As I've mentioned many times before, I'm very much into animals and pets, but more specifically, the scaly kind. Do you or does anyone you know have reptiles? Do you like or dislike them? If you don't, that's cool - but I encourage you to stick around and read still! I'd never force anyone to deal with an animal they don't want to but I've seen that a lot of the reasons people hate scaly pets is that they just don't understand them well. A long time ago I had a green anole, but I was very young and don't remember it well. But, I now have a leopard gecko! This is Delta. Delta is as I said a leopard gecko. He/she (won't know for sure until Christmastime) is native to rocky deserts in Pakistan and surrounding countries. These geckos are unique in that they have eyelids - most lizards do not have those - and while all lizards store a fair amount of nutrients in their tail, leopard geckos store nearly all of it, resulting in a pretty disproportionate and amusingly big tail. They're mainly active in the evenings and early mornings but can be active throughout the night as well. They require an enclosure that ranges from 75* F on one side to 95* F on the other. They eat insects, and can eat a wide variety but the best are crickets and dubia roaches. Since they don't get the natural light of their natural environment, captive reptiles also typically need to have their food dusted with vitamins and calciums. Delta gets his dusted with a multivitamin on Mondays, calcium with D3 on Fridays, and calcium without D3 every other day (D3 is a vitamin received from natural sunlight; leopard geckos do not bask much and as such don't need much of it. Too much can actually "overdose" them and cause problems!) Warning... Bug pics away. Look away if you are squeamish. This is an adult male dubia. Despite having wings, he's unable to fly, cannot jump, can barely climb (and even then the surface has to be rough) and can barely flip himself back over if he manages to get turned upside down. It's because of this that dubias are much easier than crickets to breed and provide. As for heating, since leopard geckos don't bask, I have to use what's called an under the tank heater. It sticks into the bottom of the tank and radiates heat upward, warming the soil (substrate). The light on the left is actually a ceramic heat emitter or CHE, and only provides heat. It is supplemental and connected to a thermostat, to keep his tank hot on that side when it's so cold his heating pad doesn't do the job by itself. The light on the right keeps the cool side at at least 75* F and provides light for looking in at him! There's more to it than what I've said but I think I've written enough of a book. So, anyway, come on... Tell me about your exotics if you have any! It doesn't have to be a reptile exactly either. Amphibians, uncommon mammals, fish, inverts, I like them all.
