OT: About my avatar....

Whistle
1

Is anyone other than Jerry interested in learing about why my avatar is so special to me or Leopard geckos in general?

2

But of course. Mind you don’t bring up whistles.

3

well if you don’t allready know steven, i’ll tell you.
it’s the medicine of dreamers. your dreams are the shadow side of reality. they could be your fears, hopes… pay attention to your dreams. use your dreams as a tool to manifest that same vision in your life.

4

Isn’t that spelled “Geico”?

5

They look scary to me but yes, I would like to know more.

Jerry Freeman wrote:
Isn’t that spelled “Geico”?


:laughing: :roll: :laughing:

Cheers,
Kathy :slight_smile:

6

Well, Steve, we waited over there and we’re still waiting over here.

What news from the folks at GeckCo?

7

We had a leopard gecko for a number of years before he passed on. He didn’t have the color mutation your little guy does, though. I think he belonged to one of my son’s friends for a while before we adopted him.

Anyway, they make a very nice pet: clean, quiet, low-maintenance and (for a reptile) pretty friendly and easy to handle. Ours was maybe seven inches from tip of nose to tip of tail. Much, much smaller and easier to care for than an iguana, or any of the other lizards we’ve had.

8

To answer Jerry’s original question, there are several things people do with leopard geckos.

Some people keep them as pets. Others keep them to observe their behaviors. I like to breed them to obtain different and interesting genetic combinations, such as the Patternless Albino that is my avatar. That is a leo that shows both the Patternless AND Albino genetic traits in the same animal.

I have owned all three strains of Albino, the Patternless and Blizzard as well as various of the “normal” leopard geckos. My current count is 20 adults and 12 hatchlings. We also have a small parrot and a Texas Rat Snake.

What about them scares you Kathy? When I work in the enclosures where I keep them they stroll on over and give me little licks on my hand. They then procede to see if they can find a way out while I have the door open! :laughing:

I like them because they are quiet and do not bark or meow at night. They do not leave hair all over the house. They do not need to go outside for a walk when it is -30 and snowing! They can be left for a few days and not even blink about it. ( side note: I have a friend that lost one in his house for a couple of months. When he found it, it was a little dehydrated but no worse off than that!) The reason they can go so long without food and water is their big tails.

Oh, to answer the other part of Jerry’s question (the finger drumming is REALLY annoying by the way, bud!) they get from about 8 to 12 inches long and from 40 to over 100 grams in weight. (You thought I was going to say pounds didn’t you!) So, they are a small to mid sized lizard.

Their home turf is Pakistan and Afghanistan in the foothills.

I feed them crickets and mealworms. Renee has gotten used to that and even makes sure they are fed too! She will feed the worms, but will not get near the crickets. They hop too much for her! :boggle: I actually raise some of my own meal worms.

I have been working with leopard geckos for about 5 years now and repiles 6+ years. It is all my sons fault, he wanted a snake and we let him. Guess whos hobby it became!

I am putting together a gallery of some of my current and past animals. I will post the link when it is ready. Thanks to the person that posted the link in the other thread. Some of those are nice animals. Some are mislabeled.

Any other information you would like to know?

9

raises hand

I thought geckos did bark. Or is that just one species?

10

Although Leopard geckos do have some vocalizations (one we call the alien hissing scream and gurgling that sounds a little like someone with Listerine) they are usually pretty quiet. They don’t usually vocalize unless disturbed or irritated. Kind of like, well, I will leave that one alone. WAY alone!!! :astonished:

I think the gecko you may be familiar with that barks quite loud, although there are several, would be the Tokay gecko. They are a nasty creature that likes to attack anything within the range of their mouths. I do NOT recommend them as pets for anyone other than masochists and others that like to have pain inflicted on themselves. Nasty I tell you.

Hope that helped answer your question. Will work on the photo gallery some more tomorrow. :party: Patience please!

Steven

11

I like to boil them in a stew with peas and carrots

12

I knew immediately why your avatar was special to leopard geckos in general. I didn’t know why it was special to you until you explained. :wink:

13

Run out of Guinea Pigs already???

Trisha

14

Here is a reposting of that picture link:

http://www.geocities.com/pama81/phases_leopard_geckos.html

I’m not responsible for the errors in naming. How was I a Colorado boy to know?! I thought it was a salamander or as we used to call them mud puppies. I found one in a dark damp corner of the shop where I once worked and donated it to the school where a friend taught. The kids named him Newt Gingrich.

Oh come on!

I knew!

Mack

15

trisha wrote

Run out of Guinea Pigs already???

guinea pigs are farmed for their milk, droppings, and fur coats, only sick freaks would acTually eat one… (I felt the need to over-use punctuation as well :smiling_imp: )

16

…tell that to Bolivians.

17

Bolivians ARE sick freaks

18

Those are so cute! (for reptiles)

I had a bunch of geckos who ran around the porchlight of the place I stayed in Haiti (when the electricity was on). They were sort of cute (though uniformely light brown–nothing like those leapords) and hey, anything that eats mosquitos is OK in my book!

Tom