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.