My family and I will travel out of town for two weeks in the summer and I'm really worried about what to do with Shadow, our leo. I don't really want to board her at the vet and don't trust a relative to watch her. I do have a friend that would take her into her home, but have reservations about how Shadow would adjust. So, I REALLY need some good advice, please!

We lost our first leo, Barney. He only was with us for 3 months but never seemed to adjust. He had been at the pet store for 1.5 years. And since that loss, I am afraid our two week "absence" from her will be detrimental. I'm even considering taking her with us!

(We live on a small pond and a few years ago a brown duckling took up with us. Everytime she would see us outside, she would come running up and would actually peck my feet to feed her. Well, our Ducky disappeared when we went on our usual two-week summer vacation. A neighbor dog-sat for us and was comfortable feeding Ducky as well but said she disappeared a few days after we left and never came back. Either something got her or she flew off thinking we had abandoned her.)

So now you have some background on my paranoia. (Can you tell I'm a worrier?) I just don't want us to jeapardize the health and well being of our Shadow. See, here it is February, I'm already stressing about vacation in June!

Shadow has grown by leaps and bounds considering she had a broken arm when we first got her at the end of November. (I have her and late-Barney's pictures posted on the HC site). When we got Shadow around 4-5 months old she only weighed 13 grams. Now she's weighing in at 54 grams! (And we can now confirm she is a she, like we thought all along).

The vet said she's a Tangerine Fire, but I've seen other names, too, Super Hypo Tangerine, etc. What's your take on her? She still has the bands on her back but they are fading away.

Anyway, enough rambling for one night. Thanks for the vacation advice, it's greatly appreciated!

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This is always an issue with reptiles owners. The main thing is ensuring a water supply. It's not a huge deal for a reptile to go without food for two weeks. Providing they have a good fat storage already in place. Most reptiles in the herp industry are overfed anyway.
You could hook up a dripper for water. I've been wanting to make a time released cricket container sometime. Shouldn't be that hard. Just a container with a sprinkler timer installed on that opens for a designated time during the day. Some crickets would find there way through the hole.
It's not an easy solution but one I need to work on myself before summer comes.
A relative is still the best solution though.

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Mike
"Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you." - Mother Teresa

Yup, taking her to a friends house will be just fine. You will probably be more stressed out than her!

I'm probably paying a friend to spend a week living in my house. The animal content has drastically risen since the last time. 3 demanding cats and 14 amphibians with water needs!

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

Never thought about using that to feed crickets, Kriminaal, pretty good idea there, bet you could market that... Water, water can definitly be a problem, even with a dropper the water can still get a bit fouled up, from what i've heard Leopard Geckos arn't as bad aboout it as some other reptile's, but I know my skink is always tracking something into his water dish, maybe try incorporating a water filter into one of those small cat water dishes with a resovoir on top. but like kriminaal said, its usualy best to get someone to look in on them. I have an entire paper printed up about the short term care of all my animals, what to watch out for, feeding schedule, water changes, the works.

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We have a friend that watches our critters when we go out of town. Just type up basic care essentials and give them to the person watching the animals.

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TKE:TT:118

They already make one and I have one for my cats!

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

What if you started now to get her accustomed to the friend? have the friend come over and hold her and as long as that doesn't seem to be a problem, start moving her tank to different rooms. Move it, give her time to adjust and then maybe an extra week or so and then move it again. The amount of time it takes her to adjust should be lessened each time, and you can also have the friend come over to help feed. That way by the time you have to leave, new surroundings shouldn't be a big deal and she should be used to the friend as well.

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All great ideas, what I do is I type up a very short (keep it simple) list of what they need, like this:
A.M.- Make sure lights come on, check water, refill meal worm dish
P.M.- Offer as many crickets as she will eat in "X" amount of time.

Incase of emergency:
Call me, 555-5309
Call our vet, Dr. John 555-1889
Login in to www.herpcenter.com, I set up an emergency account incase anything seems 'off' or you have questions, >login details here<

Also a complete guide to gecko care can be found here: www.herpcenter.com > caresheets > leopard geckos

*note, the people on the site are going to ask you her temperatures in the cage on both side, substrate, how much she has eaten, when she last pooped, it helps to list all of this when asking the questions.

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My Photos

She is beautiful!! Good luck with your vacation...I had to go on an emergency trip shortly after we got Matilda (leo) and Domino (king snake)....LUCKILY our friend has a boa and is comfortable dealing with both of them, and all the other creatures AND was able to just come stay in our house so we didn't have to move anyone. Hopefully we can make that work out for us in the future!! Moving them would be stressful..but that idea of gradually getting them used to it is a good one. Probably more stressful on us than them in the end....Good luck!

I have boarded animals,, let me tell you it is not cheap, lol. I had Oscar boarded a while ago just because I needed a break from him, lol, and to also see if it was a place I would want to board him if I ever had an emergency and had to leave him somewhere.

Find a herp vet and board her there, I cant imagine a leopard gecko being much more than 10 bucks a day.
Oh by t he way Oscar is my huge male sulcata tortoise, and overall I think he did just fine, lol. All the iguanas I have had boarded have done great too, but then again I have an awesome team of vets.

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