Wanna See What We Did In '09? - Facebook/Twitter/YouTube

MyBookTube.... What?!?

FaceBook
Years ago, when Nanette and I were monitoring the kid’s computer use and warning them about this MySpace thing, I never expected that we would have a social networking page. About 7 months ago I added a FB page. What a blast. I really enjoyed seeing updates from reptile friends and from family. The ability to jump on and chat with folks is so helpful, although some night I have to go off-line otherwise I just get nothing done!

The bad news is that FB is getting a bit overrun with apps- although I am sure farming on line is a bunch of fun, I find it hard to keep up with my own yard work much less take care of a virtual farm, or duke them out with mafia dudes, or take the "Which 60’s Muscle Care are You Most Like"?

We also added a couple fan page to share additional reptile information and would enjoy your input- Supreme Gecko (1,250 fans) and Australian Geckos

Twitter
While I have not really ventured much into ‘twitting’ it is a nice vehicle to get instant updates on the Chicago Blackhawks games or when someone is cleaning their enclosures. I do hope to use this tool more in the future.

YouTube
What a great way to share information among the hobbyists! We’ve posted some videos on topics such as setting up P. pictus geckos, preparing the Repashy MRP diet, and snippets (I love the word snippets... I think this is my new favorite word) of some of the reptile shows we’ve attended. As this is a new venture for us, we are very excited about sharing more in 2010 (another glimpse into our upcoming post on Friday)

Finally, if you have not already done so, we would really appreciate a friend request or subscription to Wally Kern in Facebook (or Supreme Gecko or Australian Geckos), Twitter, or YouTube if you find the information helpful.
If you are on one of these sites, post an occasional comment. 

Let's be friends on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/WallyKern

Follow us at SG on FB: http://www.facebook.com/SupremeGecko

Let's follow each other on Twitter: http://twitter.com/wallykern

Check out our Videos on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/SupremeGecko



January 1st- 2010 Plans    DON'T MISS THIS ONE!

Wanna See What We Did In '09? - Our Blog

Born in February, 2009 the Supreme Gecko Blog quickly became the #1 Google ranked gecko blog on the internet! I was really surprised to find this out but it is a fact we are now very proud of. Our intent early this year was to create an on-line vehicle to share information (like these 2009 Update entries) about our wonderful hobby with very little influence from the business side. This has been a labor of love and we appreciate everyone that is sharing in this experience.

As you know, I stepped out of the majority of updates in the middle of the year and Nanette took the reigns and ran with the Blog. Her most read posts involve keeping geckos from a non-reptile keeping person’s perspective. They are both fun to read and very informative as she covers areas most of us normally gloss over. Her most engaging Topic was of course the egg contest. With over 100 participants, I am happy to say that this became a fun and hopefully educational couple of months for all of us.

Let me ask a question, what would you like to see from these articles. We've had a lot of requests for a series focusing on what we will be doing in the future and as a result, I've put this thread together. However, I need your input on where we are going with the Supreme Gecko Blog. Let me know.

Finally, watch for a BIG change in 2010 (I have to stop giving clues to the upcoming threads!!!)

Tomorrow- Facebook - Twitter

Wanna See What We Did In '09? - On Line, Web SIte, Emails and Forums

I’m not even sure where to start with what we’ve done on-line this year with Supreme Gecko From updates to the Store, changes to our Email program, delving into the YouTube arena, to our involvement in Facebook and Twitter we contributed to as many different Web 2.0 networking activities as we have time for.

Supreme Gecko Store
A year and a half ago, we spent a lot of time get the Supreme Gecko Store on-line. In 2009, we sat back a little and made far fewer adjustments than we would have liked.
Few know this but you can find all kinds of articles in the Gecko Newsletter and Library section of the Store. You can also see some amazing photos of some of the geckos we’ve sold under Owner’s Gallery. Unfortunately, these  are rather difficult to add, maintain, and especially find by our customers. This will change in 2010 (oops, sssshhhhh!).
We did add P. pictus geckos to the store and have had a great response in sales.

Crested Gecko Food Site
As well, to help those that are purchasing the Repashy Superfood now on a regular basis from us we created the Crested Gecko Food site as a one stop shop for your crested gecko food needs (including the link to the YouTube video on how to prepare the food).

Email
I hope you like our new Email format. We switched over in November to help with Emails- improve their content, manage addresses, and analyze our statistics. I have to say that you have way higher than industry standards for opens and clicks. Thank you and Way To Go! If you have suggestions for improvements to our Emails, please let us know.


Forums
There are some great forums out there, however our participation has slipped a bit this past year as we focus on other areas that just seem easier to use to communicate with other hobbyist. As our time shifts to other more interactive tools (more on this later in the series), quite simply we are just running out of time. I cannot tell you how many nights a week I end the evening on FB chat with “Well, it’s after midnight and I need to get some sleep… gotta go” :)
Saying this however, if you ever want to get a question asked immediately, catch me on FB Chat.

Tomorrow- Blog

Wanna See What We Did In '09? - Shows

This past year, we vended at 34 shows! 34 Shows! That works out to be about 2/3 of every weekend!

We would not be so involved if we did not enjoy discussing animals with you the customer so much. I wish we had more time at these shows to chat with every single person that attends and stops by our table. My sons and wife have done a wonderful job helping out, but I still feel I miss out when someone stops by buys animals and supplies and I do not get a chance to ask about their animals.

One important point I wanted to make about our shows. I try very hard to remember everyone I meet in person and on-line but it is simply impossible. If we do not greet you by name or ask about specific animals you keep, do not be offended and please feel free to let us know who you are and what you keep (or whether you have purchased animals form us in the past). This is a great reference point for us.

If you have never been to a reptile show, you are really missing out! There are so many wonderful animals that you would never see anywhere else. Also, if you are looking for advice on keeping or breeding your animals, a reptile show is the place to be. Come see me at one of the local Wisc/Ill shows ... Reptile Show Schedule


Tomorrow- Internet

Wanna See What We Did In '09? - Supplies

Just a couple of quick notes on our Supplies. Taken from suggestions by you, we continue to expand the supplies we carry. This past year, we included calcium and vitamins, Exo Terra breeding cages, and finally started carrying the Repashy Superfood CGD 1 Part. We delayed this decision until a couple of months ago as we felt offering both 1 part and 2 part diets on the web and at shows would be a bit confusing. We were very wrong as CGD has clearly out sold MRP in the past couple of months.

The demand for the Repashy food moved us to create a completely new page for the food. You can find it at 

Repashy Crested Gecko Diet

If you are in need of any other supplies, let us know and we will gladly take a look at stocking it on our Store and at shows.

Tomorrow- Reptile Shows

Wanna See What We Did In '09? - Our Animals

You know I love talking to each of you about your animals, and always will.
However, now it’s time for a Toby Keith song- "I wanna talk about me, wanna talk about I, … wanna talk about number 1 oh my me my".

Our Animals-

Crested Geckos- What a Year!

The year started strong as we continued to keep up with demand for our Reds, Pinstripes, and other color morphs. Late in March we began to realize that things were slowing down. Eggs were taking longer to hatch. Females that had begun to lay in February had not laid any eggs in March! Well, we were unable to reverse this the entire year. As our stock of young animals decreased our wish list grew and grew. As frustrating as this was for us, all we can say is that 2010 will be different and we WILL BE providing animals for our loyal customers from the wish list.

Leopard Geckos- What a Year!
I believe we had such a decrease in the number of crested gecko babies this last year due to the number of leopard gecko babies delivered in our facility in ’09. Funny how things like this work out.
Our focus for years has been SHTCTS and this year we produced some of our finest. However, we also bred the following- Mack Super Snows, Enigmas (het Raptor), Blazing Blizzards, Reverse Stripes, and Raptors. All these special animals were held back and will be part of our breeding program in ’10.
It was a great year for our leos. Just glad we built those extra racks!

Pictus Geckos- Almost every one that purchased a Paroedura pictus from us this year Emailed/talked to us at a show and told us they were so happy they purchased these fun and entertaining animals. We will continue to offer P. pictus next year and might have some exciting news about our group in a few months. (that was just a quick peek into our Jan. 1 ’10 post)

All other geckos are doing well and continue to provide enough babies to offer to our customers.
We developed an interest in Australian geckos in a big way last year by adding about 10 species. It is a long process with these animals and we will not have any available for sale in 2010.

Finally, one of our hardest decisions this past year was to move away from breeding bearded dragons and chameleons. Our facility is not large and cannot expand without doing something drastic so to make room for other animals, the dragons and the last of the veiled chameleons were sold. I’m already missing the chameleons, the first reptile type I started keeping back a number of years ago.

We are very proud of the road we took with our animals in ’09 but realize we did not exactly end up at the destination we had planned back on Jan 1. This just enhances our excitement for the upcoming year (see our thread in a few days on 2010 Plans!)


Tomorrow- Supplies

.... '09 - Facility Part 2

One quick update to the post today- I would be remiss (or to put it bluntly, in a heap o’ trouble) if I neglected to mention the most significant development in the facility this year.
Since keeping reptiles, my wife Nanette has been of the opinion that they are beautiful animals… and nice to look at from a distance. Not until this summer did she actually start handling the geckos (at least the small crested geckos for now). This is a HUGE step for her and it has not only helped out in the reptile room but also opened up sharing more about the hobby and about the animals between the two of us.
She still uses a long black plastic spoon to ‘control’ the geckos when she is feeding and watering. As long as she uses that big spoon on the geckos only!

Wanna See What We Did In '09? - Our Facility

Our facility has stayed a constant 30 x 20 feet over the last 5 years. Half our finished basement is Nanette’s daycare facility and about half, the facility- divided into the cool side (cresteds) and the warm side (leopards).

The cool side, where we keep crested geckos, gargoyles, days, and insects (including our 2 chests of mealworms, did not change dramatically in 2009. In the Spring, we ended our venture into keeping roaches. Not that they were not doing well, they were doing too well and unfortunately, it became too much work to try to keep control of the little buggers.

So their containers went bye bye and 8 60 qt tubs were added to the baker’s shelf. It seems like they immediately filled with half a dozen female crested gecko hold backs from ’08. This also gave us some ‘extra’ space we desperately needed… which immediately filled up with a couple of purchases and animals we are taking care of for close friends that moved this past fall.

In addition, the area where the bearded dragons were kept (more on this tomorrow), changed over to another adult crested gecko village of 6 more groups! These were the major holdbacks from ’08 and are the animals we are most excited about in 2010. Pictures will be coming as soon as ’10 babies are available!
Finally, as we held back a number of high color gargoyles from last year, we added 5 more aquariums for these females. Hope I can find a male somewhere to help out the other two boys, whew!

The warm side, where we keep our leopard gecko collection, R. chahouas, P. pictus, and Australian geckos, saw a significant change. Out with 2 plastic shelving units and 1 wood stand holding 29 gal. & 20L aquariums. In with two racks that hold 72 15 qt tubs. In addition, we put up another stand to hold 8 arboreal plastic containers. Thank goodness for teen age boys and air hammers (just don’t ask the boys how dad did with the gun)!
This put us up to 7 racks in a very small space. Oh, in addition, I have a wooden stand holding a 30L and two 40 breeder tanks!

We are officially out of room in our famility. Where to expand now?

Christmas at Scott Smith All Animal Show 12/20/09

Thank you Scott for the nice gifts, Santa walking around , and the fun Christmas spirit at the show Sunday. This always makes for a festive mood for everyone.

With our truck in the shop (ok, my wife’s SUV) we crammed everything into my midsized car. This was cool for me as it made the 2 ½ hour trip down a bit more comfy. Jordan did his usual 'load and doze' for the trip. We got a late start and I thought we would have to hustle big time when we pulled in but the car must have another couple of gears the put-put truck doesn’t have… as we pulled in about 10 minutes earlier than we usually do.

Bringing down some cresteds (this is a heavy crested gecko show), a handful of gargoyle and P. pictus geckos, and some very nice leopard geckos we filled up the car with the rest of the supplies, including the tubs of Repashy crested gecko diet.

Interesting show as we met customers looking for a special Christmas present for their family or customers looking for some high end animals. I personally enjoy working with both new hobbyist looking for their first pet and with the advanced breeding searching for that one of a kind gecko. While we sold many leopard geckos in the lower dollar range, we sold our three best looking leopards as well.

Funny thing about our supplies sales. As you may know, we bring most of our reptile supplies to the shows. Vermiculite and SHM (Supreme Hatch Material) sold very well. A couple of products we sometimes sell out of- calcium and vitamins saw no sales at all!

Then there are the paper cups. We use these for crested gecko diet and sell them in counts of 50 – 100 – and 250 boxes. Well we sold OUT of the 250 boxes where we usually sell one or two.  Sorry we were out of the plastic cups again Steve!

The big seller at this show was of course the leopard geckos. Their colors really sold themselves!

It is so great to see long time customers and new customer (like Samantha… wish I knew everyone’s name)

Wishing everyone a merry Christmas, and a happy New Year.

May your 2010 see healthy animals that bring a smile to your face everyday.

Wally

Wanna See What We Did In '09?

So a whole year has passed and what have we done at Supreme Gecko? It seems like it has been a long year but it also seems like we blinked and it disappeared. Our family has grown in a sense with girlfriends (for our 3 sons! I’m no Tiger!)  More cars in the driveway, more contention for the TV on Sunday nights, oh how I hate Desperate Housewives! Ok, so I do want to know who survives the plane crash.

In the facility, things are hopping! Nothing stands still- new racks go up, tanks move, and decorations are constantly being rearranged. Animals move from one enclosure to the next. Babies are raised and find new homes on a daily basis!

On the Internet, well, the internet is changing at light speed and we are right behind it. Our Store page was about the only constant this past year!

Shows- every weekend seems to bring another show… and one weekend this fall two shows the same day! This is where we have the most fun, talking about the animals and sharing experiences with you.

Through the next few days of December, starting tomorrow morning, we’ll add posts on all the activities here at Supreme Gecko and will finish off on the January 1st with our big plans in 2010 (well, we have a few that will be kept in the Secret Envelope but most will be put right out there)

Tomorrow- Facility Changes in ‘09

Thinking about '10

As I sit my rocker near the fireplace, my mind wanders off to the much anticipated breeding season of 2010.

Most '09 babies have either been designated as holdbacks or have found new homes with other first time keepers or fellow breeders. Empty baby containers abound and glisten as though they were brand new, awaiting the pitter patter of tiny little toes.

New New Year will hopefully bring many exciting young animals to our facility. We plan to try some very interesting combinations of leopard geckos, some tried and true color forms of crested geckos as well as a little first time dabbling with our australian geckos.

What are you planning on working with next year? Will you try to develop a new morph/color strain? Will you refine the beautiful colors of your line bred Carrot Tails? Will you redesign your crested gecko enclosure?

With temperatures cooling down this time of year, now is the time to think about and make plans for next year.

Christmas Gift for your Reptile Keeper- 6 Great Ideas

I'ts beginning to look a lot like Christmas
You may be in panic mode already. Been there! Christmas is just around the corner and you don't have any idea what to purchase for your reptile keeping loved one. Not to worry. I have 6 great ideas on what you can find to keep them or their reptiles happy over the holiday season-

# 6-  A reptile setup. You can never have too many reptiles :)  or reptile setups. If they have one already, get them another one. For under $40 you can pick up an nice tank, top, light and a few decorations at your local Reptile Show.

#5- A thermometer. What a great stocking stuffer. Imagine their surprise when they get past the mentos, socks, and oranges. Also, their animals will benefit from them knowing the exact temps in their enclosure. You should be able to find a nice thermometer for around $12.

#4- Magnetic Feeding Ledge.  For any arboreal (climbing) animal. This will give them a high resting area as well as a little shelf to put food/water dishes so your reptile enthusiast does not have to reach all the way down to the bottom of the enclosure. Priced around $18 - $20.

#3- Does your reptile friend enjoy talking about their animals? I bet they cannot wait to show off their prized boa or crested gecko to friends and family. Well make sure Santa brings them a YouTube camera and they will be able to share their enthusiasm with the world! Spend a little more and really make their day (and your day when you borrow it for the family). Look around and you can find one under $99.

#2- If they are a reader, you cannot go wrong with finding them a great reptile book. Here is a trick to find books at sometimes 1/4 the cost! Go to http://amazon.com and look under used books. I found two Australian Gecko books last year about this time. Yes, I bought myself a couple of presents  :)   Julie Bergman (click on book to the left) has a great day gecko book.


And the #1 gift you can purchase for your reptile loved one.....

A Supreme Gecko of course!  We have some wonderful animals and would enjoy helping you find one that would make the perfect present. In fact, someone is getting a pair (male and female) of P. pictus for a loved one. Of course they will not be in this person’s stocking- we will be shipping out after Christmas but I am sure they will be pleasantly surprised.

Lost Gecko- 2 Are Secure

After posting the last message concerning our male and female jailbreak crested geckos, I wanted to update everyone on the situuation. As you know, SOMEONE left one of our screen cages unlatched Saturday night while feeding Crested Gecko Diet and this was not noticed until our next feeding this past Monday night and realized the male and female were long gone (poop on cart clued us in).
We found the male within minutes but could not find the female and left the room without a care that she would show up sooner rather than later.

One concern someone had was feeding. Well, I can assure you that there is plenty of food available for any escapees in our facility. We have pan after pan of mealworms sitting on the floor cooling. Pick a worm little gecko, any one out of 60,000!

A larger concern is water. This is the one thing I personally worry about geckos that have made it out of owner's enclosures. We've only (knock on wood) had a small handful of escapees and always found them within a few short days but I think a gecko will become dehydrated without a water source far sooner than they will starve.

So, a conclusion to the store is requested. Monday night, after getting the room all back to normal after tearing it down to find the geckos, I went back down to after lights went off. I flipped the lights on, walked over to the spot the male was found at (in between baby tanks on one of our racks) and would you believe found the female within ONE INCHES of where the male was found. She was sitting not two feet away from her enclosure!

Moral of the story, the best way to find a gecko is to wait until lights go out. Wait about a half hour, turn on the lights, and look high (for crested geckos) or in the middle of the floor (for leopards). Look around objects without moving many things and you should find your gecko. If this doesn't work, check in the morning before lights on, then again the next evening after lights go out again.
Wally

What Does it Mean When You Find Gecko Poop on Your Work Cart

Do you notice little things that seem out of place in your geckos' enclosure or your gecko room. I do. It seems that I am in tune on where EVERYTHING should be. We have a big black rolling cart in the middle of our crested gecko area that we do our shipping, egg checking, feeder cup filling; well everything on. Walking past the cart to get the feeder cups to put Crested Gecko Diet into, I stopped. Taking two steps backward, there it was!

Sitting right in the middle of the cart was a little piece of dried gecko poop. Ewwww you might be saying. To me it said something else... Escapee!

Well the search began (after cleaning up the poop of course). It didn't take long to see that one of our screen cages was left unlatched. Yes, that was me. Two nights ago during another feed, I must have left it unlatched. Now the realization sunk in that were were not missing a crested gecko, we were probably missing two. Checking the cage and sure enough, the search was back on for TWO geckos.

About a minute passed and there was the big male- looking at us, looking at him, looking at us.
A little chasing, a little cursing, a lot of moving stuff from from under stands, more cursing, one quick scoop and he was back in the cage.

That is the good news. The bad news is that the female is still on the loose. I am not so worried as the room is contained and either later tonight or tomorrow she should be found sitting atop one of the racks, looking back at us, and just laughing her head off at us silly humans.

How to Add a Box on Your Facebook Fan Page

Why- All sorts of reasons, let people know something special about you. For us, we have our Blog and our Reptile Show Schedule in a box under our Profile Box. This way friends can simply click on the links in the box and come right here or see where we will be at for the next Show (see ours at Supreme Gecko Fan Page

This is a little tricky but take it slow and you should be fairly easy

1. Get an application from FB called FBML
A)  go to FB's search (upper right hand corner of page)
B) Type in FBML and click search hourglass
C) Click on  Static FBML
D) On left side of FBML page, click on Add To My Page (right under logo)
2. Go Back to your Fan Page
3. Click Edit Page (again, on your Fan page)
4. Find FBML application
5. Click on FBML application's Edit button (little pencil)
6. Give the new Box a title- such as Supreme Gecko Show Schedule
7. Add your HTML code you would like to show up in the box (need a little HTML development knowledge)
8. Hit Save Changes
9. Click on the New Tab, up by Wall, Info, Photos, might need to click the >> (double right arrows)
10. Click and Hold on the New Box (Supreme Gecko Show Schedule on my page) and move it over to the left of the page.

And now you have a new box to tell all your friends about. If this is helpful, leave a comment or become a fan of the Supreme Gecko Fan page (more cool tips will be coming soon)

Oh, no you didn't ...

Feeding the leopard baby wall is normally an easy task for me.  However, they are starting to get bigger and I "the non-reptile person" AM NOT liking this.  When I feed  and water these animals I always have my black plastic spoon available to stop any 'unwanted' behavior from the leopards.  Here I am half way done with the feeding and a little leopard decides it is going to get friendly and crawl up the side of the container.  I gently guide it down with the spoon and put its food in the dish.  It decides as I am filling the water dish to climb again.  I take the spoon and put it in front of the leopard to move it down and it decides to RUN up the handle of the spoon onto my arm!!!!  I of course scream, scaring it so it just goes higher up my arm! Now tears are forming in my eyes and I have goosebumps all over. I grabbed the container and spoon pushing the animal back into its home. After I put the container back on the shelf  I sat down on the stool to recover.   Stupid gecko!  :)

Just a little something to think about ...

I was working in the facilty and found myself doing something Wally does.  Talking to the geckos!  Now when Wally does it you might hear - " Hi, there"; " you look great"; or even "boy, you are getting big!"  I only hear Wally get stern with them when he is trying to get them to sit still for pictures.  "STOP IT!"  My conversations are more like - "Please, stay in the container" ; " it's just the cleaning spoon move" ;  or just "stop it". I used to laugh when I heard Wally talking to them.   I think he genuinely talks to them and cares.   Me on the other hand tend to talk when they are moving too quick and I get scared that they will end up in my hands.  Do you think these little creatures hear us and care at all that we are there?  Is it the same thing as people who talk to their plants because they believe it helps them to grow?    Just something  to think about.


Post from Nanette

R. chahoua babies - Not For The Squeamish

Two R. chahoua eggs hatched in the last couple days. A third is still waiting... waiting... waiting. It is swollen but will not hatch. What to do!

Two years ago, our first breeding year with our Pine Island Rhacodactylus chahouas, we had 2 eggs. Neither hatched (even though they swelled up nicely). Last year, 6 eggs and 5 babies. Again, one egg swelled up normally before breaking open but never did. Unfortunately with these three eggs, the babies never made it out. This was certainly frustrating, but par for the course as R. chahouas are know for being a bit difficult in this regard.

This year- two hatched and one was waiting... now 3 days. I knew I did not have much time so I decided to open the egg myself!

This is something I strongly suggest you do not do with your gecko eggs unless you are knowledgeable on the procedure. As well, if all goes well with the egg opening, you may be extremely upset if you find a neonate that is not alive (I say this through experience).

I carefully made an incision around the egg, being careful not to go too deep and not to tip the egg. Ten minutes into the operation, my fears were being realized as the white started spilling from the opening mixed with RED! Did I cut to far? Did I do something wrong? Am I hurting the baby!!!

I slowly peeled back the shell from the now large incision. The first glimpse at the young chahoua lifted my spirit some as it was fully developed. It wasn't until I slowly rolled the shell back and gently touched the youngster that it sprang to life! I had moist paper towel down under the egg. It jumped down onto the towel and lay there for a few seconds. ALIVE! I could not believe it.

The new chewie went right into a deli cup for about an hour as it proceeded to drop the remaining yoke sac.

What a thrill. Again, I strongly suggest that this was a last resort measure as I was sure, from experience, this egg would not have hatched on its own. However, by doing so one new, cute little R. chahoua is now in our care.

Journal Entry- 2 months till EOY

We are two months away from the end of the year. While we try to share as much information the blog as we can, I realized we have not done a true JOURNAL entry in a while, and isn't that what a Blog really is?

So here we are almost to Nov 1 and I am starting to both reflect on '09 and anticipate the exciting times ahead for Supreme Gecko in 2010. A couple of later posts will not only document our prior year but outline some of our vision for next (not everything but some of the exciting news and challenges).

We will be making the most of the next couple of months by adding videos and articles to our Blog/Facebook/Store, preparing for Winter, attending a number of reptile shows, and planning our breeding for next year.

We are working on videos all the time. From care tips to new animals to some crazy things that are going on in our facility. One thing we will be doing soon is revamping our on-line library. We want to make this more comprehensive, easier to navigate, and more attractive. Watch for this as work has already begun. This is a labor of love as we always want to share our experience in this hobby to help other keepers.

Winter is here in Wisconsin. Time to start cooling the animals and getting everything ready for 2010. Lots of work!!!

SEWERFest is... oh my goodness, it is this Sunday! Great time to touch base with long time friends and meet some new people. Stop by and say hi. We will be at the Lake Country Reptile Show and the All Animal Shows the next two months as well.

Breeding next year. Whew! If you have talked to us in '09 about our animals, you probably picked up on the fact that this past year was 'different' for Supreme Gecko. You could call it 'HoldBack Year' Stay tuned :)

For those that know me, my occupation is in computers- as a Business Analyst/Project Manager which means my forte is planning. Nanette will tell you that sometimes I over plan. Well, I have a loooooooong list for next year!

Things I learned in the lizard room

Leopard Gecko Babies

Babycare -

Housing for the baby leopard gecko

* plastic shoe box (we use a nine qt for the newborns)

* a large styro cup cut in half to provide a hide for the baby. When misting we have found that the water droplets stay on the styro cup allowing for water to stay in the container longer. The leopard babies will lick the water off the styro cup as well. It is washable as well for easy clean up. Also, it is very economical.

* a wet paper towel for moisture in the container is very important for the first month. It keeps the moisture in the container and helps the babies shed.

* a small dish of calcium (needed for developing healthy bones)

* a label (masking tape) giving the baby's father and mother’s name, egg lay date and hatch date.

Care of the baby leopard -

* baby is put in the shoe box after hatching

* add a wet paper towel and mist the container

* daily mist the paper towel and container are misted ( paper towel is changed weekly)

Feeding care –

* when the babies are 3-4 days old we start feeding them small mealworms

* the containers are misted and fed daily

Crested Gecko Babies

Housing for the baby crested gecko-

* small plastic breeder boxes (kritter cages)

* piece of paper towel

* part of a cardboard egg carton

* small piece of a fake plant

* label (piece of masking tape) with the name of mom and dad, egg lay date and hatch date

* Note- when the babies are about a month old we move them into a plastic container (19qt) to grow them up

Care of the baby crested gecko-

* after the baby has hatched it is put into a plastic breeder box

* place a wet paper towel and mist the container

* daily mist the paper towel are misted (paper towel is changed weekly)

Feeding care -

* when the babies are 3-4 days old we start to feed the MRP (this is a complete diet- offering all vitamins and minerals the crested geckos need. Click here for more information- Created Gecko Diet

* the babies are misted daily to give them the moisture needed for drinking and shedding

* the babies are fed MRP daily

This past year I have become a little more brave when it came to helping in the lizard room. I see the importance of daily care for these animals and how they thrive from it. It was fun to see the hatchlings and how fast they grew as the time went on. The biggest step for me this year was to actually start holding the baby crested geckos. However, the leopard geckos I am just not comfortable holding yet.

Posted By Nanette

Customer's Prize

What do you think of this one! From our good friend Stephen. We sold this recently and it has colored up real nice.

New Leopard Gecko Care Blog

I found this great blog from our friend Stephen Ayer today. Lots of great information and very interesting journal. Check it out at Leopard Gecko Care Blog

Post by Wally

I'm thirsty!

When you enter our leopard gecko room there is a tank with chahouas just inside the door. I have noticed that they come up to the top of the tank to check out what I am doing when I am in there. One day I misted to see what they would do. Of course, they were up there to drink it up. Now it is routine for me to mist when I am in the room and they just come right up to lap up the water. If I don't do it they just sit and wait. It has been fun to watch them respond. Check out the pictures. Remember you are looking down into the tank through their screen top.

Cricket retrieval

Today while feeding the leopard geckos(adults)I got to see first hand what a really hungry ( should not have been so hungry since it was fed on Tues.) gecko is like. I was holding my "get back in your container spoon" while also tipping the cricket cup over the geckos container when all of a sudden the gecko bit the spoon and I of course jumped and dropped the crickets all over the place. After 10 minutes of crawling around in the extremely tight space I was able to capture 98% of the crickets. Lesson here: Drop 1 cricket in the gecko container before filling water dish and giving more crickets. That way you can feed and water without the unwanted surprise attacks!

By- Nanette

SUMMER SALE- Last Day

We have sold a number of our nice SHTCT groups and today is the LAST DAY for the sale.
There are 2 or 3 groups still available so jump over to the store and get yours today!

Are we NUTS! 2 Shows in one day!

We realized a couple months ago that 2 reptile shows were on our schedule for the same day- Madison Wisc (WIRE) and the All Animal show in Wheaton, IL. Our solution- Send Nanette and Tim (youngest son) to Madison and Jordan (middle son) and I to Chicago. Two teams?!? Is this Big Time! I don't think so, I think it's NUTS.

We spent about an hour separating our supplies into two piles (well, Nanette did all the work and I said Madison or Wheaton) then got up at 5am to catch 2 groups of animals. Off to the Madison show Team 1 went and to Wheaton team 2 went.


Once quick note- Team 1 (Nanette and Tim) had a friendly bet with Team 2 (Wally and Jordan)- the team that sold the most MRP (crested gecko diet) had the buy the other team Ice Cream later that night. See Below for the results.

Madison Show Review- By Nanette
Team 2 arrived at the show around 9:10 this morning with plenty of time to setup. Madison's show had a new location and it was very easy to find. Tim and I unloaded my truck (after I woke him up again). The hall we were in was very nice and had good space for the vendors. Thanks Jim for all the work you did to have the show here. We were set up early and going through the lists to make sure we hadn't missed something. A quick call to the "Boss" (only in the gecko world) to verify a few prices and we were ready to go.
Tim hasn't been to a show in awhile so I brought him up to speed with some little tips. 1. Smile and at least pretend you are excited about spending the day at a reptile show with Mom 2. Talk to the customers 3. Tell your girlfriend you are working and no more texting! 4. Reminder, if we sell more MRP than Dad and Jordan they have to buy us ice cream tonight! See below for the results.
The show started out pretty good. There was a constant flow of people coming in until just before the Packer game started. We had interest in several geckos and Tim was selling his baby hedgehogs. Tim had to fill our candy bowl multiple times due to a vendor (Aaron) who ate all the pull apart licorice(we now know what kind of candy to not bring to the show - just kidding!) Several customers came to see Wally today - sorry he was at the Wheaton show. It was great to talk to Molly and Adam this morning. I also ran into Eric, who I had worked with at a pet store many years ago. He was quite surprised to see me working with the geckos, since years earlier I wouldn't even step foot in the reptile department at the store. I did remind him that I still avoid snakes as much as possible.
Tim had several customers interested in the cute little hedgehogs. He did sell one of them and was very excited. Later there was some interest at our table with a certain gargoyle as to what sex it was. Aaron " the expert" came over to check for the customer. However, he was quickly reminded how to hold the animal for the sexing process. After a quick nip from the animal and no sympathy from me (have another piece of candy and get over it) he was able to tell the customer what he wanted to hear. Yes, it's a male.
The rest of the afternoon moved a little slower due to a slow down in customers, most likely because of the game and weather. It was time to start to pack up and Tim disappeared. Low and behold he appeared at Mike's table and was talking to him ( avoiding helping me). He did come back when it was time to go to the car. We left for home and within 10 minutes my co-pilot (who had worked soooo hard - NOT!) was asleep.
Wally and I pulled into our driveway within 2 minutes of each other this afternoon with much excitement to see how each team had done.


Wheaton Review- By Wally
We arrived at 9:00, perfect time to setup before the 10 AM open doors. The boxes came out of the car- yes I took the car and Nanette got her truck as she was taking the sign (more on the sign in just a sec). I pulled a few boxes from the car, found our table, and started setting up. Jordan brought in all the other boxes. Yes, I know Jordan did all the hard work, so call child labor agency!
Supplies and animals were all in place around 10 to Doors Open and we had a little time to walk around. Even had a chance to talk to Scott which, due to his schedule before the show, is a rarity. We could have taken more than 10 minutes as once the show opened, the crowd was a bit light to start with. This was such a nice day, and football Sunday so everyone was probably just taking it a bit slow this day.
The crowds picked up a bit as the day moved forward. We had many, many questions about the geckos. The hit of our table was certainly the A.P.T.O.R. (NFS unfortunately).
Jordan and I had a debate as he wanted to hold one crested gecko back that was firing up- I think he wanted to name the new morph Choco Mocha Latte Grande or something like that. The gecko stayed on the table but if it fires up like that again before the next show, I might reconsider. We met some great people, saw some long term customers. Thank you Jenny for introducing me to Christie, I hope her new beardie brings her much pleasure. Nice to see Chris and his family again (new chameleon owner). Steve, it was nice to see you at the show with your better half :) I am forgetting so many! Had some time inbetween to talk to some vendors and before we knew it, it was time to go. We did well at the show with some sales of everything but not a lot of any one thing.


Well, the results are in and thanks to Mike P's big order at Madison, Team Nanette is enjoying there Culver's ice cream. Well, we are all enjoying a treat but Team Wally had to pay :)

Quick Tip

No running water near your geckos? Quick solution, try unscented wet-wipes.

Gecko Genetics

Question about leopard gecko genetics? Wonder what breeding your male and female will produce? Check this out- Gecko genetics calculator

Baby cresteds

Tonight I found 2 hatches from Kermit and they are beautiful! It is always fun to get them into their new home because they tend to open their mouths (like they could really do any damage) at me as I move them. We also collected 2 batches of eggs from other pairs.

1 /2 hours v.s. 3 or more hours

Worked in the facility this afternoon. Fed the leopard baby racks and the austrialan rack. It amazes Wally that I can go through the room in about 1 1/2 hours and get it all done. It takes him 3-4 hours sometimes. I don't hold them - just get the tank cleaned up, fed and watered. Get rrrr done is what I say!

New Australian gecko rack

We completed our Australian arboreal rack. It holds 9 enclosures and is perfect for our small group of 'climbing' aussie geckos.
For more pictures and descriptions- please see our Facebook page at Australian Gecko Page

Here are some really neat drawings from another blog I wanted to share today.

Wally

He found more space !!????!!!

Well, I just returned from Walmart purchasing 4 large plastic containers (that's all they had in that size) for the NEW shelf in the lizard room. These will house breeding groups of crested geckos. I really am scared because now there is NO more room in the facility to add anything. If he doesn't be careful there isn't going to be room for me to work in there anymore.

Summer Sale! 2 Beautiful SHTCTs for only $95

We're constantly asked if we could offer a discount if two leopard geckos are purchased rather than one. These are the same outstanding, High End Super Hypo Tangerine Carrot Tails you've seen at the local reptile shows we've attended!!
Well, for a very limited time, we are selling 2 female leopard geckos for only $95 (rather than our normal $75 each price). Save on the geckos AND save on shipping! Select any one of the sets for only $95!

Wonderful animals to start your own breeding group, or upgrade a project.
Hurry as this sale will only last a few days.

Visit our Store to purchase your group today or see additional groups (including pairs and Tremper albinos)- Supreme Gecko Store

Beans Sunday!!!

We have spilled the beans to a couple of people but stay tuned for a special promotion coming this Sunday night!

Is that a saw I hear???????

Do I hear a saw running? No way - they are building another stand for the lizard room. They are being quiet with hopes that I didn't find out . I came around the corner and they are all trying to look so innocent. Of course, the boys just point to dad (Wally) . Busted!!!

clean -feed - water leopard babies

Yesterday was cleaning day for all our babies leopard tanks (this year that is 3 1/2 racks) . We have had over 250 eggs hatch this season so far .. still some in the incubators. It now takes me about 1 1/2 hours to clean, feed, and water them. I have slowed down some due to the number of them but mainly because they are getting big and I don't like the size now. I could move the little around easily but the bigger ones I still get goose bumps moving. I have a black plastic spoon that I use to guide them into another container so I can clean theirs. Wally just laughs at me. I'll have to video the next cleaning day and let you have a chuckle as well.

Last of contest eggs have hatched

Hi to all - sorry I haven't update in the last week - been a busy week.....

Well, all the babies from the contest have hatched and are growing very quickly. We had great success with SHM medium for the hatch cups. I can't believe how fast the animals are growing already and they are a little fiesty too :)

New Australian Geckos

As you know, I have been bitten by the Aussie bug! No, it's nothing like swine flu :)
The aussie bug cancan only be cured by getting MORE. MORE what you might ask? Well, more aussies.
This past weekend, i made a trade for three very cute aussies (Australian geckos).
The first is a Diplodactylus vitattus. This is a small ground gecko with a common name of Eastern Stone Gecko. I have a male and this new one is a female.... and a very gravid female at that.
The next two 'aussies' are of the velvet type. These two are are Oedura marmorata (or the Marbled Velvet Gecko). They are aboreal- living in trees- and are currently about 5 inches in length. (male displayed first, then female).
Wally

Update on the contest eggs...

All the eggs have hatched except 2 as of today. Still waiting - I think they are getting closer. I have been very happy with the SHM material this season. It seems to hold just enough water to keep the egg healthy.

Collecting Leopard Gecko Eggs

Putting the cart before the horse- I could have filmed this before the Egg Contest but here it is now.
We've been asked to put together a video on how we handle leopard eggs here at Supreme Gecko.
I hope this generates some questions or comments.

4 more contest babies to see...

4 more babies hatched today from the contest eggs. They hatched all hatched in about an hour!