After a long search (a week ha ha) we now have a new family member. Annie!!!!! She is a very healthy one year old leopard gecko. Her previous parents said she is a "high yellow" leopard gecko whatever that means. Perhaps some can explain this? She is about 8 inches long with a very fat tail, great appetite, and beautiful eyes. Right now she is hiding and getting use to her new home. In a week or so I'll try to get some pictures. The tank she came with is very plain so after a little de-stressing I think I'll fix it up a bit. Except for her rock house there is no plants of climbing fixtures for her to have fun on. Please reply if anyone has some suggestions for great items to put in her tank. The tank is 10 gal. Sub. is sand should this concern me? Well I'm so happy to share this with you all as my husban said "He really dose not care" although I've spyed him looking at her a few times. Ha Ha.

Jackie

Congratulations! leopard geckos are great lizards. High yellow is just a descriptive name of the color morph. They are still a leopard gecko.
However they are not that great as far as cimbing and really don't need plants and branches. And if you are talking live plants, unless you are going with cacti, etc., they will raise the humidity in the enclosure too much.
Sand is an ongoing debate and many have used it without a problem. However there is always the danger of impaction with a particulate substrate. Avoid the calcium sand. It is sold as "Totally digestable.
It isn't!
I personally do not use sand. My Leo is on paper.
Some very natural looking arrangements can be created using shelf liner. You could also go with large slabs of rock or tiles.
I would go ahead and decorate the tank now. Waiting till after the gecko has adjusted to the new enclosure and then redoing everything is starting all over from scratch.

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

Personally I would ditch the sand, you will hear alot of it either way, just take into consideration that they don't really live on sand in the wild, more like packed clay and such...

I use paper towels for new geckos, so I can readily see if they are doing their business and once they get out of quarantine i'll switch them to carpet, tile, or large pieces of flat rock.

High-yellow is just what it sounds like, the gecko has more yellow than a normal gecko.

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“Be the change you want to see in the world.”

-Mahatma Gandhi

~Lacey~

My Photos

aww good luck with your new family member!

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I'll change my sub. from sand to something else. I like to make my enclosure as close to their real home as possible but wonder if they are captive bred do they even care? Papertowel would be much easer, but would Annie like it? I'm going to go with some fake plants to give her some privacy but not to much it is only a 10gal. tank after all.

Jackie

I really doubt that they care much about the material used for substrate as long as it isn't anything that hurts them or makes moving around difficult.
Their native habitat is largely hard packed clay and rock. With a brownish colored paper or shelf liner and a rough stone or two they should feel right at home.
However you bring up a good point.
Leopard geckos are captive bred and so many generations removed from the wild that they wouldn't know their native habitat if they saw it!

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

Congrats on the new leo, cant wait to see pictures. I see everyone has already told you about the sand, lol

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MARSHA
A man without a woman is a bachelor, A woman without a man is a genius!.

We have enough youth, how about a fountain of smart!

Good luck with your new leo. Almost everyone I know who has one uses newspaper or paper towel. My feeling is they are not in their wild habitat anymore, so what is right for the health of the animal and the person caring for them is usually the best.

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Kat

Get rid of the sand!

I had sand at one time, and my Leo became impacted.

He is safe and healthy now, and I have him on a ceramic tile. I also bought the exo-terra styrofoam tank backing, its like 10 dollars for a 1' X 1' section, and I siliconed it to the back of the tank.

Gex loves to climb up and down it, he even hunts crickets while clinging to the side of it.

She has already done so and is now on paper towels

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MARSHA
A man without a woman is a bachelor, A woman without a man is a genius!.

We have enough youth, how about a fountain of smart!