hey guys,
just a quick question. my gf got me a leopard gecko for valentines day last month, shes super cute....and im pretty sure shes a female from all the research ive done. about a month or so later I ended up gettin another one. this one is a male and hes almost full grown. i have them in the same tank now which is a 20g long. they are both in the same tank but I have a divider in the middle keeping them apart. i know they can get aggressive to new members. like I said the male is almost full grown but the female is a bit shorter but u can still tell shes a juvenile. shes got none of the girth or stature of the male.

to the real issue, over the past few days I decided to try and put them together and heres how it goes........the male doesnt really seem to care about the female or even acknowledge that shes there.....on the other hand, most of the time the female will look at him, she seemed to puff herself up once or twice, she even got up to his tail and gave him a little lick to smell him once. but everytime after about a minute she spazzes and turns and runs, tries to climb up the glass and get away from him as fast as she can, at this point I just put them back on their own sides and leave them alone......anyone have any suggestions as to what might be goin on or what(if anything) i can do to get them more relaxed with each other......

thanks......

I personally think that you will be better off leaving them each on their own. The female is obviously stressed and that could turn into major health problems. Also having a male and female in together and you are just asking them to breed, she is to young for it to start with, but also frequent breeding will greatly shorten her life span, and you probably would not be able to handle all the babies anyways...

Just out of curiosity, tell us more about your set up...

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ya I think ill keep them apart for a while longer.

as for my set up, i have a 20g long tank, 2 75 what lights on top, a large piece of wood on one side and some stones on the other. as well as a hiding spot for both of them on each side. substrate is ground walnut shells. people keep tellin me not use the walnut shells with geckos but my gf has 2 of em too and shes been using it since the beginning with no problems, plus the guys at reptilia(local reptile zoo and specialists) said that it fine to use......also, as u probably read earlier, got a divider keepin them apart....the weird thing is the first and second night I had the male, the female climbed over and I just happen to wake up at the right time and catch her before anything happened......so shes obviously curious but once she stares at him for a bit she snaps and freaks out.....

You are going to have a whole lot more people telling you not to use walnut shells, it is definitely one of the most dangerous substrates you can buy.

Here are some back posts about crushed walnut shell and how dangerous it is:
Desert Blend (Crushed Walnut)

Cracked Wallnut Shells?

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

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~Lacey~

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Like Lacey said. Ditch the walnut shells. Go with something simple like papertowels, repti-carpet, or tile.

Also, you said something about the female climbing over the divider, what kind of divider are you talking about? cause I thought Leopard Geckos weren't great climbers?
Got pics?

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here is our caresheet for them
welcome!


Leopard Gecko Caresheet (Eublepharis macularius) - Reptile Information - Caresheets Database

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

They can climb to a certain extent, lol. I had the same problem at one time. I do think that if your male is full grown you need to upgrade him to a 20 gl long. Totally agree on the walnut shell. You may not have issues now, but you will later. Dont listen to petstore people. They are just trying to make a sale.

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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!

in regards to the climbing, im just using an aquarium divider actually, so its got small holes punched in it which I assume is just for water circulation in a fish tank lol. but the holes are perfect for Leopard Geckos' small claws(or nails, to me they dont seem long or threatening enough to be called claws lol) but ya, she climbs up it with no problem. umm, ya ill get some pics up as soon as I can and let u see first hand the set up I got.

also, ya ive heard so much about the walnut. my gf's got 2 Leopard Geckos(her female of which, actually just laid her first 2 eggs last week. just thought id throw that in) but ya, gf's got 2 Leopard Geckos and has been using the walnut fo about 2 years with no problem. as well, the guys that said it was alright werent just from a pet store. they were from a place called "reptilia" in richmond hill ontario if anyone knows the place. and the guys I talked to werent just salesmen, they are apperently reptile xperts which kinda makes sense to me since they have a reptile zoo with over 60 exhibits from Leopard Geckos, frogs, all the way up to full grown anacondas and crocs....... so I guess well see.

like I said, ill get some pics up soon.

we just had the exact same issue with climbing, our hatchling crawled right over into our sub-adults section.... luckily we caught it right as it happened. i took 2 peices of white printer paper and sandwiched the screen with them. then I slid the black end peices onto all 3 sheets, they fit tight but it worked. you need to have a friend hold one side peice flat tot he glass and then you push the other flat, because when you do this it is less maleable and doesnt fit as well. by forcing both sides out youre basically custom fitting it. it worked great until last night when the sub adult managed to cral from his house and get 1 hand onto the screen....... we just moved his house

is it really worth the risk??