszi]

Hi, I'm new to the guild. I would like some opinions on a few things, and hopefully some answers.

1.) I have never owned a reptile before, but my boyfriend and I would both like to have one. Our favorite is the bearded dragon, but we also like chameleons. Unfortunately, we can't afford a big tank, until possibly Christmas, but even then, we are kind of limited on space. - I have several 10 (maybe 20) gallon tanks that are currently unused, due to my mother loving fish so much. Speaking of the mother, there is probably no way I can convince her into letting us get a snake. I wouldn't mind having a frog or turtle. - What would be a good reptile to get for a first time, at least?

2.) I would like to avoid the crickets, my boyfriend may get the job of feeding the pet cricket. I heard of getting flightless fruit flies? Are they worth it? Can I feed my pet the flies for the most part?  

[Shanna66]

what you use as a feeder depends on what kind of reptile you have. fuit flies are way too tiny for most of the good beginer reptiles. they are good for dart frogs and other tiny animals

chameleons are some of the toughest reptiles to keep, they arent very forgiving of mistakes.

beardies are a great first reptile but are expensive to feed and like alot of crickets. plus they enjoy having alot of space and should be in at least a 40gal, some people dont go under 75 because of how active they can get.

my 2 favorite lizards to keep are crested geckos and leopard geckos. 20gal for adults or both species and both are very easy to care for and do well with being handled. the more time you spend with them the friendlier they will be. since these 2 species are my favorite im going to be a bit biased and suggest them

gargoyle and fat tail geckos are also good choices. gargs have the same bsic needs as a cresty but tend to be a little more nippy at first. still a fun pet though

if you dont care about being able to hold your pet then you could look into viper and panther geckos. they are very tiny and are also easy to keep

some good frogs are whites tree frogs and fire belly toads. just know that frogs and other anphibians shouldnt be held and are a looking only pet

i know next to nothing about turtles, only that they live a very long time so you need to make sure they are right for you and you arent stuck with a pet you dont like for 50+ years.



also crested geckos never need to eat bugs. you feed them a premade diet call crested gecko diet (cgd) and it has everything they need in it. you can still feed them crickets if yoiu want but you dont have to.


if you have anymore questions feel free to ask. i may be a bit late getting back to you since im about to go out of town for a week  

[Ananszi]

Thank you very much for the fast reply. Sorry that mine wasn't so fast, I had church to go to this morning, and I'm feeling kinda sickly at the moment, but I figured that I best reply soon, so here I am.

I think that I will be going with the crested gecko. I think that I am going to get a big 24x24x48 screen tank for around $90, and hopefully get real plants and limbs and things for him to climb around on.  

[Ananszi]

The boyfriend bought me a crestie today. He's adorable. Mostly green, a little bit of brown, no tail, we named him Yoshi.. yes, we are geeks. Right now he's in a fairly small area, with only a large limb for him to climb on, a fake plant, and water and CGD. We ran out of money, so this was all we could get, but I plan on upgrading very soon. I am using paper towels at the moment to make sure all is well, then I might replace with eco earth coconut fiber expandable substrate. It was all the pet store had. We also got some moss that I might use in the back corners of the tank.

I'll be updating and posting pictures soon. Thanks so much for the help. <3  

[Shanna66]

ive never seen a green cresty before. post up pics biggrin
i like the tailess guys, they look really cute with their little nubs whee

they dont need an expensive setup. ive seen some good enclosures with egg cartons instead of plants or logs. as long as they can go up and they have plenty of spots to ide they will be happy  

[Ananszi]

I'd love to give you a picture of him when he's fired up, but unfortunately, he's always sleeping, and when he's active, I'm usually sleeping, lol. Wonderful isn't it? But I still love the little guy to pieces, I'm so happy I got him. - Unfortunately he's not moving around to the bottom part of his cage much, but I do know that he's eating. He won't crawl on my hand freely, either.. but I'm not forcing him to, just offering. I want him to move at his own pace as to be scared and feel forced. And as for getting such a large tank for him.. there's two reasons behind it. One, is in case I decide I want more someday, or two, in case something happens to him, and I decide I want something larger. As for the pictures, I will take some, but seems like when ever I do, he looks more of a brown than green. ._.

Top half of the cage.
Bottom half of the cage.


This is how he changes colours most of the time.
Around 7:30 - Mossy Green - Humidity 68:Temperature 70

Around 11:00 - Olive Green - Humidity 68:Temperature 70
_______________with tan spots on his back
Around 2:00 - Olive Green - Humidity 68:Temperature 75
_______________and can see spots on his sides
Around 3:00 - Mossy Green - Humidity 68: Temperature 77
_______________and can see spots on his sides
Around 5:00 - Mossy Green - Humidity 68: Temperature 77
_______________brown is starting to show
Around 8:00 - Olive Green - Humidity 68: Temperature 75
_______________only green, no more spots  

[Shanna66]

only female should be housed together. males do best alone. some people house males and females together but i wouldnt recomend it because the female will become overbred. plus your not going to make any money by breeding a gecko thats common in the pet trade. i dont know if you were planning to or not but just letting you know.

i dont know how big your guy is but i like to keep young geckos in smaller enclosures to make sure they find their food, plus it makes it alot easier to find them and their poops so i can see how much they are eating

he is new so he may not be eating yet. it took freya about a week before she finally started eating. jack started eating almost right away. different geckos adapt at different rates

a good way to gain a gecko's trust is to put some plain yougurt or babyfood on your finger and let them lap it up  

[Ananszi]

Yeah, I had done some research on that. I don't plan on breeding unless I just want to have babies of my own, but.. I'm too afraid that I'd do more harm than good with that as of right now.

My guy isn't very big, especially with no tail. I know he's been eating because of the poop, and the fact that the CGD was almost gone the next morning.

And thanks for that tip, I might try that. Though, I don't have any babyfood or yogurt at the moment, though we do have fresh fruit.. would that work as well? (I know not to feed it anything citric, I've also done research on that.)

Here's a picture of him, you can kind of tell that he's green.

EDIT:
Would you suggest a cage like this instead?  

[Shanna66]

exo terra makes wonderful cages. ive got that same one for when one of my guys gets big enough. i housed my old gargoyle gecko in it and was really happy with it

right now ive got one of mine in a plastic bin and the other in a 10gal with wet towels on top to keep the humidity up.

and your little guy is so cute!  

[Ananszi]

I've heard that they do, I just wish they were cheaper. x_X I'm short on cash right now, especially since our car has been having troubles.. we have to pay $800 on it, plus what ever it takes to get it running again today. Argh. This one is more affordable, and even a little bit bigger.. would it work?

And thanks. :] I love him. He's so cute. <3 Definitely glad I got him.  

[Shanna66]

screen cages arent good for crested geckos since they dont hold humidity well. you want something with solid sides.

cheaper suggestions are plastic bins (look ugly but work great) and a glass 20gal long set up on its side. petco has a dollar per gallon sale so you should be able to get one for around $20  

[Ananszi]

I didn't see any cheap 20 gallons on the site, maybe I was looking in the wrong area. But I know that there are no petco stores nearby me. I live in the middle of nowhere, more or less.

And for the screen cage, would it help keep in humidity if I made those foam areas around the cage to look like rocks? Kind of like this?  

[Shanna66]

it may help. i dont know anyone who has tried it so i cant say for sure


you should take a look on craigslist. alot of people there give away tanks for super cheap because they want them gone fast or it may be a leaky tank and not good for fish (meaning great for reptiles)  

[Ananszi]

I didn't think about that. Thanks! I'll try looking soon.  

[Shanna66]

good luck finding a deal