20g Long

[Sarah88]

yeah that kind of makes sense about the sand being compacted and hardened in wild, but yeah its cool to hear you guys have had luck with it, its just i would really love to be able to have the most natural look possible, and i was planning on doing gut loaded meal worms plus vit/calc supplement and not crickets, couple got loose one time when i had my chameleon and drove me nuts for a WEEK!! and for heating i was just planning on using like a 50w red bulb on one side of the tank would this be good? and would have a humid hide and regular hide so which should i put on the warmer side of the tank and which on the cooler side? (does it even matter?) sorry for all the noob questions, but every where i read some say only crickets some say it doesnt matter, some say humid hide on cold side some say on warm AHH!! so just want to get some tips from you experienced leo keepers out there on how you guys set up your tanks

oh and the sand that is currently in the tank is pool filter sand, would that be ok for an adult or should i get something that's finer grained like playsand?

 

[clifton]

I've been researching corn snakes recently, and I'm told that they do well in a 20 gal long tank, maybe moving to a 30 gal tank when they're full grown. I haven't had a corn snake since '74 when I had a fullgrown one escape from me when I "fell asleep" handling it. I'd like to try again (a "do over") since I've gained experience and have matured a bit since then. In the interim I've kept a dozen or so water turtles (mostly cooters) successfully. Some of my guys have been in my household for 20 or so years, and my favorite, Jill has been with me since '78, when she was merely 25 years old. She and I are both 56 years old now, so I must be doing it right...

 

[rrcoolj]

^ I feed mine crickets almost exclusively (sometimes I hand feed them roaches too). Mine don't have any trouble catching crickets but they do sometimes take in a tiny bit of sand. Still, because they are healthy it always ends up coming out the other end with no issues

When I first joined this site there were a few older members who gave me trouble because I kept my geckos on sand. I'm sure other people have had issues with it but after 18 years the proof is right in front of me.

Well maybe mines are just bad at catching crix. They just don't have good cordination. Maybe it's because I feed them womrs so much. Thier lazy lizards...

The finest grade sand would be best. I don't think you will have problems with pool filter sand but im not sure. I use play sand.

 

[Sarah88]

lol yeah they have gotten lazy from just being able to go to their food dish lol, n yeah i will probably switch it out for something finer grained then (may even get dirt from my parents' place, the dirt there is a nice dark one that it could probably even burrow in...) ok so iv decided that i want to get my little leo from vicious_fishbut am going to wait till its a bit warmer since we dont want to ship when its so cold out, but i was originally planning to wait until i got back from a trip im taking in march (just a long weekend like 4days) and will be getting back on the 21st or 22 but i don't know if i want to wait that long, so my question is would the little leo be ok for this time period if i got it one of those water bowls with the replenishing bottle and put several mealworms and crickets in its cage? oh and since i will be using a red reptile bulb on one side for heat should I leave it on 24/7 for warmth as my room gets fairly cold at night

 

[Vicious_Fish]

A leopard gecko can easily go a few days without food or water. You would just want to feed it and fill it's water dish the day of or before you leave. These guys come from pretty arid regions of the world and can go weeks to months without food. I would just make sure you leave the UTH on when you leave and not worry about the light.

 

[Sarah88]

ok kewl yeah thats what i thought of the adults just wasn't sure if a young one would be ok as well, and i wasn't actually planning on using a UTH since i already have a reflector lamp all I would have to get is the bulb (is a UTH necessary?), but with that question I was actually wondering about even when I am there, like with my snake i had a day bulb and a night bulb and simulated the day cycle and to keep it heated at night as well, but since leos don't need the day light then could i just leave the red bulb on all the time to keep the tank warm or would they benefit from having periods of time where it cooled off (i am mainly just worried about it during the winter because i have the coldest room in the house)

 

[nickc]

If you like frogs, you can keep a male african bullfrog in a 20L.